Wednesday’s rugby news sees the Wallaroo’s broader squad named, French surrendering, Andrew Slack crack the shits about Wallaby coach announcement delays and the Japanese going native. So much news for a week when everyone with any brains has taken annual leave.
Yapp names a 40-player Wallaroo squad.
According to RugbyPass and Eddie’s press conference victim, Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp has named a 40-player extended training squad that includes Triple Crown winning Sevens trio Charlotte Caslick, Tia Hinds and Bienne Terita. The squad will assemble in Canberra this week (instead of somewhere nice) ahead of the team’s first Test of 2025 against Fiji at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium on May 3.
HSBC SVNS Series try scoring machine Maddison Levi wasn’t named in the squad. Levi didn’t take the field for the Queensland Reds this year after suffering a hand injury. The reigning* World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year can now be expected to feature in Australia’s squad for the SVNS Series World Championship in Los Angeles on 3-4 May, that’s if she doesn’t get arrested by over zealous Seppo border agents before the game.
The squad includes 26 women who won the WXV 2 title in South Africa last year as the women in gold claimed wins over the Taffs, Jaapies and Jocks. Four other Wallaroos return to the national frame after time away while 11 uncapped players feature in the squad. See the linked RugbyPass article for the full squad list.
Katalina Amosa, Martha Fua, Zoe Hanna, Manua Moleka, Faliki Pohiva and Ella Ryan join the Wallaroos for the first time. Experienced campaigners Emily Chancellor, Adiana Talakai and Bree-Anna Browne return after missing the 2024 season.
Piper Duck (shoulder), Brianna Hoy (knee), Atasi Lafai (knee), Leilani Nathan (we are the knights who say…) and Samantha Wood (back) have all been deemed unavailable for selection due to injury.
The NSW Waratahs and ACT Brumbies have 13 players each, while the Queensland Reds have nine and Fox Western Force Five.
After facing Fiji Australia will take on New Zealand in Newcastle, the USA in Canberra, Canada at a good venue finally (Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium), the Kiwis again in Wellington, Wales in Brisbane, and then Wales again at North Sydney Oval.
Australia will then turn their focus to the Rugby World Cup, which starts on 23 August for the Wallaroos against Samoa at Salford Community Stadium. They have also been drawn against the Freedom Eagles and the Soap Dodgers.
[*Awaiting the hour of reprisal, your time…slips…a…way]
Diving French scrum-half achieves popularity trifecta.
RugbyPass and Planet Rugby report that Wales’ second-sharpest rugby brain (after G&GR’s own Eloise) has taken a dim view of Racing 92 and France scrumhalf Nolann Le Garrec’s dive in the most recent round of Top 14.
The evident ‘dive’ that saw the French player run softly into Perpignan’s Bruce Devaux was not only a bad look for the sport but also time wasted in the match due to the medical attention. The video of the unconvincing display via the Planet Rugby link is pretty funny.
“He is lucky I wasn’t reffin’ or he would have had a straight red no hesitation,” stated Owens on what used to be Twitter before World’s Most Dad ruined it.
A dive contravenes World Rugby law 9.27: “A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship, unless they’re wearing a black jersey, in which case it’s fine.”
Frustrated by coach announcement delays, Slack accuses RA of being a bit, er…
Ex Wallaby captain Andrew Slack has encouraged Rugby Australia to get the Les Kiss deal done, describing his ascension to Wallabies coach as the “obvious step”, according to RugbyPass.
Kiss is contracted at Ballymore until next year, the sticking point in any deal to replace Joe Schmidt later this year that could be overcome as soon as this week. The Queensland Rugby Union have requested compensation should Kiss leave his Ballymore post early and explored the possibility of him serving both roles next year until his Reds contract expires. It’s understood Kiss, a former Queensland and Australian rugby league representative winger, is reluctant to split his time between jobs ahead of a 2027 World Cup on home soil.
Former Wallabies centre Slack, the thoughtful captain behind the side’s dominant 1984 Grand Slam tour of Europe and 1986 Bledisloe Cup triumph at Eden Park, is wondering what’s taking them so long. “It seems pretty straightforward, but I’ve been around long enough to know nothing is,” he told AAP. “It’s the obvious step.”
Slack was among a panel that reviewed the Wallabies’ disastrous 2023 season that included an historic World Cup group-stage exit and the short-lived second-coming of coach Eddie Jones. “There was definitely the feeling we needed to get common sense back into the arrangement and Joe has brought common sense to the Wallabies and Les the same at Ballymore,” he said. “Every coach has an element of rant and rave but there’s a calmness to Joe that I think is what was needed. And calm doesn’t always mean soft and lovey-dovey. I’m sure he gets stuck into them. That calmness, I think, is a necessity for guys in the Australian environment to work at their best.”
There is an expectation that Les Kiss will take staff with him to the national set-up, meaning the Reds’ recruitment team will need to move fast if Kiss does agree to terms. But Slack is confident there will be no repeat of 2013, when Ewen McKenzie left for the Test job and the Reds, Super Rugby champions in 2011, slowly fell away.
“I like to sidestep commercial discussions but part of the common sense (in the review) was that the success of the Wallabies was the most important thing,” Slack said. “Even if someone takes a temporary hit to make it happen, that hit will be eased due to Wallabies’ success flowing down.” “It’s golden trickle-down economics” he didn’t add.
“Japanese blood” plan will shake up international player market.
G&GR reports that stuff.co.nz reports that there’s a significant change brewing in Japan Rugby League One (JRLO) that will have significant short and long-term impacts on the player market in the Pacific region, as well as raising hard questions about identity (but not the questions Hoss has been struggling with while he dances to Goodbye Horses).
JRLO is proposing that from 2026 onwards at least eight players on the field at any one time have Japanese blood. The proposed rules are so strict that even foreign-born players who have assimilated into Japanese life, have Japanese passports, have played up to 30 times for Japan and are into saucy anime won’t be considered “Japanese”. The push, thought to be driven by the Japan Rugby Football Union, comes from a desire to ultimately make the national team more identifiably Japanese.
If the rule is introduced it may help Australia in its battle to retain talent with fewer spots for non-capped players such as Will Harrison. Japanese clubs will have to make decisions on players such as Harry Hockings and Isaac Lucas, who could take up a non-Japanese spot even if they end up playing for the Brave Blossoms.
The policy reversal may prompt an appeal to World Rugby from at least one player representative on the grounds it is palpably unfair to those who have made their career choices based on the current policies. Those already in the Japanese education system, with a view to playing professional rugby in JRLO, could also find their future opportunities reduced.
Pacific Islanders could be the hardest-hit group of players, with Japan having a long history of recruiting Tongans in particular.
