Tuesday’s Rugby News has Clive Woodward on the Wallabies, Cameron Clyne inclined to speak, Cheika potentially in trouble, and Foley upset about the Wallabies fade in the last 10.
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Woodward Would
World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward has written in his Daily Mail column that he sympathises with Cheika’s reaction to the Hooper no try.
“I can think of no reason why Michael Hooper’s try wasn’t allowed,” Woodward or his ghost writer wrote. “Let’s face it, that was a huge decision and I’m not surprised Michael Cheika was very upset and animated about it – I would be.
“My gut instinct at the time is that it was a legitimate score but then everybody started saying Hooper was offside when Tevita Kuridrani kicked ahead so it wasn’t a try.
“But hang on. That makes no sense.
“There are numerous occasions when a fly-half or full back sits back and kicks ahead and makes no effort to chase the ball. Often his entire team will technically be offside until the man who dropped back chases ahead to play everybody onside. The players in front of him do not stop in their tracks, they cruise and take care not to interfere with play until they are onside.
“That’s surely what happened. Hooper, realising that he was in front of the kicker, clearly slowed until the Australia wing played the entire team onside. It was no different to the other scenario except it resulted in a try
“It was an incredibly harsh call and, in the spirit of the game, I believe a wrong call. If we’re going to apply the law to the letter it will make for an impossible stop-start game. Hooper was also unlucky to receive his yellow card, which added insult to injury.”
Woodward isn’t a full apologist for Australia, stating at the beginning of his column that the English “stepped up” in a “top-notch performance” against the Wallabies. He believes the Elliot Daly try was inside the line, and that Stephen Moore did obstruct Chris Robshaw as he was running in front of Marika Koroibete.
On that second controversy, similar to the Hooper no try, Woodward says “It’s a scenario you see frequently further down the pitch when it doesn’t result in a try, somebody running a subtle blocking line. It rarely gets penalised then and that is what was so frustrating for Australia.”
Woodward rounds off his column, pretty much praising everyone in the England team, concluding with “We should congratulate Eddie [Jones], [captain Dylan] Hartley and everyone involved with this group – the bounce back from the shambles of the 2015 World Cup and winning 21 out of 22 Test matches is really astonishing. And the positive thing is they are still on an upward trajectory.”
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Clyne Responds
Ooh boy. ARU chairman Cameron Clyne has responded to the findings of the Senate enquiry into the ARU. If you’re not up to date, the Senate had an inquiry into the ARU, then half the Senators lost their job because they couldn’t be f*cked to find out if their mum was born overseas or not, and then the inquiry asked the ARU about stuff, the ARU we can’t speak about that publicly because of NDAs, so then the inquiry handed down only a few recommendations.
Or something like that.
However one of the suggestions to come out of the inquiry – along with Alison Proper Journalistic look into the missing Rebels millions – is that the Australian Securities & Investments Commission should look into transactions between the ARU and the Rebels. Big wigs at the ARU have pretty much refused to discuss such transactions.
“We note the recommendations in the report, and thank the Committee for the opportunity to participate in the inquiry,” Clyne said in a statement found the ARU website (via rugby.com.au)
“Rugby Australia has repeatedly expressed its regret that it could not release certain information during the process while it was subject to legal proceedings.
“It was also required to respect confidentiality obligations in its agreements with RugbyWA and the Melbourne Rebels.”
Clyne pointed to spreadsheets and junk publicly available on the ARU’s website.
“With respect to the above limitations, the rationale behind the decision was addressed when Rugby Australia released a statement and supporting documentation following the decision of the NSW Supreme Court on September 5, 2017.
“These documents remain publicly accessible on the Rugby Australia website.
“The rationale was further addressed in Rugby Australia’s extensive testimony before the Committee, which too is publicly available.”
Clyne, knowing that’s he gonna pilloried in the comments by Force fans, tried to put a handbrake on the situation.
“We sympathise with all Western Force fans, and appreciate the impact that this lengthy process and the final decision has had on Western Force players and staff members,” he said, failing to mention…oh forget it.
“All Western Australian rugby fans are understandably extremely disappointed with the outcome.
“We are pleased that a majority of the affected players have been contracted for the 2018 Super Rugby season and will remain in Australian rugby.”
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Cheika in Troubla?
Michael Cheika could get in trouble if it’s found out he did do some swearsies in the press box, live on camera.
A Six Nations officer (that’s who’s organised the tour or something) is looking into the incident, reports the SMH. Cheika is in hot water as some people reckon he mouthed or said “f*cking cheats” – which is something, if I twere one of them whatbouters, would point out what Dylan Hartley got sent off for saying to Wayne Barnes in the 2013 Premiership final.
“The designated discipline officer is aware of it [Cheika’s comment] and will be considering what course of action to take,” said a Six Nations spokesperson, according to the article.
Apparently, the officer is going to weigh up whether a precedent set earlier this year is a precedent.
What happened is that Frenchman Yoann Maestri was fined $46k for a similar comment – also in front of Barnes – during a France – Wales map. At the time, Maestri got racist:
“He [referee Wayne Barnes] told us we were not dominant enough. Anglo-Saxon referees always talk about fair play but the reality is that they think we’re cheats. When you are repeatedly crushed in a five-metre scrum, you concede defeat.
“There’s a complicity between Anglo Saxons and it is in these moments that you realise it. It was unbelievable.”
Huh. Anyway, it is still unclear whether Cheika has contacted by the Six Nations officer yet.
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Twickers In Past
Bernard Foley has one message for the meedja, and it isn’t “I apologise in advance for any charged down kicks”. Rather, it’s “onwards and upwards”.
“There’s a lot of devastation amongst the group but what we do now is…learn how to win in all conditions,” he said, according to rugby.com.au.
“We learn how to win away from home and in cauldrons like this (Twickenham), when you come up against great sides who play consistent way, we have to find a way to win.
“At the end of the day we can’t make excuses.
“We were in the contest, we were in the fight there and we probably had the momentum at the 65th minute, 70th minute there, so to allow that to swing back was disappointing.”
After Koroibete’s no-try – which Foley played a part of – the Wallabies seemed to drop their heads and give up. Foley is quite aware of that fact, and that drives his disappointment.
“(That was) probably us pausing for a little bit and not reacting, or not winning those big moments when they arose,” he said. “(That’s) the biggest disappointing thing that we’ll probably reflect on.
“They reviewed it (the Koroibete try), they looked at all the angles, all the cameras, so you’ve got to back the referees and whatever decision they come up with.
“For us, you can’t reflect on it on the field, you’ve just got to move on with it and deal with it and that’s when I suppose we were in the game and then not reacting quick enough or not winning the next couple of moments after that was probably what let us down.”
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