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FraggleWrangler

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Joined June 2012

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If you wear a uniform with the Australian coat of arms on it, you need to remember that you’re not just representing your country on the scoreboard. The Australian cricket team dropped any pretence of being ‘sportsmen’ a long time ago and this is just business as usual.

Most of the Australian team would struggle to even find the words honour, courage or respect in a dictionary.

I’m officially done with cricket.

Steve Smith must be sacked as captain

I would like to see Ireland host. Nothing against France but 2007 is seems very recent to someone my age.

Unfortunately, this will once again see a bidding war for votes involving the 6 Nations. This will involve France and Ireland telling Wales, Scotland, and England that voting for them will mean England playing their world cup games in the small Irish village of Twickenham, Wales playing in the provincial French town of Cardiff, and the Scots playing at Murrayfield, which I assume is a local Irish GAA ground, just near Gare du Nord station, 10th Arrondissement, Paris.

I could hope that the IRB puts an end to the old 5 nations playing all their äway” games at their home grounds and insists that host nations actually HOST all the games, but that would be assuming the IRB wasn’t a corrupt gaggle of old boys.

France keen on big 2023 Rugby World Cup

The only reason the Tahs-dominated ARU board would decide to cull the Brumbies is because they think all those Brumbies supporters would instantly become Tahs supporters. Rugby is more popular per capita in the ACT than any other area of Australia, with the highest participation rate as well. Not a single Brumbies supporter would ever support the Waratahs.

If the Brumbies go Rugby is dead in the ACT – all so the ARU can dream about somehow convincing AFL supporters in WA and VIC to suddenly swap codes. They will lose the supporters they already have – just to have a gamble at gaining other supporters they’ll never get.

I’ve followed rugby as my number one sport since I was a kid in NSW. I’ve followed the wallabies on world tours, made a pilgrimage to Cardiff Arms Park, and played rugby until I was too fat and old. I went to the very first Brumbies game. My membership number is only double digits. I listened to the 1st Brumbies home final in 2000 against Canterbury on radio NZ-South Pacific while deployed as the sole Aussie on the HMNZS Canterbury. I’ve watched a Bledisloe Cup game being the only Aussie in an auditorium of 600 All Blacks supporters while proudly wearing my Wallaby jersey. If the Brumbies are cut the first thing I’ll be doing is burning that yellow Tahs jersey and never watching another game.

Brumbies to consider moving to avoid the chop

If the a city the size of Sydney is compared to Canberra for crowd numbers in proportion to population, then we should expect every Tah’s match against a non-Australian opponent to draw a crowd (checking the calculator) of 154,285. Waratahs fans obviously aren’t held accountable enough.

…..and yes I was at the Brumbies game.

Brumbies vs Hurricanes highlights: Brumbies decimate Hurricanes

The Reds just seemed to be playing with very little structure and even less urgency. They gave me the impression that they weren’t expecting to break the Waratahs defensive line. Whereas on Friday night whenever the Brumbies had a line break there was at least two supporting players right behind it, whenever the Reds broke the line the ball carrier would run down the field while the rest of the Reds players were still on there own side of the Waratahs defence (many of them walking with hands on hips). What did they do for off season fitness training?

Waratahs vs Reds highlights: Waratahs hold on for bonus-point win

I hate to say it, but I’ll be cheering for the Kiwis today. Far too many Australian players forget there’s a coat of arms on their baggy green and they aren’t just reporesenting Australia on the scoreboard.

Sticks and stones: Does Australia really need sledging to win?

If the rumours are true and New Zealand plays ‘sans sledging’ in today’s match, I’ll be one Australian cheering for a black caps win. I’m so sick of sledging in cricket I’ve pretty much given up on the game. It’s a disgrace that a bunch of overpaid school children is allowed to wear the coat of arms on their chest, travel overseas as ambassadors for Australia, and then do everything in their power to prove to the rest of the world that every bad stereotype they have about Australians is true. When I’ve travelled overseas, I’ve found that Australia is not regarded as a great sporting nation, but as arrogant, poor losers, worse winners, and a country that doesn’t know the meaning of sportmanship.

