Piru, sadly I don’t think we will ever see the NRC again unless STAN (Ch 9) drop televising half the Shute and Brisbane club games (lose all of 200 viewers but NSWRU and QRU power boys spill their gin-n-tonic in anger) and fund the NRC to run after the club boys have finished.

To be effective, clubs will have to start their seasons around early March and finish around mid August (like they always did till recently). Once club games are over, a form of NRC can start.

The reason for my pessimism is the RA chair (D.Herbert) and CEO (P.Waugh) expressed their desire to get an Australian CLUB championship competition going. Who is going to fund all the travel and hotel bills for a game at club level, for mine it fails its purpose of raising the bar to a higher level. The only winners would be a couple of Sydney and Brisbane club sides, while everyone else (including every other club in Oz and the people funding this scheme) can go Fkkkk themselves. 😡

“coach” EddieJ dissed C.Gordon on the basis that he couldn’t play unstructured headless chook rugby against Fiji despite getting monstered with massive hits from slow ball. Eddie then selected his Randwick “love-in” B.Donaldson to show them how to play the Randwick way in the Wales match. That went well! The last sight of poor befuddled Eddie was him in the stands sobbing that he couldn’t get his mate Jorgo’s son a run in the side.

I found it strange that everyone raved about Donaldson’s match against Georgia on the basis that he scored two tries gifted to him. The 1st was from a nice C.Gordon cut-out pass about 5 metres from the Georgia line and the 2nd was the freakish intercept and run from T.Tupou, who then passed to Donaldson for a clear run to the line. Give Ben some kudos as he got into the position to receive those passes but his job was “catch ball and run”.

To me B.Donaldson is a good player at times but he is a “confidence” player. When he first played for the Tahs, he was a breath of fresh air as he kept putting players through gaps with neat short passes. I felt it more to do with finally some structure in the Tahs’ attack and a #10 (BenD) who understood and was capable of seeing the plays. If he can get to that level and keep it there then he is a big chance of the gold jersey.

C.Gordon, he got the raves and selection on the basis of his play at the Rebels, which depended on the team playing team rugby, everyone was on the same page. Poor Gordon gets into the WB and the team is told “just run like the Ella boys at Randwick, doing your own thing and the defences will go up in smoke”. We all know how well that went. 😱 😡

Bugger! Best wishes to Lalakai Foketi, a blow to the Tahs but his health is far more important, they have to be especially careful around neck injuries. Take it easy son, and don’t come back too early.

In the week before SRP #1, I think I have read reports of about 12 first pick 23 players getting themselves injured in training. Western Force have lost about 20% of their run-on side already including Izack Rodda and their new captain Jeremy Williams. The medics and RUPA talk of keeping games to a certain minimum over a year, but they seem to be playing far more heated battles on the training fields than in the stadiums. What the hell are the coaches doing and surely there is another way to get the players match fit. 😱 😢

Just to keep the interest up, The Rebels beat the Fijian Drua in the trial match on Friday evening. To be honest its hard to make any conclusion without knowing who was on the field at the time.

The team sheet I saw prior to the match had the Rebels starting side at almost full strength. I don’t know the Fijian Drua team makeup but they led at half time by 21-7. Of those two pieces of info, the Rebels starting side got belted in the 1st half despite having a very solid bunch of forwards on the park. After half time, the Rebels scored 3 tries (one in the 79th minute to break a 21-all deadlock) and win the match at 26-21.

If the Rebels did put out their “fair dinkum” side in the 1st half, then all this trial showed is (a) the Drua top XV is still a very good side despite player loss from the 2023 team and (b) the Drua reserves are not up to SR level.

hard to make any comment on the Rebels without seeing the match.

I really have to make sure I am not on some MAGA site of conspirators whenever I read comments that Will Skelton is a waste of space. Are these people serious or just trolling for a response?

