Roar Rookie
Joined August 2008
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Whether you are a follower of rugby or rugby league, what you may be surprised to learn is that the least understood law in…
After an acrimonious month of rugby politicking, the SANZAR bosses finally came out of their huddle yesterday to tell us what most of us…
On Saturday night the Wallabies suffered their first loss in the Deans era - and a most comprehensive one at that. Stirling Mortlock referred…
Initially, I was pretty horrified to see this new ‘jersey’ too. After all, it is basically a T-shirt, with not even the slightest nod towards the more traditional garments. No collar, canary yellow (rather than the true ‘gold’ we’ve come to associate with Wallabies) and a light fabric.
Admittedly, since then, I’ve seen a picture of the ‘supporters version’ of the jersey ( http://www.onerugby.com.au/Rugby_Union/Wallabies/Wallabies_2010.htm ) and am much happier. The sleeves and collar version has a bit of the classic 1984 feel to it. Not sure that I’m going to buy one… but it’s much better than the on field version.
Rest in peace the real rugby jersey
As a Victorian fan, I think the general feeling at grass roots level here is that we’re pretty happy with the name Rebels. I think it’s mildly ironic that people outside of Victoria feel they have a better of what we should be called than we do ourselves.
The Rebels was chosen in 2006 for the ARC comp after polling of local fans. The general feeling was that it fitted with the Victorian rugby personality. Our rugby community has always abided quietly, surviving against what seems like the overwhelming odds of AFL and recenlty the Storm. It embodies the fact that, yeah, we;re the underdogs that no one thinks much of, but we don’t care. In fact, that’s the way we like it.
In addition the Rebels already has currency in the Melbourne rugby community. We’re proud of the fact that we came second in the ARC. It’s also worth knownig the imagery is in keeping with our senior club rugby side in Melbourne which is known as the Axemen and of course the Vic Bushrnagers which are our Shield cricket team.
So, to be honest, I’m more than happy to keep the name. In fact, I carefully kept my Rebels tie and Jersey from the 2007 ARC and am looking forward to dusting them off in 2011.
What should new Super Rugby team be called?
Jameswm –
You must have missed it, but sometime last year during the trinations Burger’s sister, Rene, was gang-raped by thugs in a university car park (i believe she’s studying medicine there, could be wrong about that).
She was pretty gutsy about it all. Fronted up to the media and said she wasn’t going to be a victim but use it as something positive by getting reports of rape to be taken seriously.
I haven’t heard anything about a the french allegedly saying things about it in the tunnel. I’ll have a look around the net now. I find it hard to believe anyone would be so callous. I truly hope no one would be so base to use that sort of thing to fire a player up. But in the tiny probability that was what happened I would then applaud Burger’s self-control for not doing anything worse!!
Bryce Lawrence was right on the Schalk Burger incident
Interesting article Brett.
As it happens, I’m a doctor by trade and although I don’t specialise as a sports physician, I’ve had a reasonable amount of exposure to the area (being a sports nut and all). And much as I hate to say it, I tend to agree with you.
The research unequivocally demonstrates that recurrent concussions have a cumulative effect on the brain. This is one of the reasons that the medical community in Australia, as a group, is opposed to boxing. It causes what sports journos like to call punch-drunk syndrome. We, on the other hand, call it traumatically induced cognitive impairment. As far as we can tell, headgear helps, but only marginally. (Here’s a neurosurgery journal article that talks about it, but there are actually many others in the medical literature).
http://journals.lww.com/neurosurgery/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2005&issue=10000&article=00012&type=abstract
This always causes a personal dilemma for me, because I happen to love contact sports including rugby, MMA and boxing. Mortlock is one of my favourite players to ever pull on the Wallaby jersey, but there is no two ways about it – he is extremely concussion-prone (or maybe ‘head-knock prone’ would be more apt, a result of his abrasive playing style).
If I had to think about it professionally, if Mortlock wandered into my rooms today and asked me for my opinion, I’d be forced to tell him he should be thinking about retirement (or perhaps Japan) sooner rather than later.
A switch for Mortlock, for his own safety
Westy, I empathise very much with your plight and, personally, think it sounds like a great idea on both sides. Generally, though, its important not to get too far ahead of ourselves. The power circles down here are looking to nail down a bullet-proof commitment from the ARU first and foremost before making any agreements about partnerships etc.
Hiya – Yup, you’re absolutely right. You can bet anyone with ties to Melbouorne will get a phone call should we get the franchise. Ioane and Lealifano’s names tend to float around down here a lot, and together would certainly be a good start to a backline!
Melbourne gets another crack at Super rugby
WCR, Brett – I completely agree that the longer Melbourne has to prepare, the better it will be for all parties. Hopefully the ARU will see it this way. One way or another, a decision has to be made before the end of this year so there’s ample time to get the administrative side of things under way – the key aspects of this being a couple of big name signings and a sponsor. The ideal name is Mortlock (if he’s willing to move). His starting position at 13 in the Brumbies is starting to look very tenuous and is thus going to affect his Wallabies chances for the 2011 World Cup. But what he’d bring to our team both in skill, leadership (and marketability) would be immeasurable. Give the man a handy pay packet, a guaranteed 13 jersey and the captaincy. Quick smart!
The dilution of rugby talent will occur to some extent in the short term. Hopefully, it will not be as bad as most think due to the amount of Australian talent wandering around internationally. Nevertheless, as Bay35 points out, investing in Melbourne is about long-term gains. The ARU is looking for critical mass. Theoretically, in a decade’s time Melbourne could be a fantastic factory for rugby players. Currently we have no sport which caters for the heavy-set physique (if you get my drift) so you may well find a handy set of front-rowers coming out of Melbourne eventually! On the other hand, AFL skills translate well to 11, 14 and 15 (probably 15 most of all) just look at Mike Pike, the Canadian-capped fullback player who’s now over at the Swans.
Westy – In the meantime, the idea of such a connection would definitely be on the cards. The grass-roots rugby infrastructure will take a long time to grow and so this kind of reciprocal arrangement would be beneficial for everybody (just like the Storm relationship has been very fruitful).
Melbourne gets another crack at Super rugby
The tri-stripe would probably classify as my favourite too. Pity about the fate of yours! An absolute collectors item now!
I’ve been thinking about the ‘performance enhancing’ aspect of the new jerseys. Ok, so it makes sense that a collar is one more thing to grab onto if you’re an opposition player, but what sort of advantage would that give in real terms? It would only make a difference in only a tiny, tiny percent of tackles. Does that compare to the psychological performance enhancement of being proud in your jersey?
Wearing your nation’s colours must be one of the greatest thrills for any player. That psychological boost from wearing a jersey full of tradition would probably outweigh just about any other factor, right? I think Nick Farr Jones wrote of how he refused to cut the sleeves off his first ever Wallaby jersey (that was in the day where there was no official short sleeve version) because it was too precious for him to damage. And then the in the cricket side, you see the Aussie players with their torn and tattered baggy greens. They won’t replace them, because of what they stand for.
Or am I just over analysing to find a reason to put collars back on players jerseys?
Rest in peace the real rugby jersey