15th April 2025
Good morning G&GRs and welcome to another edition of the Tuesday news. It’s a shorter article today due to some family celebrations here in Qld; we’ll start with an opinion piece and then get into an Australian men’s team of the week. And yes, despite the Brumbies victory, always a Reds fan.
From the bar – RAWF’s view
Firstly, I had an opportunity to spend the night with most of my immediate family tonight to Celebrate my Dad’s 83rd Birthday. We had four generations of family members enjoying a night out with good food and reasonably priced drinks at the Broncos Leagues Club in Red Hill, Brisbane. We are blessed to be enjoying each other’s company and had a great night. Happy Birthday dad, grandad, great grandad, or simply Dave to his mates. It’s a cliche that men use about their fathers, but it’s true, the greatest man I have ever met just happens to the first one.
The reason I mentioned the Broncos Leagues Club is that it’s a good venue to catch up with family and friends, enjoy some good food, and have a good time. And because it’s central to where we live, we tend to eat there a bit. Which brings me to a question for the G&GR faithful: why don’t we have a similar facility for the rugby union fans in Queensland, why doesn’t the Queensland Rugby Union have a similar clubhouse, facility, bar, restaurant in Brisbane? Is it because of the legacy of the Reds is that they were born out of a representative side rather than established as a club, or did they just miss an opportunity in 1995 to build a home for the Reds and their fans to come together and maybe make a quid for the Reds along the way.
Is it too late for the Reds to have a home, could it be at Ballymore, or is there a better location? Ballymore and Red Hill are similar in terms of distance to city, and population density nearby, what do you think G&GRs?
Super Rugby W
Bris wrote a good summary of the Super Rugby W final and, to add my 2 cents to it, congrats to the Tahs on another victory over an Australian team and another title. It was a fantastic game and for most of it, it was a contest but the Waratahs found ways to score tries where the Reds couldn’t. Across the park the Tahs were excellent, none more so than Desire Miller, Caitlyn Halse, Georgina Friedrichs, Bella McKenzie and Emily Chancellor. Let’s hope they go well against the best of the Kiwis, the Blues in Auckland on Thursday.
Wallabies Watch
The Force had the bye this week, the Tahs scored one of the upsets of the season to down the Chiefs in Sydney and the Brumbies stampeded over the top of the Reds at Lang Park. So who impressed this week, who gets a run in the team of the week? Here we go.
- Angus Bell – another good game for Bell in his 50th.
- Ethan Dobbins – a great effort around the park, is hit on DMac early set a tone for the match.
- Allan Alaalatoa – another try for 7As in a dominant performance around the field. From memory, both scrums won penalties throughout the game. Another try to boot.
- Nick Frost – outshone the Reds forwards, including at the restarts where the Brumbies were excellent and the Reds were not.
- Tom Hooper – a great performance by the big man closer to the action. LSL wasn’t far away.
- Bob Valetini – wow, Bobby V is back and the Reds didn’t have any answers to his carrying throughout the match.
- Rory Scott – gets the nod as the starting 7 for the Brumbies, I thought McReight went well considering he seemed to be the first man in a lot of tackles.
- Langi Gleeson – what a motor this bloke’s got.
- Ryan Lonergan – an all around performance including a clutch penalty to put the Brumbies out by more than a score.
- Lawson Creighton – has improved with his time at the Tahs this year, better option taking and removed errors from his game.
- Lachie Anderson – he wore 14 for the Reds, but has been very good all year and Saturday night was no exception.
- Joey Walton – Walton was very good on the weekend and it seems that 12 is his spot. An excellent game with choices to run, pass, and run some more.
- Dre Pakeho – Another solid performance from the young man in his first season for the Reds.
- Andrew Kellaway – the Ginger Ninja was back to his best, organising the defence and setting up a great length of the field try by the Tahs.
- Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii – was very good with the ball, scored a great try, was instrumental (with others) in their length of the field try. Was his best game of rugby.
- Billy Pollard – bagged a second half double to put the Brumbies on the front foot and set up the victory.
- James Slipper – a good performance by Jimmy Slips, he couldn’t get across for the tackle on Paisami but he was close.
- Zane Nonggorr – was good in the scrum, missed a tackle on Bobby V (he’s not Robinson Crusoe there) but was otherwise good.
- Lukhan Salakaia-Loto – stood up against the Brumbies forward pack, needed some more help.
- Fraser McReight – made a lot of tackles, a misread to not get across and help Tim Ryan in Bobby V’s try, but getting back into form.
- Teddy Wilson – was on the end of a great try for the Tahs and scored another to have it called back for an earlier knock on (right call by the way).
- Hunter Paisami – is working his way into form, showed good pace, vision, and skills to score an early try.
- Oli Sapsford – an early substitution for Len Ikitau, and was very good. Can play almost any spot in the backline.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
That’s a wrap
As always, thanks for making it this far. Have a great day, and look forward to the comments.
