National Scrum School....

This time it's Tom Lawton, a great ex-hooker for the Wallabies who has thrown his two cents into the ring by calling for a national scrummaging school in Australia. Yes, I think we ALL agree that the Wallaby front row needs some drastic improvement and quick smart. A school could be formed and up and operational over the off season. There's got to be a swag of money in the ARU coffers.... let's hope they cough some up! At least the forwards went reasonably in the line out against Wales - largely thanks to locks Nathan Sharpe and Hugh McMenimen. The Wallabies need to contest the scrum, not just simply use it as a restart.

Some low life apparently stole Colin Charvis and Martyn Williams' jerseys after the Wales win over Australia. Charvis had swapped jerseys with Phil Waugh - so it's gone, and Williams' black jersey that was the Welsh strip for the game has also disappeared. I hope they get them back - they should probably look on ebay!

Jason Eaton, the new lock for the ABs is back from the European tour, and he's ready to get into training for his Super 14 season. Eaton acknowledges he's likely to be a marked man.

Meanwhile, the Western Force continue to get out and about around Western Australia conducting junior rugby clinics and the like. Good PR for the team, and the game!

Brendan Cannon down in the dumps

This report about Brendan Cannon typifies I'm sure what most of the Wallabies are feeling right now... I can't see it getting much better for a while though, until there are some MAJOR sweeping changes.

Daniel Carter has been named the IRB player of the year. The All Blacks were named the team of the year as well, and the Kiwis won a swag of awards. Well deserved!

Optimistic almost to the end

Wales got up over the Wallabies 24-22 at Cardiff in a match that went right down to the wire. The game started at an extremely fast and furious pace with the Welsh boys having most of the possession. When Australia finally got their mitts on the ball Lote Tuqiri went over for a try which Mat Rogers converted. Yeeeouch!

The half time score saw Australia up 7-6. The second half started off well for the Wallabies with Nathan Sharpe going over to score just after the restart.

Then.... well.... the tide turned.

Wales was awarded a penalty pushover try by Tony Spreadbury, and they deserved it. Within spitting distance of their try line, the Welsh forwards tried to push the scrum over, and repeatedly, the Australian front row just couldn't hold up. Fair call.

A couple of other dumb options taken by Wallabies saw any chance of winning the game gone down the gurgler.

The game was less disheartening for Australian rugby fans than the other games on their European tour in recent weeks. George Smith was fabulous, locks Hugh McMenimen and Nathan Sharpe went well in the lineouts and managed to hang onto the ball. Mat Rogers and Chris Latham were inspirational, and Lote Tuqiri played like a man possessed - pity the commentator kept calling him Tunquiri :) I'm not sure who Tunquiri is... but he played well all the same!!

In earlier games, England thumped Samoa 40-3 though I hope the Samoans gave them a bit of a thumping as well if not on the scoreboard, and Italy 23 defeated Fiji 8.

The All Blacks kept on their winning streak defeating Scotland 29-10 at Murrayfield.

Sheesh.. the league's on telly now... zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Wales vs Australia

I normally like Wales... but I won't be barracking for them tonight :) Eddie Jones and George Gregan must be sweating as well. We've got "high ranking ARU officials" allegedly saying that Jones will get the boot, we've got Eddie Jones hinting that Gregan will be out after he racks up his 50th test as Wallaby Captain tonight, and we've got Georgie Gregan asking just who these supposed high ranking officials are.

Drama! Tension! Suspense! Innuendo! I suppose it deflects from the Wallaby's sad form?

But onto some REAL news :)

The Southern and Eastern Cape Super 14 rugby franchise that will enter the Super 14 comp in 2007 is to be known as....... *drumroll*................

The Southern Spears


That's not too bad huh? I think I like it better than the Cheetahs!

Meanwhile over in the Shaky Isles, Graham Henry has put out a request to the Super 14 franchises in NZ, to lay off using the All Black players non-stop next year in Super 14. Henry doesn't want his boys to be burnt out and blow the 2007 RWC.... again.... (couldn't resist that little dig)

Tana Umaga is neither confirming nor denying reports that he's set to retire from test rugby after the AB's game against Scotland this weekend. Guess we'll find out at the post match press conference. My money's on him retiring...but only from test rugby, I'm sure he'll trot out his Hurricanes next year, but I've been wrong before today. Gotta like Umaga, what a wonderful representative for the game.

That's it from me for a bit... Go Wallabies!! <---- I AM an optimist :)

Unconvincing Wallabies

The Wallabies did get up over Ireland 30-14 last weekend, but the Wallabies were far from convincing. Yes, Latham played well, Mitchell was good....

Matt Giteau is on his way home, he has a knee injury that may require surgery so he's out for the last test against Wales. Here's hoping he's right soon.

Rumours and innuendo abound this week... AGAIN... about whether or not Gregan will stay or go, and whether or not Eddie Jones will keep his job. I suppose speculation makes for newsworthiness when there's not much to report. What the general rugby public thinks however, doesn't appear to make a squat of difference, nor should it really. I guess we're all entitled to our opinions...

Super 14 news... André Pretorius will have to undergo ankle surgery after injurying it in the South African test against Argentina a couple of weeks ago. The Cat's flyhalf is expected to be about for a couple of months, which means that he will miss the first few rounds of Super 14 in 2006. Here's to a speedy recovery.

Cheers!

Bleary Eyes again!

Australian rugby fans, who surely must be beggars for punishment of late, we can catch the Australia vs Ireland game on Foxsports live at 1.23am Sunday morning (an hour earlier for us Queenslanders). Good luck to David Fitter on his test debut.

Have a great weekend!

