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Rugby in Australia is often not well represented by Rugby Australia. To be Australian in Australia is often to raise one state over country.…
No teams in the top five sports leagues of the world are folding or being saved by national unions. Curse the money all you…
Italy sits above Australia in world rugby, with the Wallabies wallowing in ninth, until of course Eddie Jones moves Japan into the top four.…
Australia infamously stayed in the pool in 2023’s World Cup. What were the key shortfalls of the woebegone Wallabies? As new coach Joe Schmidt…
Less than one hour past the game, as we trod to the bars, the Calcutta Cup safe back in the arms of glad Scots…
Round One of the frontloaded 2024 Six Nations pitted the top two northern teams against each other. It was not the contest we expected.…
Louis Armstrong was asked once: ‘What is jazz?’ His reply: ‘Man, when you got to ask what it is, you’ll never get to know.’…
“Nobody goes for pints with Joe,” I was told by someone who knows what she is talking about. “But he will teach. He has…
The 2025 Lions will tour Australia as the Irish and British Lions. Surely half of Andy Farrell’s selections will be green. The final cuts…
Come let us bury Rugby Year 2023. Wallabus Annus Horribilis began with great promise. Let us be more precise: January began with a great number…
In 2022 I opined the “worst decision Rugby Australia could make for the Wallabies in 2023 would be to hire Eddie Jones as their…
Several million rugby tourists are making their plans to be in Australia. A British and Irish Lions series kicks off only 13 Wallaby Tests…
The tenth Rugby World Cup is done. Injured players who made it back before or during the tournament did well. Replacements did, too. Following…
Imagine a man who had grown up in Despatch with Rassie Erasmus but had spent the last five years in a medically induced coma,…
The gentle rains have come to the shrugging Alps and bright cashmere scarves are shielding the French as they return to work, chastened. Four…
The pools are drained of minnows. Only seven big fish remain; Fiji flew into finals with broken wings. But before the ‘business end’ beckons…
As we reach matchweek week five of the Rugby World Cup some themes are starting to emerge. 1. Union is expanding in name as…
With the Wallabies done but for a miracle, the numbers in the three first games are illustrative of why the campaign failed. The Experience…
Escaping from Lyon’s maze of a stadium a bit early, up, and then down concrete spirals Dante would have approved as illustrations for his…
SAINT DENIS - With an hour to go before the Pool B bragging rights kickoff, old Paarl Gym cricket teammates Schalk Burger and Jean…
Yes. Entirely correct. Remove the ban entirely. A Get Off Me Rule. A Gitoff Rule.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
What was the W-L record for Australia over those periods of time? How well did those players play in those losses? Were they really the keys to why they lost?
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Koroibete was good when the WBs were bad. That alone is very hard to find.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
That’s not really a fair view of Rory’s work. I don’t think Richie was as good. But Rory did good work as a Wallaby and has unique attributes hard to match.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
All the Aussie-based players of a certain quality are getting offers to move overseas, but that is not 100% of SRP players. Some of the offers are not that good. So, we might say that maybe 15 or 20 have really attractive offers to move. No matter what the rules are on selection, you’ll never see all of those 15-20 all take the offer. Maybe half. I don’t see any floodgates opening.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
No doubt, but that does evoke how union feels in Australia better than now rugby feels in Ireland. Rugby is very popular in Ireland. And is popular even when Ireland is just OK. I don’t think IRFU is in any financial peril, and never was.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Yes, it’s an odd canard. 65% over 100 years makes you the second best team in history.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Winning you over.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Good errata.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
I think it’s too easy at the moment for any Wallaby who is playing well to know he has the jersey. It should be 3 deep at every position.
KLA and Kolbe kept Mapimpi and Moodie out but jeez all four are aces.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
I’ll leave it to the stats guys to explain why W-L records for a struggling team applied to a particular player are not a great way to judge an overall policy.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
There’s plenty of fans in the NH who love club over country.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Yes, Jason Jenkins looked good for Leinster (he starts there) but when Rassie got him back for a camp, he just did not reload quick enough for the SA system where even locks chase kicks, and did not have the stopping power in the tight loose that Mostert has, but Mostert then knew he had to fend off a challenger and worked harder.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
It’s also instructive how many Aussies have gone on to play so well in other Test sides but were not rated that high at home: if there was no limit to capping them, then once it emerged that Hansen, Tuipolotu, Meafou, Bealham, et al were Test quality, an offer to cap them could have been made.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
I just think, maybe, even though the Canes are having their best season in ages, it’s just not very exciting for a lad like Jordie? Compared to Leinster in packed stadia?
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
EXACTLY! Competition for all places. Nobody guaranteed.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Still very hard to leave a small town in the Karoo and go to dark wet Scotland where you have to repeat your order in the shop five times to be understood and be away from family. It’s not like they getting LRZ cash.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Looks great and playing on a helluva team.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
😂 That’s simply not true, man! He is getting a PhD in scrums and doing v well.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Cheers, jez So sick of the losing, particularly when Wallabies lose bc of lack of grunt, depth, and leadership
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
That’s not my premise. My premise is to look at how many overseas players would be better than the WEAKEST thirteen to fourteen players you’d have to pick in a 35 man local squad. And I think the answer would 13. Or 14. And that depth. The hard work. The muscle. The lack of a drop off when a Bell or AAAAA gets hurt, or how the LO would run if a genuine LO caller stepped in and another one if he got hurt, or savages at the ruck. Yes, that’s the way the RWC just got won: Jean Kleyn wasn’t better than Eben Etzebeth. He didn’t have to be. But he was better than Nortje or Ruben, domestic locks in SA who are as good as a Swain but not as good as Kleyn.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
My thesis is OZ must win a lot more now. Now. Because the next 3 years is existential.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Oh, I meant if OZ had won a QF v France in France like that, it would have electrified OZ. So it isn’t accurate to say SA won all their matches with boring ball.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Go back to 2017 and the SA situation was just as dire as it is in OZ. Yes, it is still tough, but from 2018 to 2024 the SA balance sheet, level of crowds, equity raise (Sharks, WP), trophies, TV show, and ability to get young guys to play rugby rather than soccer has grown exponentially. WP just got solvent and it has allowed them to get Kitshoff back, as well as Schickerling from Japan. Eben is back as is Willie. Winning wins.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Yes, supersize it. Of course, close calls would go to the local guy. But get the best 50 into the squad and find 35 and then let them all fight for spots.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table