23 September 2025
Good morning GAGRs and welcome to another edition of Tuesday news.
Those of you from the Sunshine State will appreciate that it felt a bit summery on the weekend, the sun had some bite to it, and the school holidays have arrived so the roads out of Brisbane to the Gold and Sunshine Coast were full of people wanting to catch some waves, rather than rugby balls. Maybe that’s what afflicted the Reds in Narrabri.
But as Bris covered yesterday, there was still some important rugby played, particularly the World Cup Semi-Finals, and congratulations to England and Canada for qualifying for the big show this weekend. I haven’t seen the NZ vs Canada match, but given the way Canada played against the Wallaroos, I expect that they will turn up and really challenge the English on Sunday morning our time.
Rugby World Cup Stats and matches
I was looking at some stats from the world cup, and after the Semi Final weekend, 4 Australian players are ranked in the top 15 for number of tackles made, with Piper Duck in second place with 80 tackles, only 9 behind English player Sadia Mabeya who has made 89 tackles, but has played an extra game. Other Wallaroos on the list are Emily Chancellor (10th, 62 tackles), Kaitlin Leaney (12th, 61 tackles), and Michaela Leonard (15th, 57 tackles). It’s good going overall, with Evie Gallagher and Rachel Malcolm (both from Scotland) the only other non semi finalists on the list.
Desiree Miller remains towards the top of the list for try scorers with 6, (equal second behind Braxton Sorensen-McGee who has 9), and would seem odds on to stay in the top five at the end of the tournament. Not surprisingly, Braxton Sorensen-McGee also tops the list of clean breaks with 13, points with 59, and is seventh with runs made. I couldn’t find a metres run metric, though I reckon she would be topping that as well.
It does seem the world cup for fullbacks making their mark on the world stage with Braxton Sonrensen-McGee, Caitlyn Halse, and of course Ellie Kildunne lighting up every field they played on. It’s amazing that Sorensen-McGee and Halse are both only 18.
And a final stat, 60% of women players have to work another job to play international rugby.
The World Cup Finishes this weekend, with the bronze medal game between New Zealand and France on Saturday night at 9:30 from Twickenham, and the Final on at the same ground on Sunday morning at 1am. Apparently the ground is sold out so it will be an amazing day in south west London.
Both should be cracking games, and good luck to all of the players, coaches, families and supporters.
Even though they have bowed out of the World Cup, the Wallaroos were great to watch, and for one last time, here is the team from London.
Rugby in Narrabri
I’m looking forward to Happyman’s recounting of a weekend in Narrabri, unfortunately the Waratahs look to have secure the bragging rights for this year by winning the Mens, Women’s and Men’s under 19’s matches.
The Men’s Super Rugby match was disappointing to watch from a Reds fan perspective. It felt more like a trial game sort of vibe rather than a actual competition match, which is more surprising when you consider the number of regular Super Rugby players in the Match day 23, and even some recent Wallabies. Congrats though to the Waratahs who turned around their own mediocre performance from the week before to put 47 points on the Reds. In fact the final score (47-19) was almost the opposite of the scoreline I forecast in a comment on Friday’s news.
As the scribe say, a week is a long time in sport, and form is temporary, class is permanent, so I expect the Reds will bounce back against the Force this week.
The Reds women’s team had a better crack at the Waratahs, leading by 12-0 at one stage, before the Waratahs turned it around to take the game 34-21.
That’s a wrap
That’s it for this Tuesday, as always, thanks for making it this far, look forward to the random chat in the comments, and see you all here next week after Wallabies take on the All Blacks at Eden Park.
Cheers
