Wednesday’s rugby news sees Joe Schmidt give away some selection clues (maybe), more Rebels drama, the judiciary resembling Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Total Recall woman disguise (“Two weeks“) for Owen Franks, and Stephen Hoiles getting excited early for the Reds.
Schmidt, talking about selections
Nine reports that newly-appointed Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt is prioritising Super Rugby Pacific players over Aussies playing overseas, despite Schmidt’s carefully-worded answer not giving much away.
Speaking at the announcement of tickets going on sale for the British & Irish Lions Tour to Australia, Schmidt said his priority was on local players. However, that came with a caveat that Schmidt was keeping an eye on movements overseas.
“I think what I would say is that players who are playing in Australia will be a priority for us. If that is supplemented by a few players playing overseas then that may well be the case. I haven’t asked around clarity at this stage. Yes, I am tracking the players who are playing overseas, particularly the ones who were at the World Cup. But my fullest focus is on the guys who are playing week-to-week in the Super teams here in Australia.”
Regarding the captaincy selection, the former Ireland head coach said he would wait until the end of the season to decide. “I’ve had a little bit of an opportunity to talk to some of the experienced players and some of the captains,” said Schmidt. “I’ve had a follow-up chat with guys like Jake Gordon and Allan Alaalatoa and caught up with Nic White recently. All those are opportunities for me to get a little bit of a flavour of who they are but also to get an insight into how they see the game and how they see the game being played at the moment.”
Commenting on individual Super teams, Schmidt delivered a contender for Quote of the Year: “We saw the Tahs really close the gap and get beyond the Crusaders who haven’t started that well, which puts things in context I guess.” Well done that man.
Meanwhile, RugbyPass reports on Schmidt’s tempered views on talent and cakes. “Talent to me is an untapped potential. It sits in a potential sort of bracket. Talent can be quite fickle as well. What we need to be able to demonstrate is that we can be really consistent. A lot of the things that you do in rugby don’t take a whole lot of talent. They take a whole lot of effort, they take a little bit of intelligence and IP in the game, and then the talent tends to be the icing on the cake. And we’ve just got to make sure that we bake the cake in the best possible manner.”
You’re far too trusting. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration – but don’t worry; we will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough
Rugby365 reports that star Rebels recruit Filipo Daugunu won’t be available for Melbourne’s Super Rugby Pacific clash with the table-topping Hurricanes despite returning to training after Daugunu sat-out the last round (Rebels v Reds) over an outstanding relocation fee owed by the franchise. The debt wasn’t settled before the Rebels went into voluntary administration. While Rugby Australia has guaranteed the players’ contracts this season and put the coaches on short-term deals, this payment falls outside of that.
The future of Melbourne in the competition rests in the hands of RA, with the franchise in massive debt. Daugunu, who played for Australia A last year and has seven Test caps, was back at training on Tuesday but too late to be considered for the Hurricanes match in Palmerston North, with the team departing Wednesday.
“It’s between him and his agent and Rugby Australia and they’ve been trying to work it out,” Rebels coach Kevin Foote told AAP.
Meanwhile, Nine reports that Rugby Australia is pushing ahead with ticket sales for the clash between the Rebels and the British & Irish Lions (Tuesday 22 July 2025), with a “Plan B” for the game if the Rebels cease to exist.
If the Rebels are shut down, Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh said the match at Docklands Stadium will go ahead with contingency for another team.
“While we are working through the Rebels situation, there will still be a fixture in Melbourne on that date,” Waugh told AAP. “We’ve talked about a Pasifika game or potentially Australia A or the equivalent so there’s different options but at the moment the plan is to have a Rebels team.”
Owen Franks gets two-week suspension
Stuff dot co dot unzid reports that tighthead prop Owen Franks has copped a two-week suspension for foul play in the final moments of the Crusaders’ 14-10 defeat to the Hurricanes in Christchurch last Friday night. Franks steamed into a ruck and made high contact with replacement forward Justin Sangster as he attempted to clean him out.
Initially yellow carded by referee James Doleman, the incident was reviewed post-match and upgraded to a red card offence. The entry point for the offence was four weeks. However, Franks was given a two-week discount for entering an early guilty plea, among other relevant mitigating factors [such as being an All Black].
Franks is also eligible to apply for the head contact coaching intervention process, which would further reduce his suspension by a week, meaning he could be free to face the Chiefs in Christchurch on Friday week. G&GR speculates on what additional measures would reduce the suspension to zero weeks and require Justin Sangster to apologise for getting in the way.
When asked about the yellow card to Franks after the game, Crusaders coach Rob Penney defended the 108-test All Black’s actions with a white-fern-on-black-background eyepatch firmly in place:
“Owie uz a bug beast of a meen, steaming-un to do a job at the breakdown, and he’s (Sangster) popped hus hid up,’’ Penney said. “Ut’s like an oil tanker, you can’t turn hum around un a sicond.’’
Penney will on Wednesday make his team public for Saturday’s match against the Blues at Eden Park, and will likely have loosehead prop Joe Moody back from Covid.
Hoiles gives Reds the commentator’s curse
RugbyPass reports that former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles has compared the current Reds squad to the history-making Super Rugby champions of 2011. Following their win over Australian rivals the Melbourne Rebels, the Reds are second on the Super Rugby Pacific standings by a slight margin behind the ladder-leading Hurricanes.
Queensland are 3-1 after the first four rounds of the campaign, with their sole defeat to date coming in a golden point (which sort-of doesn’t count) thriller against the undefeated Canes in Super Round.
“You’re seeing the best of what Brad Thorn did with the group but you’re also seeing why they needed to go in a different direction because they had so much more ability in them,” Stephen Hoiles said on Stan Sports’ Between Two Posts. “They look like, I’m going out early here, but they look similar to the skillset that the 2011 Reds had. You know, the Quades and the Will Genias – they like to play a free-spirited style. You’ve almost got to unleash them a little bit.”
“I feel how Brad Thorn coached it was about being tough, physical and just repetitive and doing the same thing. They’ve got the best in work ethic out of Brad Thorn; now they’re adding that element of risk but it’s risk with detail. They’re coaching according to their playing group which is always the most important thing to do.”
[See also Ewen McKenzie’s “coach to the team’s talents” approach when he moved to the Reds – as Link explicitly foreshadowed at a Reds function attended by the writer – but I can’t take all the credit…]
The Reds are set to travel to Perth later this week ahead of a meeting with the struggling Western Force at HBF Park on Saturday afternoon (weird WA time).
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