Daily Archives: 27 August 2014
Brad Thorn: One of a kind
Bigger, faster, and stronger – it’s a wonder any professional rugby player lasts more than a handful of seasons before terminal injury strikes.
Professional rugby players’ representatives love to say how short their client’s careers will be – usually while negotiating for a pay rise.
They operate in an increasingly brutal arena, one tackle away from enforced retirement.
The average size of an All Black forward increased from 100kg to 113kg since rugby went professional in the mid-1990s and the backs have ballooned from 82kg to 94kg.
Collisions are now compared to car crashes. Concussion has become an unwelcome theme.
Pat McCabe
The open letter written by Pat McCabe.
It has truly been an honour to represent the Brumbies and the Wallabies over the past five years.
While my playing career has not ended the way I would have liked, I consider myself extremely fortunate.
Fortunate to have met and shared experiences with special players and coaches.
Tony Johnson
Not until we get into the next group of games will we have some perspective and context in which to put the first two rounds of the Rugby Championship.
The All Blacks’ forward strength will be tested when they take on the Pumas and their physicality will be tested against the Springboks.
A win in either away game will put the Bokke in a powerful position, the Wallabies will have to bounce back from their thumping defeat at Eden Park or face an exit from calculations, and we will find out how many of their bullets Argentina has fired already.
Brendan Venter
For all the criticism I levelled against Argentina for their negative play in the Loftus Versfeld test, in stark contrast, they deserve a world of credit for their impressive display in Salta.
In theory, the second-ranked Springboks should have destroyed the side placed 12th in world rugby. However, in practice, three main factors determine the outcome of a match:
They are, your own team’s performance, the performance of the opposition and, last but not least, the standard of officiating delivered by the assigned referee on the day.
The Cell C Sharks have stuck largely with the same side that defeated Free State last week for Friday night’s Absa Currie Cup clash with the Pumas at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
Among the backs, there is just one change where scrumhalf Conrad Hoffmann gets his first start after playing off the bench last week, with Cameron Wright coming off the bench later in the game, reports Sharks website editor Michael Marnewick.
Among the forwards, JC Astle is back from injury and partners with Etienne Oosthuizen in the second row in the absence of Marco Wentzel, while the front row trio of Matt Stevens, Kyle Cooper and Dale Chadwick remains the same from last week as do the loosies, captain Tera Mtembu, Francois Kleinhans and Jacques Botes .
The Argentine scrum in action.
When on song, the Bajada is basically pornography to us flat eared folk who have done battle in the front row.
And on Saturday against the Boks, it was at its titillating best!
There are two defining characteristics of the Bajada – a scrum technique used by the Argentinians … One is that all the power is directed into the hooker, meaning that they scrum as an imaginary arrow pointing inwards from either side of the 8th man.
The other, and perhaps more important characteristic of the Bajada, is the ‘coordinated push’, which sees them act on a three part call.
How Jannie Du Plessis and Gurthro Steenkamp saw the Argentina scrum
There are two things that we can take from the second round of the Rugby Championship 2014.
- The All Blacks are clearly not ‘on the slide’. In fact if anything they are on the up and up and all the 12-all draw did was to inspire them to dick punch the Wallabies in their faces, hard.
- The Pumas’ ‘Bajada’ scrum is a thing of beauty, unless you are the Springboks, then it is a thing of nightmares.
Tom Wood makes ground against the All Blacks in the summer.
Northampton flanker Tom Wood has said that the England squad has been told they have to get much fitter in the light of their series whitewash by New Zealand in the summer.
In an interview in the Daily Telegraph, Wood said that one of the issues is that the week-in, week-out club game no longer prepares players well enough for the rigours of the international game.
“International level is dramatically different to the club game,” he said. “We have been shown data that illustrates that.
It seems unlikely Mickey Rourke and Gareth Thomas would be mistaken for one another.
Three years after he first told the press he was in discussions to play former rugby player Gareth Thomas in a film, Hollywood star Mickey Rourke has said that the project remains a possibility.
In early 2011 Rourke, who turns 62 next month, explained he had been inspired by Thomas’ decision to come out as gay while at the top of his sport.
He said he would need to train for “nine to eleven months” adding: “I am a good enough actor and I can look fit enough to play the game and that’s what it’s all about.
A New Zealand radio station has been criticised after running a competition to see how far its male listeners will go to win tickets to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The Edge offered tickets if two heterosexual male friends got married. “We’ve done stranger weddings, naked weddings, same sex weddings but this is the first one that we know will end in divorce,” the station said in its promotional material.
Henco Venter will start at lock in the only change to the Free State Cheetahs’ team to face Griquas in Kimberley on Saturday.
Kick-off is at 15:00 SA Time (13:00 GMT).
