Wednesday’s Ruby News sees reflection on last weekend’s games, ranking stakes for the rest of the tour and some Super recruitment news. Also, while editing this after a Melbourne Cup function, I’ve figured out why Karl wasn’t keen to swap last week.
Schmidt disappointed by Soap Dodger ‘gamesmanship’.
The BBC reports that Australia coach Joe Schmidt says he was ‘disappointed’ by England’s ‘gamesmanship’ with match officials in the build-up to the Wallabies’ 25-7 defeat at Twickenham on Saturday. England head coach Steve Borthwick had used his usual pre-match meeting with referee Nika Amashukeli to highlight dozens of examples of Australia entering rucks from the side during their Rugby Championship campaign earlier this year. Apparently, as a courtesy to the ref, Borthwick’s highlights reel featured a digital filter putting the Wallabies in black jerseys ‘for better contrast‘.
England refused to confirm whether the report was accurate, with Australia captain Harry Wilson described any such complaints as ‘quite amusing’.
“It’s a bit of gamesmanship,” Schmidt said on Saturday evening, before defending his team’s record. “We’ve had, up until today, 1,256 attacking rucks. There’s two players at least in each of those. That’s 2,500 ruck entries. (2,512 actually, but never mind). We had one yellow card. No-one has left the field injured as a result of our clean-outs. We haven’t ever been excessively penalised for side entry. So I always find those things disappointing, but not distracting.”
Wilson and prop Taniela Tupou were penalised in quick succession in the opening five minutes for coming into the breakdown illegally. The back-to-back penalties took the Wallabies from five metres from the England line to the same distance from their own. Australia finished the game having conceded 13 penalties in total, the same number as England.
Schmidt said he did not feel Amashukeli had been influenced by England’s apparent concerns. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. “We’d have a fair bit of confidence in the referee… I think the referee is a very experienced referee and he just got on and refereed the game.”
G&GR Lab boffins have uploaded footage of Schmidt’s answers into the Sarcasmatron 9000 for analysis.
Force signs prop Sef Fa’agase, continuing their tradition of thievery from Queensland.
Pravda reports that the Western Force has deliberately, callously and with beastliness aforethought* signed experienced Reds prop Sef Fa’agase for the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season. The versatile prop joins for the Force after playing 92 games for the Queensland Reds across two stints. Fa’agase started 12 games in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season for the Reds.
Fa’agase has 88 Super Rugby caps to his name, with 83 for Queensland, plus three for the Highlanders (2019) and two for the Melbourne Rebels (2022). Fa’agase, who is of Samoan descent, played for the Wallabies XV against the Barbarians in 2016.
Force head coach Simon Cron said: “One area we’ve identified we need to add depth is in the tight five and Sef has the ability to play both loosehead and tighthead, so he’s a great addition.”
[*apologies to Richard Curtis and Ben Elton]
Wayne Barnes: ‘turn a blind eye’ to some things.
PlanetRugby reports that rugby referees need to ‘turn a blind eye’ to certain infringements if they are to keep the game flowing after Saturday’s stop-start Tests. Pommy ex player Will Greenwood watched the weekend’s Test matches with ex referee Wayne Barnes then reported some of Barnes’ comments.
“I watched the game with New Zealand’s favourite ref (Barnes), and I think all the games, including yours (Ireland-New Zealand), was a bit whistle happy,” the ex-England centre said. “Some of these young refs now, they’re getting there. He said: ‘They’ve got to learn to turn a blind eye on occasion’. I said: ‘What?’ But he said: ‘You have to, there are so many infringements going on at every ruck, you’ve got to get out of the way and play’. “I thought at the weekend both of those games were just, ‘here comes another whistle’. We’ve now got so many good assistant referees and a fourth official, there is so much noise in the referee’s ear. I can’t imagine how often he will be getting told something – there’s an infringement here, there’s an infringement there – and he can’t be seen to be ignoring them, especially when the TMO comes in and says you’ve got to be looking at this. It’s difficult for them.”
Despite admitting there needs to be an improvement, Greenwood has warned against venturing into conspiracy theories about the refereeing community. “The danger of going after these people is sometimes there’s an assumption that there’s an evil community, there’s an evil union of referees that want to destroy and make games crap,” he said. “The reality is, watching it with Barnsey and knowing a lot of the refs, they’re all trying their best to stay out of it and create safety, space and speed – they’re the three main things they’re going after. “Just go after those core principles, deliver on them and we’ll stay off your back.”
‘Everything to play for. during northern tours.
RugbyPass reports that there’s ‘everything to play for’ in these end-of-year tests, with teams such as the Wallabies fighting for a late rise up the world rankings, while others look to hold their place ahead of next month’s 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup Draw.
As things stand, the Wallabies are on track for a spot in the second band of pool seedings. If the Australians fail to surge up the world rankings before 3 December they’ll take on an international rugby heavyweight during the group stage. Australia could face arch-rivals New Zealand, two-time defending Rugby World Cup winners South Africa, or their most recent opponent England in pool play. Ireland, France and Argentina are also placed in the top six on the world rankings at the moment.
That makes Australia’s next three Test matches incredibly important. If they can rise up one place on the rankings they’ll be placed in the top band for the pool draw, which would see them miss the likes of the All Blacks and Springboks in the pool stage of the tournament.
“That team in seventh, we want to see that movement up,” former Wallabies lock and current gravel gargler Justin Harrison said on Stan Sport after the England test on the weekend. “There’s everything to play for. These end-of-year tours are exactly where they need to be right now. There are players on the field today that will want to be able to get their hands on that jersey to put something that they can be happy with against Italy next week. It’s a great opportunity to develop some competition inside this squad and turn things around very quickly.”
Coach Joe Schmidt called on the Wallabies “to build over the next two years and not be afraid of playing one of the big guns. If we don’t get to six in the world, all we’ve got to do is just keep building, because you can still be a great chance and not be six in the world,” Schmidt told reporters on Saturday. “Italy will be very tough. They were one score away from England at half-time last time they played them. They’re a good side and they’re coached by a good friend of mine in (the Great) ‘Gonzo’ Quesada. I know that Gonzo’s a very good coach and he’ll have them primed.” Probably with a daredevil performance.