Vettori defends Australia against sledging

Clyde, as usual you have raised some important issues that deserve consideration. I think there are three areas that could be considered in detail: 1. The welfare of players, 2. The welfare of former players, and 3. The positives and negatives of sport in general. Having been a brumbies supporter for many years I have been fortunate to speak to you on numerous occasions at various Brumbies supporter functions, and these very topics would often feature in the conversations: (sorry for the length – hope the moderators don’t chop it)

1. Player Welfare – Player burnout is a topic that could take up it’s own Roar article so I’ll leave that one for another time. However I think player welfare should be based on one overriding principal – anything that will negatively impact the player later in their post-playing days is unacceptable. Of course the biggest elephant in the room on this one is concussion injuries. A good example is the George North concussion last weekend. It should be set in stone by now that if a player appears to have been knocked unconscious – even if it is only briefly – they should be immediately taken from the field, not pending review but for the rest of the game. Then not allowed to resume playing until medically assessed to be fit to play. I still feel that the Swedish study I emailed to you a while back shows the most promise in this regard as it appears to be the only test that potentially provides a clearly measureable baseline to assess brain injury.
http://sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/news_and_events/news/News_Detail/blood-test-identifies-brain-damage-from-concussion-in-ice-hockey.cid1210243

2. The welfare of former players – In the amateur era, players had to have jobs and qualifications outside of their sport. Nowadays the players that worry me the most are those middle of the road players that never quite make it to the highest level. They may put in the same hours and have the same time constraints but never had the pay packets to get their finances in order before their playing days were over. The problem is made worse by the fact that players appear to be scouted at lower and lower ages. It’s a difficult problem and I really don’t know the answer. No individual team would cut short the training time available to them to allow for university or TAFE courses. The only solution I can think of would have to be a competition-wide mandated allocation of time each week – away from training – for ‘player development’.

3. The positives and negatives of sport in general – While there are negatives to sport (the recent deaths in Egypt are a good example) I don’t think the more ugly outbreaks of violent tribalism are a result of the sport per se. I believe those thugs/hooligans/ultras merely use sport as their medium of choice. There are more than enough violent gangs around who have no affiliation at all to sport to suggest this is true. Moreover there are numerous studies that show sport can reduce crime, violence and antisocial behaviour. One example is from the AIC – Crime prevention through sport and physical activity (just google ISBN 0 642 24183).

The one aspect that I don’t think gets enough attention is the undervalued notion of ‘sportsmanship’. I have never in all my playing years verbally insulted an opposing player to try and ‘get under their skin’. I can’t understand sledging. I’ve seen senior cricket players say that it’s ‘part of the game’. Well if that is the case then how can you let your kids play it and look yourself in the mirror? Call me old fashioned, but although I’ve groaned out loud at a referee decision I’ve disagreed with, I’ve never hurled abuse their way. I’ve never been a referee – I don’t have the attention span. There is a shortage of referees across most sports, so if someone doesn’t think they’re doing a good enough job, they can grab an application form and ‘put up or shut up’.

I remember at one function in the Brumbies club house a couple of years ago we were discussing a recent off-field controversy involving a player I won’t name here. From memory I believe I summed up my opinion as – ‘If you’re wearing the national jersey you’re not just representing Australia on the scoreboard’. I still stand by that statement. Sportspersons are high profile role-models for better or for worse, and most professional competitions have codes of conduct that reflect just that.

Overall I’d have to say that despite the negatives, sport is – on balance – clearly a positive. It certainly has been for me. I’ve made friendships through playing, have great memories of times spent with my late father going to games together, and always enjoyed attending games when I’ve travelled – especially when sitting amongst opposition supporters who have always shown me nothing but hospitality – particularly post match. Thanks again for the article and hopefully you’ll drop in to a pre-game brumbies function sometime this year.

RATHBONE: Does sport really warrant our reverence?

We could look at the model used for American Football whereby players in the NFL are fully professional while just one tier below at the NCAA level players are strictly amateur. If that was the case and we enforced an amateur level – what level should it be? Club? National Rugby Championship?

RATHBONE: Does sport really warrant our reverence?

Exactly my point. It’s hard to get excited by a Barbarians match nowadays. 30 years ago a Barbarians match was something to look forward to.

