Today’s Rugby News sees Poms bleating before the New Zealanders arrive, “My side of the story” by Rocky Elsom, recruitment chat and a union v league game from days of yore.
Poms whinge about new laws for Northern Hemisphere series.
stuff.bro.nz reports that England have called the whaaambulance to the effect that the All Blacks have been handed an unfair advantage for their opening test match of the northern series, after new laws were introduced at short notice (by soap-dodger standards it would seem).
A 20-minute red card and countdown clocks for both scrums and lineouts have been introduced for the Autumn Nations Series, which comprises 21 games between northern and southern hemisphere sides in November.
After New Zealand, England then face Australia, South Africa and Voldemort’s Japan on the following weekends. The first three of these opponents have already played with the new laws during the Rugby Championship this year, leaving England just a fortnight to get up to speed with the new “could not be simpler to grasp” variations.
The law variations include a version of a 20-minute red card as well as 60-second shot-clocks for kickers and 30-second limits on the formation of scrums and lineouts. Teams that fail to form scrums or lineouts within 30 seconds will give up free-kicks.
During the Autumn Nations Series, referees will also have the option to go ‘on mic’ and explain their decisions to stadium crowds in an initiative that aims to enhance the experience for supporters, both at the stadium and via television or radio broadcasts.
Rocky V ….the French
The SMH has reported on the history and context of the le malentendu with the bicycle-riding, skivvy and beret enthusiasts. An extract is pasted below, with minor BS added.
In 1979, Narbonne were champions of France, but by the time former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom arrived in 2014 the glory days had long since passed. The club was in the second division and fighting for promotion. The air had gone out of the accordion. Elsom’s arrival had been preceded in 2011 by a group of Australian investors called FG Management (not to be confused with Hoss’ “FC Management“) headed by former world champion Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer and former Waratahs general manager Dave Gibson. Neither Dwyer nor Gibson is accused of any wrongdoing.
The FG Management model of ownership for Narbonne was originally predicated on restoring the town’s pride through smart acquisitions of experienced players and developing local talent, not dissimilar to baseball’s “moneyball” approach. When the group took over the club, Narbonne was in desperate need of capital to survive and the Australians were the saviours.
Elsom moved to Narbonne in 2014, playing nine games. Elsom also assumed the duties of running Narbonne, despite having no experience in sports administration.
“I provided the essential capital required to keep the club afloat before the 2013-14 season, in return for the majority ownership,” Elsom explained to SMH columnist (and owner of a lush head of hair), Peter FitzSimons, this week.
From 2015 to 2016, Elsom was president of the club and has conceded he became unpopular in the town as he slashed player wages, let club favourites depart and refused to kiss on both cheeks every bastard he met. Never an extroverted communicator, Elsom kept his cards very close to his chest and rarely spoke publicly.
Tension with the people of Narbonne grew after Elsom took control and shut down the historical inputs provided by the mayor and the city (which contributes to the club’s funding), supporters and the amateur academy attached to the club. There was a need for Elsom to not only manage the professional side of things but also an expectation of managing multiple local stakeholders who wanted to give their input.
Elsom conceded he became “unpopular” in town when he began changing the squad in 2014, and he explained this week some of the secrecy was necessary. “I was very secretive about potential player signings. Almost every player signed with Narbonne did so as a last resort, so I never announced a recruit until their contract was registered with the league, at which time, it became public knowledge,” Elsom told FitzSimons. “Whenever news broke that a player we wanted was thinking of signing with us, another club would offer them more money and they’d take it.”
Elsom’s leadership came under particular scrutiny when the club was under financial strain in 2015 and a purported representative of the billion-dollar Qatar Investment Authority expressed interest in buying Narbonne. Many were excited by the glamorous proposal but Elsom wasn’t convinced about the legitimacy of the representative and knocked it back, infuriating local supporters, sponsors and the mayor (sacre bleu!).
Money to save the club was raised by local investors in 2016 and Elsom diluted his ownership stake, but he departed the club soon after. He said this week his rejection of the proposed Qatar deal soured relations with stakeholders and the town so much his position became untenable.
Elsom claims he left the club in sound financial health and the relegation was due to the mismanagement of his successors.