Modern rugby is more and more a forwards game aided and abetted by quality jacklers right across the park. Big Wil will never be seen running 50 m with the ball through hapless back-line players but that is not his job, it is to rule the roost in the middle of the park where the big boys play. And there are not many better than W.Skelton at destroying opposition rucks and mauls, plus adding considerable clout in scrums and even a bit or mayhem in lineouts.

In his few games in the RWC before Goose Eddie and his S&C tools ran Skelton and T.Toupo into the ground, dare I say Big Willy did his job really well, considering most of the blokes playing besides him were newbies playing like headless chooks or blokes who really should not have been there (looking at Rory’s brother for one).

So you blokes bagging Big Willy at RWC23, before you put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard??) watch how much help Skelton is getting from his team-mates. At times it looked like he was the only bloke “on the ramparts fighting off the enemy”.

The trouble I have with the young #10 for the Reds, Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, is he still plays like most young schoolboy stars who all their lives have played “give it to Harry” style footy. In the big boys stuff, all of the opposition are tough footy players who can tackle and hurt, so solo runs through the opposition and/or the length of the field are very rare indeed.
Every game I have seen H.McLaughlin-Phillips play in, he looks great running with the pill but I don’t see the lad setting up others into holes which is a core duty of a flyhalf. His field kicking and defence is ok for a 19 year old (so-so at SR level) but he needs that long spiral pass and the vision of when to use it.
He has loads of potential though. I honestly think he needs to play half the season playing 1st grade club rugby with a mentor giving him good feedback after each game (JOC perhaps). He will learn more there than the occasional run off the bench only to be crunched by a big Kiwi forward or two.
Regarding the Brumbies game against Fijian Drua last weekend, I only saw a 5 minute highlights package on the RA website but the 1st half was mostly 1-way traffic as the Drua put on some great tries. Hard to comment on the Brumbie’s come-back without looking at who was on the field at the time and who was rested on both sides.

Well said Don, and thanks for the reply. 😊

I think the time zone of Argentina, plus travel costs, is a bridge too far for Super Rugby. Also from what I hear, they are trying to get an All-Americas super club competition going.

Japan would be great, though the clubs are not interested as they are making loads of yen with their own setup.

It might be possible to get a knock-out comp going between the two top teams of each competition that runs just 3 weekends although costs and logistics would be a nightmare.

Personally I think the best start would be to invite Japan, Fiji and/or a consortium of “Îles du Pacifique” team into our Rugby Championship. SA, NZ, Aus, Arg, Japan and Fiji would make a pretty good “Southern 6-Nations” comp in my eyes. 😁 🏉

Rabbitz, I stopped watching the ODI world cup when Johnny Moaning Bairstow was out 1st ball to a horrible pill from Mitchell Starc. As Bairstow stood there, I really wanted the Australian wicket-keeper or Captain to ask Mr Bairstow, in a serious voice, if Johnny agreed that it was a fair catch or should they refer it to the TMO. 😂

The wimps let that one through to the keeper. 😡

Ian, at the end of the weekend, NOBODY on the board backed McLennan. The vote was 15 to “Toss this Flunky” against 1 for “Keep me”. So obviously all the NSW (Bar McLennan), Victoria and WA/Force board members voted McLennan out. In fact no-one from NSW or Victoria ever said they were backing the Hampster. They were left out of the original “rebellious” letter group, to eradicate conflict, and it was assumed they would toe McLennan’s line. In the end they didn’t, and its quite possible they never did. What is clear as daylight is all 15 were sick of the sight of the man and wanted him gone.
The only people singing his praises over the weekend were the usual suspects such as the resurrected “Honest Johnny” Howard and Phil Kearns. And of course, those purveyors of unbiased news 2GB and the toilet paper called Australian.
I note that Andrew Forrest seems to have quietened his praise of the Hamster since Phil Waugh chatted with him over the weekend. I suspect that Waugh assured Forrest of the Force’s future, whether the “Titanic Hampster” was there or not.