The Barbarians: One of rugby's great traditions deserve respect

The match I went to in 2001 was pretty bad. The only real interest was the novelty of seeing Mat Rogers in his first Rugby Union match after switching from league.

The Barbarians: One of rugby's great traditions deserve respect

That match against the Barbarians made me a fan of the Baa Baas to this day. I still have that match on DVD. A couple of years before, my dad had taken me to my first rugby international at the SCG – Australia v France. I remember the crowd moaning everytime the Australian fullback tried to kick for territory, knowing all he’d succeeded in doing was giving the ball to Blanco – quite possibly the best fullback I’ve ever seen.

Strong Barbarians side named to play Wallabies at Twickenham

If they got Deans back, he could repeat Bob Dwyer’s reported remarks at his first training session after he replaced his own replacement – Alan Jones: “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted…”

Not likely though..

Our next Great White Hope: If Cheika fails, then what?

I’m not suggesting he would be guilty of a conscious bias – that’s why the word ‘bias’ doesn’t appear in my comment. It’s just the simple fact that being at every training session for one team and none of the other teams for an entire super rugby season means that players across the country will have vastly unequal exposure to the national coach.

Cheika set to be named Wallabies coach, but still defend Tahs' title

Probably a more apt quote for how they’re going at the moment would be: “Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdés.” (We are in a chamber pot, and we’re going to be crapped on)

French General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot 1870 on seeing the surrounding campfires of a third of a million Prussians.

Pulver may regret going to ARU: Farr-Jones

I mentioned them same thing as a comment in other article on this whole sorry saga. Not beating New Zealand is considered a disaster. Considering Rugby is the No.4 sport in the Austrlaian market, consistently being in the top 3 is doing pretty well. New Zealand have dominated world rugby for more than a century. Teams in the Six Nations sell out pretty much every game they play at home and yet would kill to have Australia’s record of 41 wins against the All Blacks (France has 12, England 7, Wales 3, Ireland, Italy and Scotland 0). To give an idea of the gap between New Zealand and most other teams consider this – the win loss ratio between NZ and the rest of the world is 4 to 1, the same as the win loss ratio between Wales and Romania.

Our next Great White Hope: If Cheika fails, then what?

It’s amazing how Australian supporters aren’t satisfied with anything less than no.1 in the world. Dipping below a 50% win record when almost all of your games are against the top 5 teams in the world is pretty good for a country where rugby is the no.4 code. England has beaten NZ once in the last 14 attempts. Wales has been waiting since 1953 for another win, and Ireland has been trying unsuccesfully since 1905.

All Blacks saddened by McKenzie exit

I agree we should relax the no overseas-based player rule. We don’t have the luxury of a massive supporter and player base like South Africa or New Zealand. It is true that the lure of a national spot helps keep Australian players playing in Australian Super Rugby teams, rather than the Toulon World XV, but the reality is the grassroots of the game are struggling against the three other codes. Nothing boosts junior rugby ranks like a winning national team, and without juniors we don’t have a senior player pool. If people are worried about Super Rugby team success, raise the foreign marquee player quota to 3 per team (not elligible for the Wallabies) and don’t include them in the salary cap.

Cheika set to be named Wallabies coach, but still defend Tahs' title

Not sure I’m comfortable with him staying as Waratahs coach if he accepts the Wallabies job. It will make it difficult for him to make a balanced assessment of all available players in the country when he’s spending almost all of his time during the Super Rugby season exclusively around one team.

Cheika set to be named Wallabies coach, but still defend Tahs' title

I’d personally prefer either Michael Cheika, Jake White or Sir Graham – in that order. However we also need a good forwards coach – particularly at the breakdown. It’s a shame Laurie Fisher isn’t available (he’s contracted as head coach of Gloucester). I’d rate him as one of the best forward coaches Australia has. I even mentioned how I’d to see Laurie given some role in the Wallabies coaching staff t to Bill Pulver at a function a few months ago. David Pocock was at the same table and agreed – yes I’m name dropping – describing Laurie as the best analyzer of the breakdown he’s ever worked with.

Ewen McKenzie resigns: Who can coach the Wallabies?

In my humble opinion – We need to drop any ‘Australians only’ ideas and get the best available coach we can get (and afford). We don’t have much of a coaching pool in Australia compared to RSA or NZ. Most national teams opt for the best coach available.

