Tuesday’s Rugby News has RA’s Annual Report, Israel Folau saying something or other, the Rebels needing to beat the Jags, and Chucky Stannard makes an cameo.
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Money Money Money
The ARU last night released it’s financial figures from last year, with the organisation recording a $3.8m loss. Well, the actual figure was a profit of $17.8m, but the difference (between +17.8 and -3.8) was $21.6m of government funding – funding which went to the building of the new HQ at Moore Park, Sydney. (Blame the bad maths on rugby.com.au).
The figures come in the wake of something or other happening with the Western Force, who were cut or something from Super Rugby last year in a overly protracted saga or something I dunno.
Apparently the Force were cut to save $$$, but the $$$ will take a while to come as cutting the Force cost the ARU money in the short-term (legal costs and all that).
Also affecting the bottom line was also the unfortunate general malaise of the Australian rugby public. Bugger.
All of this, says Cameron Clyne, is why this year will be an exception:
“You certainly hope the Super Rugby restructure is a one-off event and there are one-off costs associated with that and they have to be taken into account,” he said (via rugby.com.au).
“They won’t occur next year and the year after, which gives us the money we were hoping to save to re-invest in the game. The finances are impacted by this.
“But we are forecasting a profit this year and hopefully we do see strong fan engagement around the Ireland series and leading into the Rugby Championship, we should be able to deliver a profit this year.”
These figures came with the annual report. There are some good bits in the 2018 report, with the ARU pointing to a 134% increase in Indigenous participation (via its school program, Deadly 7s) and “innovation” in the women’s game, which means whatever it means.
The report also includes stuff some exciting stuff for next year, like a bigger focus on women’s rugby (tick), including a tilt at 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup, an ARU CEO who has a Twitter account (tick), a focus on grassroots rugby and push for non-traditional representation (tick), realised as the #PartofMore campaign, and less than a day spent wasting headlines and good vibes with a player’s controversial political opinions (uhh..untick).
“Certainly you want positive perceptions around the game, but one of the big drivers that gets fans through the gate is how teams perform on the field,” he said.
“Certainly, some of them look to issues around administration and other things but the reality is the majority of fans say, ‘How is the team going on the field?’ and that’s a big driver of them deciding to attend.”
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Fuck Yeah Folau
Israel Folau is going to go the ARU today, because Raelene Castle and NSWRU CEO Andrew Hore have summoned him to talk about why saying gays are going to hell was probably not the best thing to say publicly.
In what’s sure to help smoothe things along, Folau put a bible verse up on Instagram last night that alluding to being persecuted for your beliefs. Apparently Folau is shocked that the Australian public are unhappy with him because he only said a certain segment of the population “is going to hell”.
The SMH reports that the ARU is “under pressure from major sponsors Qantas, Asics and Land Rover to distance themselves from Folau’s comment of last week, which appears to be in breach of the game’s code of conduct and inclusion policy. Castle said last week RA was treating the matter seriously.”
Castle has released a statement about the matter, saying:
“We are aligned in our view that rugby is a game for all, regardless of sexuality, race, religion or gender, which is clearly articulated in rugby’s inclusion policy.
“We understand that Israel’s comment has upset a number of people and we will discuss the matter with him as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, Welsh referee Nigel Owens has had his bit on the say on the matter in his column for Wales Online. You can go read that there.
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Rebels Must Jag Jags
The Malbourne Rebels are coming off a bye this week, after being pumped by the Hurricanes two weeks ago. Having played like 2 games away all season, the Rebels are about to head off on their South African trip. But first – another home match, this time against the Jaguares.
“The win this weekend is quite crucial to us,” Rebels forwards coach Joe Barakat told rugby.com.au.
“It does begin to separate teams who are going to finish at the top of this competition and teams who may not do so well.
“So, we actually feel that this game is relatively crucial for us.
“The way we play is crucial for us and we feel that if we play how we want to play the result will look after itself.”
The Rebels have had a rough time with second halves lately, losing out to the Waratahs and the Hurricanes after a strong start against both teams. Some have humorously suggested its first half Rebels, second half Force. Hehe.
However, Barakat thinks the cure is just a lil more faith – and he’s not talking about the George Michael song (although pumping that at half time is probably a good idea too).
“The Hurricanes game, the first 35 minutes was probably some of the best football we’ve played and we came into this game feeling pretty good about ourselves,” he said.
“I suppose what comes out of that game is whatever the plan is you take into a game, you’ve got to stick to that plan for the duration of the game.
“We truly believe that our plan works and the type of football we want to play works.
“So, it’s important not just to play 35 minutes of that football, play for as long as we can and obviously 60-65 minutes wins you that game of football.”
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Chucky At Comms
Chucky Stannard has been able to say to his 7s teammates, in the lead up to the rugby 7s tournament at the Commonwealth Games starting this Friday.
Stannard was the victim of an attack on a night out just before the Commonwealth Games started, requiring the team to change its plans at the last minute and requiring Chucky to recover from an unexpected assault.
Coach Andy Friend, wary of not wanting to repeat the lead up to the Rio Games (the build up was too intense, says rugby.com.au), has got the lads relaxed and purring, with Stannard’s visit a big boost.
“Having friends and family there, that’s big for me,” said Maurice Longbottom to rugby.com.au, when asked what’s getting him going.
“I’m a family man, (so) to be at the Commonwealth Games and going out there trying to win that gold medal, it’s going to mean a lot.
“When you run out there and you hear that crowd roar and they’re screaming out ‘Australia’, really lifts you up, gets you going.”
Fellow up-and-comer Lachlan Anderson is also super stoked to get the chance at Gold medal.
“I guess if you look at the girls and what it’s done to their sport, They won a gold medal back in Rio,” Anderson said.
“So, if we’re able to emulate that at a Commonwealth Games, hopefully we can grow this sport even bigger now in Australia, globally across the world and it’ll do amazing things for the game and for Rugby Australia.”
Good company man that fella.
Australia face England, Samoa and Jamaica in their group.
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