Wednesday’s Rugby News sees the Bledisloe aftermath, Nick Cummins springing into action, Lewis Moody diagnosed with motor neurone disease and Carter Gordon working on a return to rugby.
Also, tip-of-the-hat to Karl for sending me an All Blacks T-shirt with the cover note “Mate, I know that sometimes we just need to wear a winner’s item Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Karl”. Full disclosure, I had previously sent Karl a “Baaaa means no!” T-shirt (in black, obviously).
Schmidt urges fans to keep the faith
Nine reports that Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt urged (in the style of Bon Jovi) the Australian public to keep the faith with the Wallabies after their 11th straight loss against the All Blacks in Perth on Saturday night. Australia hasn’t beaten the All Blacks since 2020 in Brisbane (under Dave Rennie).
Wallabies captain Harry Wilson wasn’t interested in verbal pats on the back. “We’re not here to be competitive mate. We’re here to win,” Wilson told Stan Sport. Regarding the retirements of James Slipper and Mike Cron, “They’re two great men. We’re devastated not to let them finish up as winners,” Wilson said.
Coach Joe Schmidt knows Australian fans are frustrated. “Hopefully they’re looking deep enough and see a bit of progress,” he told Stan Sport. “We’re certainly working hard to keep progressing and I think we’re demonstrating that grit that we promised people.”
The Wallabies’ next game is against Japan in Tokyo on 25 October.
Honey Badger saves girl’s life
PlanetRugby reports that former Wallabies winger Nick Cummins has been credited with saving a little girl’s life at a Melbourne playground on the weekend. The 38-year-old retired outside back, known as the ‘Honey Badger’, sprang into action on Saturday morning when a three-year-old girl started choking and has been hailed by locals for his actions.
“I wanted to thank the man who saved my granddaughter’s life on Saturday, 4th October at the Lower Eltham Playground,” the girl’s grandmother Robyn, wrote in a local Facebook group. “It was her third birthday and my daughter (her mother) was there preparing for the family to arrive. Maddy started choking on a soft lolly and my daughter was beside herself trying to apply first aid to no avail.”
“Then a ‘big strong young bloke’ appeared from nowhere, and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts held Maddy upside down (!) applying a couple of extra strong thumps which successfully dislodged it from her trachea. God bless you, whoever you are, and we will all be forever grateful to you — each year we will remember you.”
An onlooker revealed that it was Cummins who rose to the occasion and aided Maddy. The Murdoch press (after blaming Labor for all the choking hazard lollies) reached out to Cummins’ management, who confirmed that it was the former Wallabies and Western Force star who leapt into action to aid the little girl.
A video of Cummins saving a sheep (from whom?) stuck in a barbed-wire fence went viral back in 2021.
Badger: Basically I’m just gonna walk the Earth.
Vincent: What you mean, “walk the Earth”?
Badger: You know, like Caine in Kung Fu: walk from place to place, meet people, get into adventures.
Lewis Moody diagnosed with motor neurone disease
Rugby.com.au reports that 47-year-old former England captain and 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Lewis Moody has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. RugbyPass reports that friends and fellow players Geordan Murphy and Leon Lloyd have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to support the former England captain. Total donations have already reached five figures with £130,000 set as the target.
Murphy’s friendship with Moody was formed soon after he joined Leicester as a 19-year-old and the duo went on to play full roles in a glorious era for the club that produced back to back European titles. “I moved over from Ireland as a youngster in 1997 and it was my first Christmas here,” Murphy said. “I was away from home, we were playing away on Boxing Day and Lewis grabbed me and said ‘you’re coming to mine for Christmas’.“
Ex-Scotland rugby international Doddie Weir and former Great Britain rugby league Test player Rob Burrow have died from the illness in recent years. AFL great Neale Daniher, the 2025 Australian of the Year, has been a prominent advocate for medical research concerning the disease after being diagnosed in 2013.
Andy Bull in The Guardian writes that, despite the appearance of correlation with collision sports players, studies are inconclusive due to small sample sizes and limited timeframes. He writes that studies have found possible links with electrical trauma, mechanical trauma, high levels of exercise, exposure to assorted heavy metals and agricultural chemicals, and, yes, concussions and other traumatic brain injuries that occurred while playing sport.
A 2022 study on a group of more than 400 former international rugby players found that their risk of MND was 15 times greater than the members of the general public who also participated. But then similar studies have also shown that the risks are just as high, or higher again, among cohorts of farmers and veterans.
Bull comments that Moody’s own autobiography, Mad Dog, is an invaluable insight into the culture in professional rugby union during his era. He describes being knocked unconscious for five minutes in a match against Tonga in 2007. “The team doc suggested I should come off. I told him where to go,” Moody wrote. “I’d waited this long to get my chance in the World Cup, and there was no way I was walking off after five minutes. A lineout followed and I had no idea what was going off.”
He was hit in the head again later in the same game. Moody didn’t just play on each of the following weekends, he even went along on a team outing to Disneyland Paris on the day after the game, and spent the day riding rollercoasters. “Every loop the loop was torture, every jerk of my car was like having a needle shoved through my head,” Moody wrote. Bull says that it is unthinkable behaviour now and it should’ve been unthinkable then.
Get Carter
PlanetRugby reports that Carter Gordon is ‘on the verge’ of securing a return to rugby ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup after being granted permission to speak with Rugby Australia. Gordon was the go-to #10 choice for the current coach of Japan during the 2023 Rugby World Cup, but has not represented the Wallabies under Joe Schmidt after making the code switch in 2025, signing with the Gold Coast Titans NRL team.
Gordon’s move to league has been a bit of a damp squid, playing just once for the Titans after he picked up a spinal fluid leak during the NRL pre-season. This limited his ability to train and eventually required surgery, meaning that his sole appearance for the side came in the final round of the season against the Wests Tigers. The 24-year-old recently took up an option to remain at the Titans in 2026, but an agreement could be struck to secure his release and return to rugby as his path to playing more NRL matches isn’t straightforward.
Gordon is eager to play in the halves, but SMH sources state that he has been informed that his likely route to the NRL will be via the centres, ‘given he’s still learning the game’. While the Titans are open to the idea of releasing the former Melbourne Rebels star back to rugby, the report states that they aren’t ‘desperate’ to do so but are sensitive to his situation, allowing him to meet with the Queensland Reds. The report adds that the Titans won’t release him unless it’s on their terms, with the club reluctant to be disadvantaged by such a move.