Ewen McKenzie resigns: Who can coach the Wallabies?

The issue at hand is the txt message. All other issues and considerations are merely soap opera to be dealt with later.
Some might see it as harmless, but I can’t think of any other job in this day and age where a person could send a txt like that to a female colleague and expect to remain employed. In this case it’s made all the more serious by the fact that KB had already been given several ‘second’ chances for other indiscretions and had been told to behave. I know that if I had sent a txt like that where I work and my management found out, I’d be out of a job, regardless of whether the person I sent it to accepted my apology.

SPIRO: Anatomy of the Beale-ARU crisis: Heads must roll

On second thought maybe I should put my full proposal forward in it’s own article on the Roar?

More equal than others: Time to create a global rugby calendar

I have been preaching something like this for years. In fact I went so far as to lay out an entire proposed structure and send it to the CEO of most of the major unions before an IRB conference about ten years ago. I got a reply back from quite a few. The Scottish were in favour of my proposal, as were the English RFU, and surprisingly the Kiwis were quite enthusiastic, based on the letter I got from the late Jock Hobbs. I did receive a letter from the ARU on behalf of Julian O’Neill, but they weren’t very keen on the idea.

The big problem is you have to consider that the big money in European rugby is at club level. It’s all well and good to insist players be released for internationals, but what do the clubs get in return. We need a calendar that address both the club and country issue. What I proposed was not an international rugby calendar for each season, but a four-year calendar which varied priorities every year. Doing the same this every year was growing stale. Even the Bledisloe cup is getting boring with the same format every single year.

In short, it revolved around the two big international events – the Rugby World Cup and the Lions tour. These both happen on a four year cycle – so should everything else. In world cup years, international matches don’t count for anything and are only seen as warm up matches. This is true even if the matches are part of the 6 Nations or Rugby Championship. The year immediately following a world cup many people are tired of international matches. Within all of the calendar year no player would exceed the maximum number of annual matches recommended by the players association.

To summarise the four year concept it worked like this:
Year 1 – World cup year – No 6 Nations, No Rugby Championship, Club / Super Rugby runs as normal. Individual unions can organise whatever exhibition matches they want within a 6 week window before the first RWC pool match. That way the clubs are happy, and the minnow nations have the same window as the larger nations.
Year 2 – Club’s are King – No June test series and no Autumn tours in November. Club and super rugby can even combine and play an international club championship. 6 Nations and Rugby Championship (RC) run at the same time within the same window allowing for the minimum disruption for clubs. Immediately following the international club championship, the top finishing coaches from northern and southern hemispheres would be free to select squads for a best of three north vs south series over six weeks. Host cities would bid in advance and both teams would play under the badge of the Barbarians FC. Revenue would be split 50/50 between the IRB and the clubs with the club’s share being divided based on the number of players picked in the squad. Host countries keep gate takings.
Year 3 – Lions Tour – No 6 Nations or RC and club/super rugby as normal. Over the period of the Lions tour, countries not involved can tour as they wish – even allowing for games involving clubs vs national teams. Clubs will release players over the period of the Lions tour and within a window before the tour, giving a full 3 months of internationals.
Year 4 – Club Rugby and Super Rugby are reduced (Local derby’s only in Super rugby and no Europe-wide comp). 6 Nations and RC are held but the rest of the year would be given over to the old-fashioned ‘tour’. International teams would go on full-length national tours with extended test series’, grand slams, and club vs country matches (think All-Blacks v Munster or England v Crusaders).

The whole idea is allowing for variation in the international calendar so the same competition every year doesn’t get stale, while at the same time keeping the club and super franchises happy – and cashed up). At the moment there is simply too much to do every single year. I won’t outline the full calendar but it also included more exposure and games for Pacific Islands nations and other ‘minnows’ at a high level outside of world cup years.

More equal than others: Time to create a global rugby calendar

(Disclaimer – I am also a Brumbies tragic)
While TK was excellent in attack, unfortunately we need to spotlight his defence. I’m not saying he can’t tackle, anyone who’s been tackled by him would know it, but too often he is dangerously out of position. If he can fix that problem, I’d pick him at outside centre every match.

Centre options for the Wallabies

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