Waltie Vermeulen will take his place on the bench, in the only other change to the match day squad.
Feeling good: Kurtley Beale and his Waratahs teammates celebrate their Super Rugby triumph
The Waratahs are hopeful of locking in off-contract playmaker Kurtley Beale within a fortnight.
Coach Michael Cheika said he wasn’t taking anything for granted, but was reasonably confident of re-signing the 43-Test back for another season.
“It looks like it’s going better, so hopefully something’s going to happen there in the next week or two,” Cheika said.
Todd Reed, ball boy at the US Open.
This is not a rugby, or even cricket related article, but an interesting human interest story nonetheless, and for those who enjoy tennis as well.
For the 35 000 tennis fans streaming daily into Flushing Meadows, there are several US Open traditions that stand the test of time: swallowing the sticker shock over a $7 bottle of water, cheering for rival Eastern Europeans in a fifth-set showdown — and watching eager teenage ball boys take to the court in earnest.
But on Court 14 during a late-afternoon slugfest on opening day, the ball boy jumping up to catch the crosscourt winner wasn’t some 16-year-old string bean, but a tattooed rookie three times his age.
‘ONE OF THE BEST’: All Blacks coach Steve Hansen shares a moment in 2012 with favoured player Sonny Bill Williams.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has made it clear that Sonny Bill Williams will be on the end of year tour, though there are no guarantees he will play any games.
Hansen has voiced his views on the controversial decision to get Williams instantly into the All Blacks selection mix on his return from rugby league, even though he may not have played for his Counties Manukau union. His selection would be against ordinary New Zealand Rugby regulations.
Cell C Shark’s assistant coach, Paul Anthony.
Assistant coach Paul Anthony has defended the way the Sharks have continued to play the same kicking game they used during Super Rugby in the Currie Cup, insisting they are trying to change.
The defending champions are unbeaten so far and sit second on the log after three games, although have yet to show the attacking intent that had been promised by the Kings Park outfit in recent weeks.
“As we’ve discussed this week, we’ve got a different philosophy to the approach from Super Rugby, and hopefully that will not disappear, because there is place to kick, but there’s also a time to kick and a time to move it,” Anthony said on Tuesday.
Australia has announced a 30-man squad for its next two Rugby Championship matches, including the return of New South Wales Waratahs hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau.
Coach Ewen McKenzie said Wednesday that Polota-Nau will not be considered for selection in Australia’s match against South Africa in Perth on 6 September.
Heading overseas: Argentina Pumas
Argentina head coach Daniel Hourcade has named his touring squad for the Rugby Championship fixtures in Australia and New Zealand.
The majority of the squad that tackled South Africa over the last two weeks remain, with the addition to the touring party of Juan Imhoff, Benjamín Macome and Santiago Iglesias Valdez.
The only major absentee is Pablo Matera, who suffered a partial dislocation to his shoulder against the Springboks in Salta. Argentina will return to their training base in Pacheco on Thursday before flying out on Friday, arriving at in Napier the following day to prepare to take on the All Blacks.
The Eastern Province Kings team that will take on the Xerox Golden Lions at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium this weekend has been announced.
Head Coach Carlos Spencer said they had not yet finalised who the captain would be, what with Luke Watson being out with a concussion, but said Aidon Davis would take up Watson’s spot at 8th man on Saturday.
Spencer said BG Uys came in for Lizo Gqoboka, who was being rested following a long three games.
Court date: Alesana Tuilagi
Samoa and Newcastle Falcons winger Alesana Tuilagi has been charged in connection with an alleged assault, according to reports.
Tuilagi will appear in court on 21 October in relation to an incident on Dublin’s Harcourt Street in 2011, according to RTÉ News. The former Leicester Tigers player was arrested in Dublin on Tuesday before appearing in court. He was later released on bail.
Furthermore, RTÉ News report the Dublin District Court heard that CCTV footage and witness statements of the incident were in existence.
Planet Rugby
Stephen Moore will take over as Brumbies captain in 2015.
Stephen Moore will take over as ACT Brumbies captain in 2015.
Wallabies skipper Stephen Moore will captain the Brumbies for the 2015 Super Rugby season.
Moore will replace Ben Mowen, who quit Australian rugby to pursue his career in France.
The Brumbies will announce Moore’s appointment on Wednesday morning, backing the experienced hooker to guide the club to Super Rugby success.
Wallaby Pat McCabe returns from New Zealand.
The Brumbies have watered down head coach Stephen Larkham’s comments that hardman Pat McCabe has retired, saying the 26-year-old’s playing future hinges on a meeting with the Wallabies’ doctor.
McCabe fractured his neck in the Wallabies’ 51-20 loss to the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday, with Larkham telling ABC radio on Wednesday morning the 24-Test winger had decided to hang up his boots after consulting with a specialist.