Tuesday’s Rugby News sees Clark talking tens, the French in hot water, Miller settling into Tah life, and the girls cleaning up again.
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Talking Tens with Cam Clark
The Brisbane Tens is set to kick off again this weekend, and the Waratahs could be in for a tough tournament with their squad missing many of their marquee players apart from tournament ambassador Kurtley Beale. But, according to Cam Clark, that doesn’t mean the men from New South Wales are taking the tournament lightly.
“You obviously can’t play the game you’d like to play coming into the Super Rugby season but there’s plenty of things you can mark yourselves on – the effort-related things, another opportunity to get some match fitness and things like that, so I mean you always go there to compete,” he said to rugby.com.au.
“The Kiwi teams are there to win as well.
“We’re there to win the thing and take it very seriously. I’m not sure in terms of the way we’re going to play, (though). We haven’t spoken too much about it, because we just did the review of the trial last week.”
For Clark, who was out for much of last year with a shoulder injury, the Tens will serve as a vital platform for him to stake his claim as a regular starter for the Tahs this year.
“There’s a lot of outside backs throwing their hands up. It’ll be interesting to see – the Tens this weekend, another opportunity to throw your hand up for round one, then the trial against the Rebels,” he said.
“Hopefully just get a few nice touches and put my best foot forward and hopefully I’m in the mix to get selected.”
The Tahs are set to have a tough draw in Pool B, taking on the likes of the Chiefs, Highlanders and French Top 14 side Pau. The Rebels and Reds will be together in Pool A along with the Blues and Japanese club Panasonic Wild Knights, while the Brumbies will play out Pool C against the Highlanders, Crusaders and Fiji.
For more information and tickets, head to brisbaneglobaltens.com.
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Sacre Bleu!
Only one week into the Six Nations and we already have been hit with some off-field drama. Turns out France could be in more hot water than a slow cooked frog for having violated several head injury protocols on the weekend in their 13-15 loss to Ireland in Paris.
Matthieu Jalibert and reserve scrumhalf Antoine Dupont both suffered knee injuries for the home side, but while doing so apparently also went for head injury assessments (HIAs).
The reason why this has ruffled so many feathers is because, with Dupont being sent for an HIA, this allowed starting scrum-half Maxime Machenaud to return to the field instead of forcing the French to bring on wing Benjamin Fall. In short, this meant France didn’t have to be forced to do a backline reshuffle in the crucial final minutes of the game.
Despite grabbing the win, many Irish players have questioned the decision in regards to player safety, and whether it constituted a violation of the rules of the game.
The Six Nations administration released a statement on Sunday, confirming that “the HIA review processor is reviewing a number of incidents from the France v Ireland match in the senior men’s championship.
“Depending on their findings, Six Nations Rugby Limited (SNRL) will be considering the next steps in respect of those incidents.
“The HIA review panel can as part of its review make recommendations (among other things) as to further education and training that is required, and/or whether disciplinary action should be taken by SNRL. This two-stage review process is required by World Rugby.”
Potentially, should France be found guilty, sanctions could be imposed on the team for the remainder of the tournament. It would be a huge loss of Les Bleus, on top of Jalibert looking likely to miss the rest of the Six Nations and Dupont likely to miss the rest of the season.
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You can take the kid out of the country, but…
Will Miller is officially going full time at the Waratahs, which has meant that he has had to give up his weekly commute between playing for Norths and working down on the family farm in Berry. It is a change that has taken some getting used to, but that sure doesn’t mean that Miller has turned his back on country life.
“I have been going down on my days off a bit and giving a hand here and there but my brother and my dad don’t want me to say too much, I think it would easily get on their nerves a little bit if I’m just telling them what to do and not doin the work,” he told rugby.com.au.
“I’ve been living up here for the last couple of months for preseason. I didn’t want to push myself too much, being tired after big days. Decided to stay up but I do make trips up for the weekend and occasionally on a day off during the week if I’m feeling pretty fresh.”
Miller has had an exciting couple of years on the rugby front, with him being an integral part of Norths winning the Shute Shield in 2016, having a breakout NRC for the Sydney Rays, and then going on to get a short-term contract with the Melbourne Rebels last year.
The Waratahs represent a new challenge as he enters into full-time rugby, but he has been lucky to have his Norths and Sydney Rays coach Simon Cron around too, with Cron taking on the role of the Tahs forwards coach.
His biggest challenge this year will be to try and grab a place over current Wallaby captain, Michael Hooper. But he’s willing to play the long game.
“I think everyone aspires to be the best and if you don’t, you’re probably not going to set yourself up well enough for the season,” he said.
“I’d like to take his spot but if that takes as long as it takes, I’ll just have to keep working at it and see where the game goes from there.
“It’s not something that is ever going to get given to someone, especially someone as good a player as he is.
“It’s just something I’ve got to keep working at and try to get the best out of.”
Miller will be playing at the Brisbane Tens this weekend after having an encouraging start to the year with the Tahs in their Highlanders trial in Queenstown.
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The Gals march on…
The Aussie Sevens girls are kicking some serious arse at the moment. Backing up their win at Sydney Womens Sevens, they won the Brisbane Super 7s invitational tournament on Sunday, knocking over a tough Fiji side, 24-10.
The Aussies featured a handful of current Sevens stars, including Charlotte Caslick, Shannon Parry, Evania Pelite, Cassie Staples, Georgie Friedrichs and Dom du Toit, but also had plenty of young upcoming players in the mix looking to make their mark.
There are plenty of encouraging signs that our next batch of Sevens stars might be just around the corner, particularly with the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast fast approaching in April.
In what was a thrilling Grand Final match, the Fiji girls got on the board first and tested the girls for most of the first half, but the Aussies manage to crawl the game back and grab a slender lead at halftime through a try to development player Mahalia Murphy.
Two tries after halftime to the Aussies sealed the result, though Fiji managed a consolation try at the end of the match.
Following the Commonwealth Games, the girls will head to Kitakyushu in Japan for the third leg of the Womens World Sevens Series in late April.
Australia won the first two legs of the tournament in Dubai and Sydney, and have a ten point lead over current champions New Zealand at the top of the table.
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