Wednesday’s Rugby News has good news about Super, a better WBs culture, Cheika talking about being wrong, and the 2017 Waratahs squad.
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Super Intact
Five Australian rugby teams will be the go for the foreseeable future as the Super competition as it is likely to stay intact, the SMH says.
In return for their continued operation, Australian teams will have to give up a little bit to the ARU, specifically in the realms of coaching appointments, sponsorhip and marketing, and governance structures.
The four unions of SANZAAR are still to decide on the final format of the 2018 Super Rugby competition – they’re all currently mulling over the reports commisioned from a consultancy – but it seems that any change now would be a change too much.
The next broadcast deal runs out in 2020, and the appetite to change the format introduced earlier this year is unlikely to be changed until then. The report seems to indicate that the 18-team competition, the current format, is the least-worst option as a 15-team comp would require South Africa to cut two teams and Australia one, and no union is keen in 16-team format either.
The Western Force and the Brumbies were the teams staring down the barrel of the indiscriminate franchise killing machine, but ARU chief operating officer Rob Clarke actually said some nice things about how both franchises are getting their shop in better shape.
“I’m fascinated with how the Force are going about their ‘Own the Force’ initiative and it seems to be garnering a lot of community support, which is fabulous,” Clarke said. “I think they are looking with ways to combine the community support they’re getting with potential private investment to see if there’s a sustainable model that can take the business forward for many years, not just one or two years.
“[The Brumbies] as far as I can see are making real progress on their financial sustainability. They’re working hard on attracting additional sponsorship money..they[‘ve made] constitutional changes. We’d like to see further reform over time in that space with them, but it’s a good step. And the [ACT] government still remains very supportive of them.”
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Culture Better
Kane Douglas says ever since some Wallabies got busted for boozing in Dublin three years ago, the culture’s never been better as it is now. And he should know, he was one of those given a written warning.
“I was out that night, I suppose things had to change within the Wallabies culture and I think we’ve become more professional since then and that’s probably not even going to happen,” Douglas said to Fox Sports.
“We haven’t got any rules with Cheik anyway. There’s no rules, we’re all adults, but I don’t think something like that would happen again anyway. It’s been good from the leadership group and I feel like I’m getting pretty old now anyway, I’m 27, I’ve got a wife and kids and everyone just wants to be in the right position come Saturday that we can play our best footy.
“I think the Wallaby culture and a heap of the boys have grown a lot since then.”
Refresher: before the Ireland test in 2013, which the Wallabies won, Ewen McKenzie suspended six players (for the following test in Scotland) and gave five written and four verbal warnings for returning to the hotel team late after a night out on the lash.
The suspended players were Nick Cummins, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Benn Robinson, Liam Gill, and Paddy Ryan. Written none-of-thats were given to Dave Dennis, Kane Douglas, Saia Fainga’a, Bernard Foley and Nick Phipps, while Scott Fardy, Mike Harris, Ben McCalman and Nic White received verbal cut-it-outs.
However, Douglas ain’t no party pooper, saying, “I think you still need to get out and about, you can’t just be focused on rugby the whole time, you’ve got to go do other things and if you’re in those cities, you’ve got to – I encourage boys to go see things on Wednesday, the day off.”
He also had a bit of advice for the young’ins: “Obviously you don’t want to spend the whole day walking round so your legs are really tired or anything.”
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Reset It All
Michael Cheika admits he had to “restart from zero” after the bad start to this year’s international season.
Maybe I didn’t get it 100% right at the start of the year,” said Cheika, as he chatted to the BBC.
“When the new guys started coming in, from a mental perspective maybe I tried to continue on and didn’t understand that maybe they and the other players who had gone back to their Super Rugby sides had to be either reminded of the project or introduced to it for the first time.”
This year, the Wallabies have blooded a record 13 debutants. “We needed to go back to zero and the players told who we are and how we represent Australia and buy into the project again,” said Cheika.
On top of that, Cheika added that he thinks establishing an identity for the team is one of the most important tasks.
“The club (Randwick) who brought me up and played for really taught me on that,” the rugby genius said. “When you’re in the Aussie team you are in a position to inspire young kids and people to support us and also take up playing the game.”
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Waratahs Squad
The Waratahs have released their squad for 2017, with all but one spot locked down.
The new names in, and there’s eight of them, include Cam Clark, the sevens star, as well as u20s wunderkind (and Queenslander) Mack Mason. NRC Player of the Year, centre Irae Simone, has also secured a Waratahs contract. Damien Fitzpatrick is also in the squad, back from going away to France and that.
The big leavers are Kurtley Beale (Wasps), Dave Dennis (Exeter), Benn “Fat Cat” Robinson (retirement) and TPN (Force). Matt Carraro’s swapping Sydney for Toulon, and Sam Lousi has gone back to NZ.
Interestingly, the Waratahs have included Israel Folau in the centres, with Randwick Ranga (and current Wallabies squaddie) Andrew Kellaway looking to take his place at fullback.
2017 Waratahs Squad:
Forwards: Sekope Kepu, Sam Nees, Tom Robertson, Paddy Ryan, Matt Sandell, Angus Ta’avao, Damien Fitzpatrick, Tolu Latu, Hugh Roach, Ned Hanigan, Ryan McCauley, Dean Mumm, Will Skelton, Senio Toleafoa, Jack Dempsey, Jed Holloway, Michael Hooper, Michael Wells, Brad Wilkin
Backs: Jake Gordon, Matt Lucas, Nick Phipps, Andrew Deegan, Bernard Foley, Bryce Hegarty, Mack Mason, Israel Folau, Irae Simone, Rob Horne, David Horwitz, Cameron Clark, Harry Jones, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Andrew Kellaway, Reece Robinson
Coach: Darryl Gibson
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