Wednesday’s Rugby News has the ARU dusting off its typewriter to write not one BUT TWO press releases, and Foley and Tim Simona out.
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Yawn!
The slumbering giant that may or may not also known as Australian rugby awakened yesterday when the ARU released not one but TWO press releases!!
(Hey guys, if you’re looking for a writer who’s as lazy, incompetent and antagonistic as you, I’m your man!)
The first one is a-whole-lot-of-nothing concerning the Western Force fiasco. Seems like nothing is going on but curiously there’s no “Straya’s having 5 teams no matter what rah rah rah” line:
“The ARU wishes to clarify its current position in the SANZAAR review of the Super Rugby competition.
“As announced by SANZAAR following the SANZAAR Board meeting in London earlier this month, the four member nations have undertaken a period of stakeholder consultation to work towards an agreed outcome on the competition format for the 2018 season.
“This stakeholder consultation, which has included consultation with broadcast partners in each territory, is ongoing. At this point, there has been no determination on the future competition format or the teams involved in the competition.
“We also wish to confirm for the public record that no decision has been taken on the removal of one of Australia’s Super Rugby teams.
“ARU, as a joint venture partner of SANZAAR, is working towards a final resolution in the shortest timeframe possible and will inform Rugby fans as soon as an outcome is reached.”
“At this point, there has been no determination on the future competition format or the teams involved”
It’s March 28. Review began in Aug.
— Iain Payten (@iainpayten) March 28, 2017
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Oi!
The second presser put out by the ARU concerns the report published by Roy Morgan that said rugby participation numbers had plummeted a billion percent in the last 15 years (or something like that).
When you look at the report – which doesn’t even offer any methodology – it seems all seems a bit fishy. Anyway, the ARU put their fists up a bit for this one:
“The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has rejected the research findings recently published by Roy Morgan on the number of ‘active participants’ in the sport of Rugby in Australia.
“The report claimed that Rugby’s active participants (aged 14+) had dropped to 55,000 in 2016, however the ARU’s own data and a report published by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) in December 2016 do not support this finding.”
The presser then goes on a bit – it quotes a figure north of 270,000 participants – and probably maybe somewhere calls for a fatwa on Roy Morgan. Anyway, the facts aren’t important.
ARU General Manager of Community Rugby and Strategy, Andrew Larratt, rounds it off with this quote:
“We acknowledge as a sport that there is much work to be done, particularly in arresting the decline in club fifteens participation. We are well advanced in our review of the Australian Rugby Strategic Plan, with a specific focus on this area of the game.
“There is however much evidence to suggest that our participation strategy at the junior level is generating some very encouraging results as we build up grassroots club rugby through growth in junior club rugby.”
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Foley Fails Test
Bernard Foley has been stood down again by the Waratahs, after suffering a relapse of the concussion symptoms that put him out in the first place.
“There’s enough scary articles and different things out there and productions and film around concussion and it’s an issue today that it didn’t used to be,” said Waratahs coach Chris Malone, reports rugby.com.au.
“Therefore, from a coaching perspective, it’s (only) a game at the end of the day. It’s not worth risking the rest of someone’s life for a game.
“I’m fully confident that in time, ‘Nard’ will be will be sweet. And that may well be tomorrow. That may well be the day after that.
“So we’ve just got to play it by ear and ensure that we look after him.”
With regards to his replacement, Malone intimated that the Tahs are still tossing up between David Horwitz and Bryce Hegarty.
“We’re going to probably play around with some combinations today in training to ensure we get a repeat of the team performance we got from last weekend,” Malone said.
“As the week goes on, we’ll clarify exactly how we go in terms of our makeup if Bernard’s not there.
“He (Horwitz) played well last week, he did, and he stepped up into first receiver a lot, probably touched the ball more times than Bernard did.
“Then there’s Bryce, Irae Simone that can come back into the team. There’s also Mack Mason and Andrew Deegan, a couple of younger guys, number 10s.
“We’ve just to figure out what’s our best configuration, what’s going to make the team tick the best because obviously importantly this week we want a big team performance against the Crusaders.”
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ARU Has (Some) Dignity
If you follow league, you might have heard of a fellow called Tim Simona.
If you haven’t, Simona has recently been in the papers a lot for doing a lot of morally questionably things that don’t bare repeating for bleary-eyed breakfast time. Most importantly though, he’s been indefinitely banned by the NRL after he was caught betting on games.
With a return to a footballing career via rugby a possibility, the ARU and NSWRU have announced they would respect the NRL’s ban. In fact, respecting other codes’ bans is something the ARU has as policy, with Ben Barba being barred from playing for Toulon at the Brisbane 10s as he was still under a 12-match ban from the NRL.
All this news comes as Shute Shield club West Harbour have offered Simona a spot at their club. Despite the Shute Shield being an amateur competition, the NSWRU have decided to nix Simona’s involvement.
While there is some sympathy for Simona within rugby circles, i.e. a feeling he should get a second chance, there’s also a bit of a worry about giving him an opportunity only a few weeks since his ban.
NSWRU boss Andrew Hore:
“There are always going to be problems around young men with money in their pocket but by and large rugby has a good set of values, and it is an asset of the game. We need to protect that because that’s what you want to draw parents and kids towards the game.”
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The Scots College (Sydney) is gearing up for their annual Rugby 7s tournament, set to take place THIS SATURDAY 1 April (10am – 4pm)
Schoolboy teams from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will duke it out for the Pillinger Cup, with King’s College Auckland, last year’s winners, coming back to defend their title.
The top Fijian rugby school side will also be making the trip over to compete alongside St Ignatius’ College Riverview and Canberra Grammar, along with Brisbane State High School and the NSW Waratahs U18 development squad. Kambala and SCEGGS will face on in the girls match, with a full preparatory school competition running alongside the older boys.
Yep, that’s right! Scots College’s Rugby 7s tourney will feature both Men’s and Women’s competitions. In fact, the Australian Men’s and Women’s 7s teams will be roaming about throughout the day, and will be presenting the winning schools with their awards.
More information can be found here and here, and if you need even more information, you can contact the Director of Rugby at Scots College, the blessed Mr Brian Smith at b.smith@tsc.nsw.edu.au.
