Tuesday’s Rugby News talk Pulitzer Prizes, Eurovision, “Workshops” and rap feuds.
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The Old Man and the Teen (oh, and Valentini)
No, this isn’t some awful spoof of Hemmingway’s famous 1951 work you might stumble across on SBS late at night after switching the channel in disgust as your favourite rugby team fails to execute the basics of the game for the umpteenth time.
What it is, in fact, is the latest additions to the Wallabies’ squad who are on their way to Europe for the spring tour.
In this re-write of the story it’s Adam Ashley-Cooper playing the role of the “old-man”. At 34years of age he’s on track to potentially win his 117th cap which would move him ahead of Nathan Sharpe into outright 3rd most-capped Wallaby.
Playing the role of Manolin in this awkward metaphor is 18 year-old Jordan Petaia. Petaia is coming in directly from the NRC where he topped the try-scoring stats for the season.
In talking about his selections Cheika touched on a few things, notably AAC’s ability to play in more than one position “His experience is important and also just his versatility, his ability to cover a few positions”.
“With him and then a guy like Jordan, it’s probably a good balance”.
“We need a couple of extra backs here on the trip”.
“(Two Dads) will train with us, we’ll see where he’s at”.
“He’s come on the tour with us to be available for selection, he’s not coming for a holiday”.
The other player added to the squad (who reportedly won’t be considered for selection) is Rob Valentini. The Brumby does has some international experience having turned out for the under 20s in Georgia last year.
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Eurovision
Australia’s beloved ethnic broadcaster is famous for a few things.
Stunning news readers, weird movies, obscure sports and an uncanny ability to find overseas games shows that will somehow become a hit in the local market.
Lately, the radio station/TV channel/streaming service has spread its wings into more mainstream shows and sports having dunked their toes in broadcasting the criggit (the Ashes) and now it’s been announced they will be telecasting all three of Australia’s test matches this spring from Europe.
This isn’t the first time they’ve eschewed sokkah in favour rugger having covered two matches back in ’16 and all tests on last year’s tour.
Times and dates, (times shown in QLD time)
11 November
4.20am vs Wales
18 November
12 midnight vs Italy
25 November
1am vs England
Although, 30 men, scantily clad in tight clothes thumping into each other for 80 minutes…..maybe SBS isn’t actually too far away from its normal programming?
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Mind Games
In word filtering out of RA offices that’s sure to be music to fans’ ears, the latest focus will be on “applied performance psychology”, rather than all that extraneous crap like passing, kicking, tackling and catching.
It’s all-encompassing too with sevens, juniors, Wallaroos and all four Super franchises participating in the “workshop”, the only team to avoid it were the Wallabies (who are currently none from one on their tour….)
RA high performance manager Ben Whitaker did his best to sell the importance of the “workshop” saying, “We’ve got basically an all-day workshop which is all about applied performance psychology, which has come out of our national plan”.
“It’s an area that we really want to investigate and make sure that we’re understanding of it and delivering it at a level that positively impacts performance.”
“I think what’ll happen off this is we’ll get a lot of thinking around how it gets delivered in team program but also having a look at what services could be provided from a central point of view that help everyone with performance,” he said.
And if all that wasn’t confusing enough he added, “This is probably looking ahead to say, ‘How can players who enter that environment already be well-versed and serviced in that area that support them to perform at the highest level?’”.
Wat?
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The West head to the Test
Unless the membership of the Western Force are planning to seriously one-up both Rugby Australia and 50 Cent it seems that the west has forgiven the axing of their team, to a degree.
With Sydney’s premier rugby stadium being torn down and rebuilt over the next few years (in a move that might just be the most Sydney thing ever) they’ve lost their hosting rights for the Bledisloe over the next couple of years so it’s had to find itself some new homes.
One of the stadiums (and less specifically, one of the states) set to host its first trans-Tasman rugby test is Perth’s Optus stadium which will be the site of the clash on 10 August 2019.
With 60,000 seats to fill, a local rugby community still stinging and the wider population having little to no idea what the sport involved it could have been a staggering flop for all concerned.
Mercifully, the tickets have been snapped up like Emu Export on a hot day with only 2,000 spots left despite having only been on sale for a few days.
The game is on track to smash the previous record for highest attended rugby match in the state and fingers crossed it’ll be a good show and can bring some long-awaited joy to the fans on the left coast.
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