More than seven years after his departure from Narbonne, Elsom last week learned he had been the subject of court proceedings in the city where he was found guilty of misappropriating a total of €700,000 ($1.13 million) stemming from his 2015-16 term as president of the Narbonne. Elsom says he only learned of his conviction via media reports.
Elsom claimed it was a “perversion of justice” given he was never informed about the court case. “In France they say the rumour is the bazooka,” Elsom said. “I don’t expect to see anything incriminating in the court documents because there is nothing that says money was improperly spent.”
Rugby Australia pursues younger talent to compete with League
G&GR writer Yowie has been nominated for the 2025 G&GR “Taste and Restraint” award for the above headline and the rest of this article. The prize has been generously contributed by G&GR’s insurer.
Nine reports that Rugby Australia is now targeting players from the age of 13 as it cranks up its fight with league for the nation’s best young talent.
Some high profile recent deals – Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Mark Nawaqanitawase, Carter Gordon and Zach Fittler – and the success of Australia’s under-18 team this year has intensified the usual poaching competition.
Fittler was a member of the crack under-18 side that beat New Zealand Schools in Hamilton earlier this month. Star winger Heamasi Makasini signed with the Wests Tigers the day after that match while No.8 Heinz Lemoto (Penrith Panthers) and fullback Rex Bassingthwaighte (Sydney Roosters) are also considered flight risks. G&GR was unaware they were applying for bail.
“It’s an interesting one, isn’t it, that a lot of people are talking about,” RA high performance boss Peter Horne said on Friday. “Is he a league kid or is he a rugby kid? Obviously we want to invest in those players that are actually committed to rugby and giving them an opportunity. If we’ve got good quality programs that are connected to a potential career in a professional environment, then the ones that we want to keep, we do.”
“And so our value proposition is around quality of programme, opportunity of international touring. Whether it’s at the 20s level, we tour at under-18 level, Super Rugby under-16s, under-19s, the whole package that’s available to a player to choose rugby is quite good. And we’re actually pretty active in terms of securing and retaining those players.”
Horne admitted the efforts to attract players were skewing younger and younger. “We’ve made a big push around – it’s sort of pivoting a bit now – into under-14s and having a connection at 14s and 15s. And so those players are in our system from 14 through to over 20. We’ve been able to retain a significant proportion of those and yes, there’s always players that leave and yes, there are players who will go to the opposite code. But there’s also those that are in the opposite code that want to come to us. And I don’t see that as an issue, there’s always been movement. The key thing is for us to continue to develop and provide high quality programs at the state delivery level so that those kids know that they’ve got an opportunity to go into Super and hopefully onto higher honours.”
2003 cross-code clash from the archives
As part of a promotion for an upcoming union v league exhibition game, PlanetRugby has written about the highlights of a 2003 match between the Sale Sharks (union) and St Helens (league). Good bits pasted below:
“How boring is that when you stick the ball up your arse and walk upfield?” St Helens coach Ian Millward snapped after his Super League champions lost at home to Sale Sharks. “I had to set my alarm clock at times.” Milward claimed his team were much more skillful and the timekeeper had ended the game early, which denied them victory.
The mungoes came up short after scoring 39 points under league rules in response to conceding 41 in the first half of union. The clubs shared £150,000 in gate receipts and nearly everyone went away happy.
“The 2003 game was not a friendly,” says Steve Diamond (Sale coach for that game, now Newcastle director of rugby). “It wasn’t played as a joke, a bit of fun. They had their top side out, we had our best players out and we went for it.” Diamond now concedes Millward “probably” had a point as, having agreed to de-power the scrum, Sale “basically just caught the ball at the line out and drove”.
“We agreed to be gentle with them at scrum time and conceded a lot to them by reducing the value of a penalty to two points,” he countered the morning after the game. “Oh, and letting them have five points for tries, which are more commonplace in League. They expected to put 80 points on us but we adapted to their game better than they adapted to ours. We shocked them with our fitness. As for the timekeeper, he was an employee of St Helens. The Saints players were fantastic afterwards. It is just sad that certain individuals reacted badly to what was an opportunity to appreciate the merits of both codes, rather than run down one against the other.”
