Wednesday’s Rugby News has Jake Schatz pondering the questions of life, the release of the Olympics Sevens schedule, Kane Douglas looking to make his mark at the Reds, and the Force have officially started looking for a new coach.
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Reds Backrow Reboot
Jake Schatz, talking to the Courier-Mail on Monday, gave away that he was considering his options due to the backrow upheaval at the Reds. Now that upheaval has taken a further step, with the announcement of Curtis Browning’s move to Lyon.
“There are few scenarios out there but I’m not making any decisions right now because I’m concentrating on the next phase of rehab after knee surgery,” Schatz told Jim Tucker.
Schatz himself hasn’t played for the Reds since he had his knee reconstructed in April, and in that time Leroy Houston (Bath) and Caleb Timu (Brisbane Broncos) have been brought into the fold, with youngster Adam Korczyk also signed up for next year. It’s not like he’s whinging, though, saying, “Competition for spots is always healthy so I’ve no problem with that.”
Meanwhile, Lyon announced Browning’s signature earlier this week. The 22-year-old, who has been capped 33 times by the Reds, will join Mike Harris at the Top 14 club.
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Olympics Schedules Released
The schedule for rugger at the Olympics has been released by World Rugby, with both the male and female competitions being played over three days each.
The girls will kick things off a month from now, with France and Spain opening proceedings on Saturday 6 August, with the gold medal game for the female half of the competition taking place on Monday 8 August.
After that’s done and dusted, the boys’ competition will get underway, with the Aussie lads playing the French as the first game. The final, too, will be played 2 days later on Wednesday 10 August.
The Olympics Sevens, unlike the standard procedure for the men’s series, will have only 12 teams split into 3 pools. Australia’s women’s side have Fiji, the US and Colombia in their pool, while the men’s side have South Africa, France and Spain.
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Kane’s Komeback
After coming off the bench against the Brumbies on the weekend, Kane Douglas is looking forward to getting more rugby under his belt. Until last weekend, he hadn’t played any since late November, when he gone and done his ACL during the World Cup final. He also has his sights set on returning to the Wallabies.
“That’s what I’m hoping if I can play some good footy but I’m just worrying about playing some good footy for the Reds and see what happens from there,” the Wallaby lock rugby.com.au.
Douglas, a boy from the picturesque NSW town of Yamba, played for his home state but is now ready to pull on colours of QLD.
“Sometimes you dread it (playing at Suncorp) on the other foot,” he said.
“I remember playing off the bench against the Reds a few years ago for the Tahs and you cop a fair bit of abuse from the fans which is good, that’s what you want, giving a bit of stick to the opposition [but it’ll be] great to put the red jersey on and play in front of a home crowd.”
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The Force Want You
The Force have put out an advertisement for the vacant head coach role.
As the West Australian reports, a selection panel of the ARU’s chief operations officer Rob Clarke and high performance director Ben Whittaker with Force chief executive officer Mark Sinderberry and RugbyWA chairman Tony Howarth will make the decision.
It appears that the ARU has no objection to a foreign coach taking charge of the Force, which opens the door for the likes of the Crusaders Todd Blackadder and former Boks coach Heyneke Meyer, as well as World Cup success Stuart Lancaster.
Other options include the Reds’ Matt O’Connor, Scotland assistant Matt Taylor, Force foundation assistant coach John Mulvihill and current interim coach Dave Wessels,
The window for applications is only open for a fortnight, so get writing those cover letters.
Meanwhile, the West Australian also reports that the Force are keen on Reds prop Ben Daley.
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