Tuesday’s Rugby News has the Lions and Crusaders worrying, Souths hoping, the Bledisloe travelling and Dane Haylett-Petty hyphenating.
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Super Final Nerves
Both teams are getting a bit nervous heading into this weekend’s final to be hosted by the Crusaders.
While the Lions are fretting about making a strong start, the crew from Canterbury are worried about the Lions’ maul being unleashed.
Coming from behind in their semi, the Lions scored a couple of tries off their maul, something Matt Todd doesn’t want to see repeated this weekend.
Speaking in the build up to the season decider he said, “It’s a real momentum changer for them – not just with tries but also getting them field position when they were under the pump a little bit at the start of that game,”
“When a team has a big strength, as they do in that area, you have to put some time into it. (Forwards coach) Jase Ryan will come up with a good plan for us there”.
The Lions know it’s a strength of theirs too, Lions’ captain Warren Whitely alluded to it following the semi, “we had to go back to the drawing board, tighten up a bit, we went to our rolling maul and our scrums and I think it worked well”.
Meanwhile, the Lions are hoping they come out with all guns blazing when Gus blows time on. They fell 14 points behind in the early stages of their win over the Waratahs and there’s doubt they’ll be able to comeback against a well-drilled ‘Saders squad who are aiming to win back to back championships.
Coach Swys de Bruin put the slow start down to a lack of possession saying, “Honestly, go look back at the game, we never had the ball…….But once we had the ball, the game changed”.
Let’s hope that whatever transpires, be it slow starts or a reliance on mauls, that the match lives up to the expectations a season finale brings.
I’ll be cheering for the Joberg-based team but suspect I’m on a hiding to nothing…..
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Souths hoping for Reprieve from QRU
As the Super Rugby Season draws to a close with its grand finale, Queensland Premier Rugby is too getting to the pointy ends of its season.
In the major semi final Uni square up with GPS and then Souths take the field against Easts.
Souths have lodged an application with the QRU to allow David Paice to take the field.
The Darwin product, who has eight English test caps to his name, hasn’t played the requisite number of games for the club this. To be eligible for finals football, a player needs to have run on in at least 1/3 of the teams’ matches that season. With 18 rounds, he needed to have 6 games but, like Karmichael Hunt, he falls short.
While Souths have made their peace with Hunt being out they have asked the QRU for dispensation for Paice, a specialist hooker, to be allowed to play as their other front row stocks have been decimated this year. Coach Elia Tuqiri laid out the dilemma the club is facing, “The fact is we’ve lost two alternative hookers to season-ending injuries and we just don’t now have a reserve hooker at the club who can play at Premier Rugby level.”
Their case centres around the safety of the players involved with Tuqiri saying, “Alex Casey is our starting hooker so our application to the Queensland Rugby Union is based on the safety issue so we can have David on the bench if needed”
Which way the QRU will go is unknown, one has to consider the blow-back if Paice comes on early and has a storming match.
For the latest, either stay tuned to the greatest rugby website in the world, or, alternatively, get out to Ballymore on Sunday, park yourself up on the hill and enjoy an afternoon of top rugger.
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Bledisloe Heads West
In addition to finally coming its rightful home WEST of the Tasman the Bledisloe cup is planning a trip even further WEST in 2019.
Ok, so the first part of that may be a fantasy but the second bit is for real with Perth set to host its first Bledisloe test next year.
At the announcement, Rugby Australia chief Raelene Castle said, “This isn’t just any Test match, this is one of the most important games that the Wallabies will play next year, not just because it’s against our traditional rivals, the All Blacks, but also because it’s one of the last chances to prepare before the Rugby World Cup kicks-off in Japan”. Australia and New Zealand kick off their respective RWC campaigns on 21 September.
The match will take place on 10 August at Optus Stadium with the stadium and the government entities involved getting a nod from Castle, “It’s proven itself to be one of the best venues in the world to watch sport and that’s a credit to the West Australian Government”.
Going on to add, “Through Tourism Western Australia, the WA Government have already put on some terrific major events that have showcased Perth to the globe and we’re proud that we can add to that on August 10 next year.
Let’s all hope this is another boon for rugby in the west and the game can continue to build over there after a testing period.
Prodigal son Dane Haylett-Petty has high hopes for the code in the west….. which we’ll expand on, over there –>
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Force still to be Reckoned With, hopes DHP
While in Perth launching next year’s Bledisloe series Dane Haylett-Petty spoke of his hopes for national selection for players from his home state while plying their trade in World Series Cricket Rugby.
The Perth product and current “gun Wallaby with a double-barrel surname” (taking over from Ashley-Cooper, Scott-Young and Farr-Jones before him, a tradition that got off to a shaky start with Montague Massy-Westropp who won a solitary cap against New Zealand in 1914, presumably before deciding enlisting was a better option) is fully behind Wallabies coach Michael Cheika bringing players in from the Force for the Possible vs Probables match in Sydney.
“I think it’s great that Cheik’s (bringing some guys over to play in this trial game and I really hope that some of the Force boys will be playing in the Wallabies in the near future,” he said.
The trial match comes in an effort to arrest the Wallabies’ poor start to both the first match and subsequently the series. Who could forget last year’s 40-6 halftime score and 2016’s 32-3?
Dane Double-Barrel was part of both matches and backed the idea for the pre-test hit-out say-ing*, “The last two Bledisloes we’ve had probably four weeks off between Super and the Bledisloe and been blown away in the first 20 minutes and probably not quite prepared enough”. (although the cynic might suggest a focus on getting more Australian Super Rugby teams through to the finals might be a solution to that….)
But Haylett-Petty wasn’t listening to the nay-sayers adding, “So, I think this is a great initiative to bridge that gap a little bit and last year the two games after that were really tight but the first 20 minutes in Sydney wasn’t good enough.”
*I assume DHP hyphenates all two syllable words.
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