Well said Cam, sadly it looks like Dan Herbie and Phil Waugh have their hearts set on some sort of national club competition rather than a SR-Au lite or along the lines of the NRC.

The 3rd tier competition which in reality would always be Shute shield champs vs Hospital cup champs, will benefit a couple of Sydney and Brissie clubs but other clubs would weaken as their good players would flow to the Nat Club championship teams (I know they already do, but even more now). The end result would be Shute shield and Hospital cup teams not engaged in said Championship would lose almost all of their top players, so the city-wide comps would be like 2nd division. Add in that most of the Club Championship games would be a flogging, can you imagine a stacked Syd Uni or Randwick side playing against Burnside (Adelaide club champs 2023)?

I think Dan and Phil need to think past the local club scene if they want a 3rd tier competition, even if Syd and Qld Uni think its the road for them to become a Saracens/Crusaders of the antipodes. 😛

Hi Don and James, I am not going to pretend I know much about NZ rugby although I do know it goes National reps teams, SRP, NPC (and Heartland??). Anyway they have a fistful of quality players coming through the ranks all the time, seen in the position and status of pretty much all the rep teams.

So it always struck me as odd when people say that both NZ and Australia should drop 1 or 2 SRP sides. I always have thought perhaps NZ should increase from 5 to 7 SRP teams to play with 5 from Aus and 1 each from Moana P and Fiji. More games on TV means better coin from TV rights, more players means diluting Canterbury and Auckland’s dominance to everyone else’s benefit (hopefully LoL). It would also mean a lot more of the NPC are getting exposed to the next level, which would benefit the NZ rep sides ultimately.

Any chance of this to fly? 😁

Gary, I agree with your sentiments, in fact having a QLD chair and a NSW CEO, both ex WB will cut a lot of the political BS that we have endured from RA for the last 20-odd years. Remember up to 2012 the ARU/RA board was comprised of NSW 5 members, Qld 3 members and 1 each to the 4 other states. You can pretty well see who ran the show those days.

Then it was changed to the current system of NSW and Qld 3 (2 for large state >50,000 players + 1 for SR franchise), WA, ACT and Vic (1 state + 1 SR) and states Tas, NT, SA plus RUPA got 1 each. As we have very recently seen, this is a more democratic make-up.

Personally I think there should also be a representative on the board for Women’s rugby, they really need a voice. 2023 was a disaster year for Women’s rugby, the 15-sides were fed peanuts (only after screaming the house down) and the national team, the Wallaroos, never spotted their coach (Eddie Jones) all year.

I believe that NSW (and Qld??) will lose a board seat from January 2024 although I am unsure of the future makeup.

Sounds like Mr Reason is the antithesis of his surname. 😁

Hamish “Titanic” McLennan.
* Post 2010, McLennan worked with News Corporation executive chair Rupert Murdoch as executive vice president, Office of the chairman, News Corporation. (Wiki).
* In 2013, he was appointed as CEO and MD of Network Ten for about 2 years. During that time Lauchlin Murdoch tried to buy the business. Its worth noting that Network Ten’s business tanked as did its share price.
* He is currently chair of the REA group, a digital real estate advertising business owned by News Ltd. The business is going gangbusters.
* Since 2019 on board of Magellan Financial, an equity fund. He became chain in 2022, since then the share price has tanked.
* 2020, Fox loses the Rugby broadcast rights and H.McLennan aquires a board position to move into the chair when interim chair finishes.
McLennan is an odd bloke, he is successful albeit there are many mis-hits also, is quite a philanthropist and does have loads of corporate experience. Its just a shame he appears to be a “my way or the highway” sort of person with a massive ego and willingness to play “political rugby games”. And tbh I have always pondered just how tied into the News/Fox group he really is.

