Wednesday’s Rugby News has Sean McMahon leaving at any minute, Warren Gatland expecting wounded Lions, a 7s Extravaganza in Sydney next year, and ready Reds.
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Losing McMinutes
As reported last week, Sean “McMinutes” McMahon is rumoured to be unhappy with his current career sitch and is thinking of leaving Super Rugby. The Age now reports that old mate will make his mind up soon.
Apparently, he’s currently weighing up a $1m contract offer from a club in Japan.
The Melbourne Rebels star plans to decide on his future in the next few weeks.
The out-of-contract Wallabies flanker has reportedly received an offer from Japanese rugby which could be worth $1 million. He hasn’t commented on a potential overseas move but has not ruled out returning to Queensland if the Rebels are cut from Super Rugby.
When asked about the fiasco-that-shall-not-be-named, McMahon said that’s not affecting his position.
“It will affect my position a little bit but not really,” McMahon said.
“If it came down to it the only other place I would like to head back to would be Queensland but I love Melbourne, I love the Rebels as a side and I love all the lads here.”
“Especially for a lot of the young lads here, they will need to see what happens with the team. It’s a great team out here, we are a family and we are all from different places in the world but we love it here.
“We love Melbourne,” said McMahon, who loves Melbourne.
He also hasn’t thought that far ahead and isn’t going to speculate on his future at this point in time.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead and I’m not going to speculate on that at this point in time,” McMahon said.
McMahon has barely played this season, having been victim to knee and ankle injuries. The Tahs game on the weekend was his first full game of the season
Meanwhile, the Rebels will be nuked rugbically by the Crusaders on Saturday night, especially so that Reece Hodge, Nic Stirzaker, Tom English and Sefa Naivalu are all in dobut, and Harrison Goddard and Sione Tuipulotu are with the 20s. Jack Maddocks was also meant to go with the u20s, but is out injured with a hurt arm.
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Gatland Expecting Injuries
Warren Gatland, presumably after reading about the Rebels, has come out and told the Guardian that he expects lots and lots of injuries on the Lions tour.
“No doubt there could be a couple more next week,” Gatland said, in the wake of no. 8 Billy Vunipola being ruled out with a shoulder injury. “We plan to lose six to 10 players; that’s just the attrition rate of past tours. Any player who gets injured at this time is a big loss to the squad because you spend a lot of time going through the process of picking [specific] players.”
The news of Vunipola’s withdrawal has come just days before the squad is due to fly out to NZ, aka next Monday. “I did try and persuade him to come over and be assessed but he was adamant he wasn’t right,” said Gatland. “He is a big loss to us but I fully respect the decision he’s made not to go on the tour. He spoke to his family and they felt he was making the right decision.”
In Vunipola’s place, Gatland has called up England’s Pocock-lite, James Haskell. Having just come back from injury, or slowly making their way back to full fitness are Jack McGrath, Tadhg Furlong, Johnny Sexton, Sean O’Brien, Rhys Webb and Ken Owens.
On top of those names, Lions captain Sam Warburton has also just returned to fitness after being out for a six weeks with a knee knack.
“I am fully fit, which is good,” said Warburton. “Last week in the camp in Wales I was pretty much doing everything apart from just the last little bit of contact stuff.
“But today I trained fully. We did full contact, and I was absolutely fine. That’s is all the boxes ticked, and now I can crack on.
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7s Extravaganza
The Sydney 7s next year is set for a shake-up, and no it does not involve full-strength beer.
The three-day extravaganza will kick-off on Australia Day, with both the men’s and women’s tournaments to be integrated together and held over the 48-72 hour party.
In a presser more or lease reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald, Bill Pulver poked his head above the parapet for a rare public utterance.
“Sydney has embraced the Sydney 7s with open arms with the tournament going from success to success over the last two years,” said Pulver.
“We’re delighted to be integrating the tournament into three days for both the Men’s and Women’s legs of the World Series. We’re grateful to World Rugby for working with us to make this a reality as it’s something we always hoped would eventuate, from when we first started the conversations about hosting a women’s tournament in Sydney. It’ll be great to see our Aussie Men and Women on equal footing at Allianz Stadium.
“The Sydney 7s is more than just about the amazing rugby on the field. Spectators are able to enjoy the carnival atmosphere in the stands and the live music, food stalls and family-friendly activities in the surrounding precinct.
“We look forward to welcoming the competing nations and fans to Sydney for a fantastic weekend as we celebrate everything great about our wonderful sport and our city.”
Readers may remember last year, where the women’s 7s were shunted out to Kippax Oval, the training ground beside the SFS.
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Ready Reds
Duncan Paia’aua has told rugby365 that the Reds are ready and raring for revenge against the Force this Friday.
“First week of training has been really good, the intensity has been really high. The boys have enjoyed the break and we have come back [to training] fresh and rejuvenated, ” the centre said.
“We have to stick to our game plan and play the full 80 [minutes]. In round two we were leading most of the game but we just started playing as individuals and disregard the game plan and it came to bite us is in the end.
“[Against the Force] we should do better. They are hard at the breakdown, so our focus is to go hard at the breakdown and win the ball quickly,” he explained
“We’ve learned from the Rebels game and I think it was pleasing to win it at the last minute and received the bonus-point aswell,”
The Reds are coming off a bye week, their last game being a 29-24 win
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