By Zac Zavos
January 5th 2007 @ 1:19pm
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Four unfit Wallabies sent home
Knuckles has decided to get tough on his troops, sending four players of his squad of 37 home from an early season training camp at the AIS. The four are:
- Morgan Turinui
- Tatafu Polota-Nau
- Mark Gerrard
- Lote Tuqiri
I’m puzzled as to whether this is a positive step, with the coach finally deciding to get tough on the team; or whether it’s another symptom of the malaise that has permeated the Wallabies all year. Does this represent the start of the end for the Wallabies’ World Cup victory campaign? And are we surprised that Lote failed the test?
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Zolton Zavos said | January 5th 2007 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
I think Knuckles is desperately clutching at straws and this is merely a PR exercise designed to show the Australian public that he’s a tough nut who won’t tolerate unprofessionalism. It means nothing in the greater context of things. All four will still be picked for Aus … I’m just glad they didn’t do the same things back in my days of Sydney High third fifteen. I’d have never gotten a damn game.
spiro said | January 6th 2007 @ 5:12pm | Report comment
Jonah Lomu failed the All Blacks 3000m fitness run before the 1995 season. Laurie Mains dropped him from the train-on squad until sanity prevailed. Lomu was the star of the 1995 World Cup. But he had an excuse for his lack of conditioning at the beginning of 1995. His kidney illness that finally put him out of test rugby was just starting. What is Lote’s excuse. Perhaps he is too interested in chasing the money trail rather than the training trail.
adrian fernley said | January 9th 2007 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
gday zolton great site mate….and according to all reports you very ripped off to be in the 3rds
Zolton Zavos said | January 9th 2007 @ 5:11pm | Report comment
Ha! Thanks Adrian. And yes, I completely agree with you about the Thirds. I did feel ripped off. Though unfortunately the halfback below me in fourths felt exactly the same way. Hmmm.
john howe said | January 10th 2007 @ 1:51am | Report comment
I was surprised that it was presented in such a schoolboy fashion: naughty boys sent home for disrupting classroom. The whole scene appears outrageous when one thinks about how other countries go about this sort of action; perhaps they don’t take any action?
Zac said | January 10th 2007 @ 9:16am | Report comment
What would the all blacks do in such a situation? I guess the point is, they wouldn’t be faced with it in the first place, right?
john howe said | January 10th 2007 @ 10:17am | Report comment
Zac, it might even happen in NZ but the point is, would we ever hear about it?
Somehow I think that the Aussies are in much more of a fishbowl than the Kiwis.
I’m only recalling a couple of drinking incidents and one high powered drug reprimand. But name a few outside of Australia.
There is the DeVilliers and LOL drug scandals, the Gareth Thomas episode, the SA steroid sagas…well, now that I think about it Souith Africa does have its fair share but rarely a much publicized AB situation. Somehow the press keeps the AB under wraps or vice versa.
Zolton Zavos said | January 10th 2007 @ 10:24am | Report comment
well there was the chris masoe/tana umaga incident last year. i think the all blacks are under the microscope, but the pressure of expectation means that they generally stay clear of trouble.
GRANT KULL said | January 10th 2007 @ 4:28pm | Report comment
Could it be said that the four boys at the top are renowned for enjoying their Christmas breaks?????
john howe said | January 10th 2007 @ 10:04pm | Report comment
I had forgotten about the handbag incident but generally speaking Australia rugby players get into more trouble than most other sides. Of course, the trouble we hear about.
In reality, IMHO, the DeVilliers and LOL cases of using ectasy, I believe, were far worse than any of the others including Big Wendall. And have a look what happens to him. They may send him to the Anerican penal colony.
Dan Shannon said | March 7th 2007 @ 8:56pm | Report comment
Personally I don’t think pre-season fitness issues are of any great importance. What is of importance is the behaviour of Lote Tuqiri in creating a bidding war between the ARU, Super 14 teams and rugby league clubs. This is reflective of the terrible level which Australian sport is letting itself becoming based on American principles of sport - money and entertainment first and second, with the pursuit of sporting excellence coming a distant third. Imagine the likes of John Eales, Nick Farr-Jones carrying on like this. It’s a cancer at the heart of sport which needs to be lanced. Simple as that.