To be sure, pushing SR franchises with threats aplenty to sign up to an ALL in centralisation deal with little details ended up costing him the chair. For many, it was a bridge too far. I put it akin to “you live in a strata block of land (say 2 acres) and have fully paid your mortgage. You and other apartment owners pay the supermarket for upkeep and maintenance of the common areas. The small supermarket is deeply in debt and going under. The supermarket writes a half-page blurb which basically says “we can do so much better as a single entity, give me your assets and IP and together we will move forward to greatness”! Would you give that Supermarket your money/titles with those bare details????? 😱

Well done Geoff, a great review of the situation and its causes. Of all the blogs over the past week, you are the first to mention Peter Gibbs. Just to clear up the confusion (or BS by certain folks) it was NOT Titanic McLennan who saved RA when Covid struck (McLennan’s major legacy was to put RA into further debt). It was Paul McLean, Peter Gibbs and Raylene Castle who cut RA staff to the bone and negotiated ~ 60% pay cut with the RUPA.

It was my birthday on Friday, so I really do need to send a massive Thank You card to the CEO of the 6 states that signed the “Dear Hamish, goodbye” letter. It was the BEST present a rugger fan could get. 😊
The weekend dragged on and on and on. Saturday I surmised from a report that J.Sukkar (a massive rugby benefactor) had spoken to D.Herbert that McLennan had to go. At that point McLennan was gone as Rule 1 was invoked “Money Talks”. By Sunday McLennan played his “Money” pawn with the Forrest and tbh I thought McLennan was going to win.

So what a Bloody Great Sunday for this Birthday Boy! (a) McLennan runs off crying to mummy and takes the Cadbury chocolates with him, as a true man of rugby takes the helm and (b) Australian cricket team wins the ODI world cup.

So D.Herbert and P.Waugh, lets get this centralisation of player and coaching resources going asap. Rugby cannot afford 5 franchises pulling different ways from the National side, each group employing people to do the same job. That is just throwing money out the door. It was the one problem I have with the deal struck with NSW and RA; there was no staff movement so where are the savings? 😔

Might I suggest RA get a web site that allows any coach or even interested person to log in FREE and access videos and lessons on coaching and how to play the set pieces such as scrums, lineouts, mauls and especially the breakdown and not fall foul of the laws. One final suggestion is to get an ARC-style competition going for the U20’s or U19’s teams going. Pay the players a bit of dosh so they can see a clear pathway.

Gotta get another beer, the celebrations are just starting. 😂

After being bashed by the Moderation Monster for some recent posts of mine because I gave Chairman-$7M a few uppercuts, this article is music to my ears. I noticed this morning’s SMH also ran an article saying there was a move to oust the Hamster called “Titanic”. I think H.McLennan will be phoning all his buddies in the NSWRU and Victoria to see if he has the numbers to survive.

As for the single vote from RUPA, where does this put Justin Harrison? he that was recently appointed to a WB RWC23 review committee. Talk about conflict of interest! J.Harrison needs to resign from that review if he is also the RUPA vote.

Personally I think McLennan is toast. They say Money Talks and Christy’s line “It’s also believed McLennan has lost support from other influential figures around him, including Josephine Sukkar” is all about money. Ms Sukkar and hubby Tony are big donators to rugby, she also is heavily involved in administration of women’s rugby and sports Australia.

I’ll sleep very happy tonight. As for why did so many states put their name on this letter? Yes there is some self-interest such as QRU protecting its Ballymore asset and Brumbies protecting their existence, plus I imagine the franchises are cheesed with RA withholding monies as ransom to join McLennan’s barely-detailed alignment demands. This letter spells out many more reasons than that so it may be messy but necessary. The Bastille needs to be stormed. Perhaps to get a good crowd, RA can announce that in the first international of 2024, the half-time entertainment will be the Hamster meets La Guillotine. 😂

Even so, when McLennan does go, then RA really needs to change its governance structure in addition to getting the high performance part of alignment going immediately.

Catchie’s Leg, Having never coached a rugby team in my life (experience in coaching was part-time for my kid’s U10 soccer team) I am sure RA could convince me to do the WB gig for say 10k a month (plus free Cadbury Gold fruit-n–nut).

