Wednesday’s Rugby News has a new proposal for the NRC, the Tahs not moving, the ‘horrific’ u20s, and Pascal Pape punches his way home.
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Mitre 10 meets NRC?
Andrew Hore said a lot of things to the Guardian’s Rajiv Maharaj, but there’s a few snippets in there that raise eyebrows.
Hore, the NSWRU CEO, reckons it’s worth thinking about having NRC teams playing Mitre 10 Cup teams.
“Does [this idea] have merit – yes, it does. It would be great for coaches, it would be great for players and it would enhance the competition,” Hore said. “The NRC is actually not a bad competition. But we want it to be commercially sustainable – playing in the Mitre 10 Cup might give it greater commercial sustainability, and connect through to the community.”
Hore, who’s careful to say that on one hand, rugby in Australia can right itself in “two and half to three years’ maximum”, but on the other hand, is wary of any silver bullets, reckons it’s all about community rugby.
When asked about what he reckons of administrators and certain other moronic public figures spouting their two-year-old insights, Hore says:
“It could have something to do with the maturity level and maybe the age of some of the administrators in this part of the world … we’re starting to see is some tired individuals, people who don’t know what else is out and about.
“We don’t have a great deal of collaboration. That’s the big difference between here and NZ. There’s almost a feeling with that group [rugby administrators] of being intimidated by consulting down. It’s as if they’re embarrassed if they don’t have the answer to bring to the table. I say give the problems to the people to bring back some solutions.”
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Tahs Staying
The A-League Grand Final is on this weekend, and with Sydney FC smashing their way to showpiece all season-long, it really shouldn’t have been a surprise that the final would be on at Allianz. But it is, and what’s worse, the Waratahs are playing the Blues at the ground the day before.
Now, this isn’t the first time Football Federation Australia has buggered up stadium issues for the grand final – two years ago, they had to plump for Melbourne’s AAMI Park after the AFL wouldn’t let them use Docklands. But as you all know, sports administration is hard.
So anyway, late yesterday the FFA asked the Waratahs/SCG Trust if they could move the Blues game to somewhere else. It seemed on the cards for a while, but late late yesterday any move was quashed.
The Waratahs released a statement: “Saturday’s Super Rugby game against the Auckland Blues will remain at Allianz Stadium.
“While consideration was given to the request made by NSW government late on Monday 1 May, out of interest for the NSW Waratahs fans and supporters as well as other stakeholders, the game will remain at the Tahs’ home ground, Allianz Stadium.”
@steve_l15 Wouldn’t even sell-out Kippax
— Conjecture (@CoachTeamRehab) May 1, 2017
(pssst: Kippax Oval is the training ground next to the stadium)
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u20s “Horrific”
Aussie u20s coach Simon Cron has taken the unusual step of rating his team as “1 out of 100”, despite his team beating Fiji 32-24 last night.
“The lineouts were horrific,” Cron told rugby.com.au. “Just over throws and poor timing. Two new locks today but that is no excuse.
“But the dropped balls…
“Tactically and technically they’re passing the ball on the line and therefore our players are trying to catch it with two Fijians on top of him – so you drop it.
“There were other occasions where the boys decided to throw a ball into the ground, behind somebody, it was really poor. We tried a few new things today and a new player group but patterns haven’t changed and we haven’t added a whole lot in – that was just a team of individuals.”
The team, which had about a gorillion changes made to it from the team that beat Samoa in the first game, will probably be changed again for the crunch match against NZ on Saturday night.
“We’ve got to review this game because to be honest, we are still learning,” Cron said.
“A lot of the boys, their approach and how they approach tight situations. Today, a couple of them probably hurt their chances around that and that’s pressure.
“I’d say that we had six changes and there were some real issues around those changes.
“The lineout didn’t function and our launch plays were that of Under 3s.
“We have to be miles better – the Kiwis are a class side that play quick ruck speed and they’re a good team – they’re very cohesive. We’re still finding our feet a little but we have to use it as a trial – today’s trial was horrific – but as a coach I’ve got to fix that.”
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Pape The Frog
Here’s a yarn for the ages.
A few weeks ago, Stade Francais and Racing 92 – big rival rugby clubs – said they were going to merge next year. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t go down well, with fans unhappy, players unhappy, staff unhappy, other owners unhappy and the league unhappy.
Stade Francais were seen to be the loser in the merger – some described it as a buyout from Racing – and chief instigator of unhappiness was stalwart, Pascal Pape.
In a very romantic story, the 36 year old was (or probably is) planning on retiring this year. The season isn’t over just yet, but it seems that Pape has played his last game for his club after he was sent off for punching an opponent on the weekend.
Stade’s opponent? Why it was only Racing!
It was Pape’s last game at the Stade Jean-Bouin (Stade Francais’ home ground), and despite his red card, his teammates chaired him around the ground.
“He will remember his last match at Jean-Bouin,” Stade’s captain, Sergio Parisse told Planet Rugby.
“But in his career he will remember the victory of the team, surely that in a few years, when we are older, we will have a belly, we will laugh around a glass of wine saying ‘ Remember your punch for your last game?”
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