By Sledgeandhammer
November 30th 2009 @ 6:17am
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Karmichael Hunt debut marks historic day for rugby
In November, Karmichael Hunt made his rugby debut in Brussels playing for a French Barbarians team against a European Select team, in a match celebrating 75 years of FIRA -AER rugby.
The European Select was coached by Tomaz Morais from Portugal and included players from Belgium, Romania, Russia, Georgia, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
This was the first time the European ’second tier’ players had come together in the one team, and marked a historic day for rugby.
Although the game was ultimately won by the Barbarians 39- 26, the Belgium crowd left happy after an immensely entertaining match. For highlights, watch the video below.
However, the game was no fairy tale for Hunt, who playing in the 13 jersey gets only a few touches, but no starring role.
In fact, at the 7.52 mark Hunt is handed off by the Romanian centre, and despite a second attempted tackle is unable to stop his opposite number from scoring a great individual try. Enjoy.
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(29)
Pippinu said | November 30th 2009 @ 7:23am | Report comment
It looks like the quality of play improved in the 2nd half.
But that cross-field kick from deep in their own territory that resulted in a whole of field try was pretty amazing – I can’t recall ever seeing anything like that before – was it planned? Pretty risky kick.
I had trouble spotting Hunt, until I saw the try you refer to – where he was dragged 10 metres across the try line!
Unfortunately – this is just the start for Hunt – expect plenty more amateur videos going up on YouTube next year.
Joh4Canberra said | November 30th 2009 @ 8:39am | Report comment
Why did the Barbarians player stop after his forward roll at 9.54? He wasn’t held in a tackle, he didn’t knock the ball on and he didn’t go into touch. In such a situation it’s “play on” and he should have kept going for the try. Bizarre.
True Tah said | November 30th 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Hunt was not renowned as a defensive player in rugby league, so I wouldnt expect him to make tackles all the time.
Jay said | November 30th 2009 @ 8:52am | Report comment
Hunt is a very underrated defender.
Watch the game he play five eigth for qld in the origin in sydney. had some brusing hits in the defensive line.. he was targetted by hoffman (a forward) and hoffman came of second best.
Springs said | November 30th 2009 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
Can the same be said for when he took on Fui?
AndyRoo said | November 30th 2009 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
That’s pretty a pretty tough standard Springs.
Springs said | November 30th 2009 @ 1:01pm | Report comment
Well, yeah
Hoy said | November 30th 2009 @ 2:08pm | Report comment
I have to disagree with you Jay.
I don’t think he is a great defender at all. There have been many tries scored over, through and around Hunt.
Sure he had a good few hits in State of, but that is one game where there is no escape clause. If he lay down there, he would never get back in.
Put it this way, I have seen heaps more misses than I have tackles.
M1tch said | November 30th 2009 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
So you need to compare to RL all the time to make you fell better
BN said | November 30th 2009 @ 2:45pm | Report comment
When you support the inferior product you have compare it to the to the best thats out there to see how much it needs to catch up.
And yeh, Union’s growng so fast in this neck of the woods that they had to cancel the National competition after a year due to lack of interest. And it’s even going better in my state of Queensland where Local Rugby Union clubs have been implicated in illeagally obtaining governernment grants due to shortfalls in their income.
Actually, after all the threads on how to make the so called “Perfect” Rugby code at least palitable for a wider audiance, it good to see one about an ex Rugby League player on a working hoilday. Hunt must of read up on how their’s only about 30 – 40 mintues of actual play (out of 80) in Union, and wanted to put his feet up before moving on to the AFL.
Redb said | November 30th 2009 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
Have to admit it is historic that a VFL player is making his rugby debut in Brussels
Springs said | November 30th 2009 @ 12:50pm | Report comment
By the looks of that missed tackle he’ll be a huge hit in AFL
Pippinu said | November 30th 2009 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
Missed tackles will be the least of Hunt’s problems in the AFL (if he ever gets out of the VFL that is).
Redb said | November 30th 2009 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Tackling is easy when they line up on a narrow little field right in front of you and it is the whole point of the game.
M1tch said | November 30th 2009 @ 2:34pm | Report comment
lol, love how afl people tell how tackling works
Pippinu said | November 30th 2009 @ 3:11pm | Report comment
Mitch
redb is referring to a structural difference in the two games which is a reality.
If you would like me to clarify for you, I am happy to do so.
Paul J said | November 30th 2009 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Is it very generous of K Hunt to let Rugby fans critic his every move before AFL fans get to do the same?
I can not remember which of the 2 codes are paying him more to be a fish out of water.
I wonder how much K cares about how he fares in these new challenges. It will be interesting to see where he goes, and for how much, when he has finished his contract with the Gold Coast AFL.
Pippinu said | November 30th 2009 @ 7:49pm | Report comment
He wanted a challenge – and he’s got it!! 3 football codes in the space of 12 months!
John Ryan said | November 30th 2009 @ 11:22pm | Report comment
Think the word is Money not Challenge
Pippinu said | December 1st 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
You might be right.
Klestical said | November 30th 2009 @ 7:02pm | Report comment
let’s not get into this argument again.
Joh4Canberra said | December 1st 2009 @ 1:12am | Report comment
I second that. Arguing over which is better is completely pointless. Rugby football split over a hundred years ago into union and league. Some people will have a clear preference for one over the other. That’s fine. No-one’s saying you can’t have a personal preference and express it (eg “I prefer X to Y”). But projecting your own personal preference to the level of objective truth (i.e. “X *is* better than Y and everyone else therefore should like me prefer X to Y”) is just plain silly.
Republican said | November 30th 2009 @ 7:28pm | Report comment
He will go to Wellington NZ to be the token Kiwi to play for the new relocated GWS Franchise in the newly named code ‘Kiwi Gooseberry Ball’ in placating NZers to support the Australian way!
Springs said | November 30th 2009 @ 9:18pm | Report comment
Ha ha, shrinking. League is bigger than it ever was, it’s not like we had 50 teams and now only have 30. Union has been in many countries for 50-100 years, it’s about time the game grew. Quality of RL was poor? You didn’t see Aus vs NZ at the Stoop, one of the best tests in recent times.
PJ said | November 30th 2009 @ 10:09pm | Report comment
they really packed them in didn’t they? what a totally underwhelming experience that must have been for the merc.
mcxd said | November 30th 2009 @ 11:11pm | Report comment
hard luck starting your first rugby union game at 13 !
AC said | December 1st 2009 @ 9:43am | Report comment
What do you mean by that? Too hard for a newbie do you reckon? If so, I think you’re right!
JimC said | December 5th 2009 @ 2:31pm | Report comment
King of the Gorganites the worst troll on the roar. No matter how many times he repeats his falsehoods about the four nations it will never become the conventional wisdom.
Joh4Canberra said | December 12th 2009 @ 5:43am | Report comment
At around the 1:00 mark on this video Karmichael Hunt gives away a penalty try for batting the ball over the dead ball line (à la rugby league):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZRpy_VxdAA
His side went on to lose by 3 points. So you could say that his actions potentially cost his team the match.
What gets me is that Hunt is supposed to have played RU before he made the move to RL. So he shouldn’t have any excuse for not knowing the rule about not throwing or batting the ball into touch or touch in goal etc,. Maybe he did know it was illegal but decided to chance it anyway. I suspect though that it was a case of old habits from RL taking over despite what he might have known in his head about the illegality of his actions.