Tuesday’s Rugby News has an update on Stannard’s court case, under 20 results, Wallaroo test aspirations and a potential coaching change for rugby powerhouse.
Tuesday’s Rugby News
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Stannard Court Case
James Stannard, a former representative of Australia in rugby sevens has today found himself involved in another of Australia’s favourite pastimes, namely, victim-blaming.
The victim of a vicious assault in March of this year, Stannard had to retire before the Commonwealth Games on the Goldy as a result of his injuries sustained, including a fractured skull, in the Coogee Bay attack that left the Rio Olympian in hospital for three days.
Briton Sam Oliver was charged soon after the incident and pleaded not guilty to both recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The court was told today that Stannard “provoked” the attack by calling the assailant a “pommy c…” although the defence team were seemingly remiss by not quoting any case law or legislation that recognises being called a bad word as grounds to break someone’s skull. (Do we have any legal professionals reading who may be able to correct me on this?) The accusations are denied by Stannard.
Oliver’s legal counsel also alluded to Stannard’s high blood alcohol content on the night of the incident. (Presumably recorded after he’d been hospitalised, as breathalysing someone with a GCS of 3 is fraught with difficulty) A move that may affect the outcome of the trial or at least the sentencing, if it comes to that.
A paper published by Monash highlights the issue, “In 68 (of 71) instances the relevance of the intoxication of the victim was the subject of consideration.” (Quilter & McNamara, 2017)
Hopefully Stannard’s BAC doesn’t detract from his account of the following morning’s events,
“I had an extremely sore head and I had blood coming out of my ear,”
“I was quite anxious, and I didn’t know what was going on.”
The case, like James Stannard’s vertigo, will continue today.
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Pacific Islands fight for Under 20 supremacy
In an odd coming together of location, teams and scoreline it’s Fiji who have ultimately secured themselves a berth in the 2019 under 20 World Championship by winning this year’s World Rugby U20 Trophy.
The Fijians were far too good for their Pacific Ocean neighbours downing Samoa by a whopping 50 points in the final hosted in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
The tournament serves as a sort second-tier world cup whereby the winner gains promotion into the following year’s big dance at the expense of the last placed team in the championship.
Drua and Fijian under 23 coach Senirusi Seruvakula was happy with how Fijian rugby is progressing citing what it means to have their under 20s firing, “We need a clear pathway for these young players and looking to the Under 20s I think a lot of them will be in the Warriors for the PRC (Pacific Rugby championship) next year,” he said. It’s worth noting that one of Seruvakula’s Drua charges was first to cross the paint with Vilimoni Botitu nabbing the first of his team’s 58 points.
Samoan coach Rudy Leavasa was forthright in his assessment of what went wrong for his team while acknowledging that they were beaten by a superior outfit on the day.
“Fiji, they were pretty fired up and they were the better team this afternoon,” Leavasa said.
“The boys didn’t play well today. Some of them are still carrying injuries and our plan didn’t go well.
“The boys were getting tired. Four games here and our boys didn’t switch on.”
Fiji had a similarly crammed schedule with the same number of games in the same time but could find another gear at the pointy end of the tournament.
Fun trivia factoid, hosts Romania are the only winner of the tournament NOT to by granted access to the following year’s world championship as it was reduced from 16 teams to 12 in 2010.
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Calls afoot to expand women’s internationals
In light of Australia’s confirmed bid for the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup eyes will surely be turning to RA to see what can be done to help the Wallaroos improve on their 7th placing from the 2017 tournament.
Instead* of calling for an expanded super level set up, Wallaroos coach Dwayne Nestor has again come out in support of more test matches next year.
After their two tests this year ended in sound defeats at the hand of the Black Ferns, Nestor is looking for the team to gain greater exposure in international clashes
“More test matches is what’s going to allow the girls to develop in that environment,” he said, no doubt with Ireland’s decision not to accept an invitation to tour earlier in the year still gnawing away somewhere.
One has to think a return offer would be gladly accepted as the coach went on to talk about some of the other great things that rugby and rugby tours especially, provide.
“We all love to tour, there’s no doubt about that, that’s one of the great things about rugby it’s such a world game
“We’re developing rugby players but I’d like to think we’re developing really good people.”
While no dates or opponents have been locked in for next year the impetus is there from the crew in gold to get something happening.
Here’s to a big year of internationals and a strong build to the next world cup.
*I’m making no judgement if this is right or wrong, merely highlighting it as a point of difference compared so some other sports.
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Could be time for a change of coach
Calls from armchair critics, disillusioned fans, sideline experts and casual observers are getting ever louder for coach Michael Cheika to step down.
After the Wallabies suffered a mid-year series loss to Ireland and an ordinary opening to the Rugby Championship it seems odd then, that South African coach Rassie Erasmus has come out publicly fearing he may not remain at the helm of the Boks.
Despite knocking off England at home 2 tests to 1, beating Los Pumas, and having their losses against Australia and Wales be by a total margin of 7 points Erasmus is worried that he might not be the man to lead the team to the next world cup or even for the rest of the year.
Ultimately though, the decision about his coaching futures comes down to SA Rugby Union’s Director of Rugby, who is coincidently, also named Rassie Erasmus, confused yet? Welcome to Springbok rugby.
Erasmus seems to have put himself on notice though stating, “If we do really bad, then I probably won’t be in this seat for the next couple matches”.
Pointing to the expectations placed on the national team and himself by the fans. “I’m under no illusions, we have lost two in a row, so the pressure is on this week and the more we lose the more ruthless the South African supporters will become.
“I’m not going to let the pressure get to me, it’s all about building that team that is ready to compete at the World Cup.”
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