WB would still be kr^p but at least there would be some sort of a rugby team plan, box kicks would be contested and breakdown menace back in vogue. Wales might still beat us but I doubt a 6-40 drubbing. 😂

RTL, my wife says I am a massive joke, so perhaps I am a comedian. 😛

I didn’t say Darren Coleman (Nor J.Gilmore nor N.Gray) were my preference but the way I see it, they are the only australian coaches with enough cred (where it matters, not we mug Roar bloggers) to get the WB gig. I cannot see RA having the coin to hire an overseas coach so it has to be a local. If not Coleman then who do you suggest? 😊

Good call Leroy. Sadly I suspect The Dill called Hamish has selected Justin Harrison as High Performance director. I honestly don’t know his qualifications or if the bloke would be any good.

If true, can we call it another “Captain’s call”. 😡

Peterj, Ronan O’Gara would be great. Have you got a couple of million per year to donate to RA as they are skint?

As I replied above, most probable result is RA announce they got some bloke from a Shute shield team and the whole coaching squad for under $250k (maybe S. Hoiles as he fills the criteria being a RANDWICK man) 😛

Paul, the Reds had the best line-out in Aussie SR until Brad the MAN cheesed off Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Harry Hocking (soon to be capped by Japan) and Izack Rodda all within a couple of months.

Quality international locks don’t grow on trees, ask the Tahs who still haven’t really fixed that position since about 2017.

Leroy, I very much doubt if RA have much money in the jar after Chairman $7M-man blew it all at the RWC23 on a hunch. It wouldn’t surprise me if they offer the WB head coach job to some bloke from Shute shield as long as his whole coaching squad came over for less than $250k. 😂

I offered a long post but I think the Moderation Monster may have gobbled it up. Apart from some advice to a certain under-fire chairman, I went through why I don’t think Dan McKellar, Les Kiss, Stephen Larkham, Simon Cron nor Kevin Foote will be wearing the WB head coach jacket in the near future. A smokey I mention was Matt Taylor, coach of the successful Qld Reds 2011 side, although more recently he was punted from the WB assistant coach position in 2022 so I suspect he wants nothing to do with RA.

So it comes down to 1 of 3 people all from NSW (a small mercy is none is from Randwick). Apart from the Love-in between RA and NSWRU, I suspect the next WB coach will be either Darren Coleman (NSW coach) or Jason Gilmore (Australia A coach) or Nathan Gray (U20 coach). Coleman would be obviously preferred if NSW could be dragooned into releasing him as Gilmore has the weight of the anchor called coach of Tahs 2021 disaster season around his ankles. Gray lost a lot of cred when defence coach of the 2015 Tahs and WB teams, but is well respected and has held the High Performance and U20 coach gig of late. I would surmise that Gilmore would be ahead of Gray at this stage.

One other name I really hope the powers-to-be consider for some role in the WB set-up (not as head coach) and that is Scott Fardy. If you want a bloke that will teach the WB forwards how to be smart but mongrel dogs at the breakdown then Fardy is your man. 😊

Mind you, with their talented top 7 batsmen plundering pretty much anything that opponents serve up to them they just need some decent bowlers to win most matches. Having to face up to Ravi Jadeja et al and trying to score 7-8 an over for 50 overs has been too much for any side so far.

As for this article, I thought the pitch was a road more than a spinner’s paradise. Jedeja and Mitch Santner didn’t get much help at all.

The action that I thought was very very interesting occurred at the end of the match.

Man of the Match winner, who got 7 wickets for almost unplayable swinging deliveries, Mohammed Shami ruffled his hair and kissed that hand almost as if he is saying “this hair cream/moisturiser works wonders for my bowling also. Buy it now at Woolworths Mumbai”.

Shami has got to be the Player of the Tournament; he is bowling beautiful line and length and getting the ball to swing all over the shop, even in the 35th over, while everyone else is struggling for any deviation after the 3-4th over.