New Zealand to host Rugby World Cup 2011

All of our Shaky Isles neighbours will be celebrating with the IRB announcement that New Zealand will host the Rugby World Cup in 2011. Congratz NZ! That sure suits me - nice and close to nip over and watch a few games :)

Socceroos

I don't particularly like soccer, but I have to congratulate the Australian Soccer team last night who beat Uruguay in a penalty shoot out to get themselves a ticket to the World Cup next year. Well done boys! Mark Schwarzer - nerves of steel, Harry Kewell - he keeps that ball on the of his feet with a piece of string I suspect.

As a game though... the sport is full of drama queens. I assume they're attempting to milk penalties. I don't know what the whole yellow card deal is either. Players got them, but nothing seemed to happen as a result. No time off the field, nothing. Wouldn't rugby players have some fun with THAT kind of yellow card rule? :))

Eddie Jones is feeling the heat - no shit Sherlock! The Wallabies are under the gun to beat Ireland this weekend. Geez... I don't know about their chances either.

In an attempt to get some props to prop up the Green and Gold, Jones has opted for David Fitter, a chunky 121 kg! Good :) And, Dunning has been dropped - can't say I'm sorry about that, and in his place will be Greg Holmes, the Queensland lad who isn't too shabby. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

All Black Ma'a Nonu has been cleared by the IRB after being cited for an alleged spear tackle on Gordon D'Arcy in last weekend's 45-7 thumping of Ireland so he'll be right to play against England this weekend - who have named an unchanged side.

Cheers!

It's just too sad....

I've been trying to put the shameful Wallaby display against England in the early hours of last Sunday morning to the back of my mind. What a shocker! Actually, the backs didn't play all that badly, compared to the forwards. The front row.... how embarrassing... especially for them! I've always thought that you can win a game with a good pack of forwards, but you certainly can't win one without one. Sorry backs (at least I didn't refer to them as the 'handbags' :)

So, let's look at this logically. Our front row isn't big enough to compete. I think that sums it up. We need to get some big muscle bound meatheads in the front row again. Some ooomph! Some mongrel - or mongrels!! And ah.. you gotta get down low in the front row.

And... we need some variety. The play is predictable.

And... we need the boys to dig deeper, much much deeper....

Get that for starters, and work on the rest.

Friday is D-Day for 2011 RWC host nation announcements. Will it be Japan, or South Africa that gets the nod? I don't have late mail....

I set myself up

I couldn't resist sending a pile of text messages to all my closest Kiwi and Welsh mates just before the NZ vs Wales game Sunday morning - 2am kickoff Queensland time. My message went along the lines of 'Red Red Red - Go Wales! Go Australia!'. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm still coping smug return messages from Kiwis. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr :) I have to admit, the All Blacks played quite well, and while I know that Wales was down some good players, they certainly were disappointing.

All Blacks 41 - Wales 3 Ack! My mobile started beeping to let me know I had messages, I should have thrown the damn thing in the pool.

Being a delusional fool I then watched the Wallabies play France and secretly hoped the Wannabes would thump the frogs and give me some good fodder for more text messages. I should have just gone to bed. France 26 - Australia 16 :(

Fabien Pelous, France's captain, will be facing an IRB tribunal tomorrow for elbowing Brendan Cannon during the game. If he's busted he could cop anywhere between 2 weeks and one year's suspension.

Alan Jones and Campo have been having a go at Jones and Gregan again.... wish somebody would listen to them :)

Cheetahs unveil Super 14 jersey

Apparently the Free State Cheetahs - sheesh I think that name's funny - unveiled and showed off their Super 14 jersey today. I haven't been able to track down a photo of it as yet, but will do so once I find one lying about the net.

The Queensland Reds have appointed Dr Bob Murphy as the new High Performance Manager - he's a former AIS big wig. Let's hope there are some Reds performances worthy of 'managing' come Super 14 2006.

Fiji isn't too happy about the NZ players' salaries, stating the bleeding obvious that they will continue to lose players to the All Blacks because Fiji can't compete with the wages that the NZ union can. What happened to the 'let's spread some funds around and help out the Tier 2 countries' post RWC 2003? Not much I suspect!!

Eddie Jones should be a relatively happy chappy at the mo' after having the Internation Refs get together and agree to more stringently enforce tacklers rolling away at the breakdown of play. Well, it IS in the rules huh? If you read the report, Jones also had a chat about the deliberate obstruction that occurs in rolling mauls. I quite like the ball smuggling myself :) I also like those spinning mauls the South Africans do. Either way, the maul issue is yet to be addressed by the powers that be in regards to Jones' query.

Salary Caps et al

Not everyone's pleased over in New Zealand about the NPC salary cap and there's no cigar for guessing that the grumbling is coming from Auckland and Canterbury Provincial Unions. David White, the Auckland CE reckons it isn't high enough, while Hamish Riach the CE from Canterbury doesn't like the concept of a salary cap at all. I'll bet!!

Former All Black Andrew Blowers who has been in Japan playing rugby for the last five years is heading back to the Shaky Isles for Super 14 next year; he'll be donning a Highlanders jersey after the Dunedin franchise picked up Blowers in the draft. (that sentence sounds wrong! :)

I'm looking forward to the two test matches coming up this weekend - eventhough I don't like the timeslots.... ack!!

- Wales vs New Zealand - live on Foxsports 1 at 3am Sunday morning
- France vs Australia - live on Foxsports 2 at 7am Sunday morning

The Australia A team defeated the French Barbarian mob as well - 42-12. Good to see the youngsters, the FUTURE, getting a run and that Jones has acknowledged them.

Other News: The Pumas are keen to lift their status in international rugby. I think that's fair enough too, let's get them involved in more internationals....

Diva Fever and Jiu-Jitsu

I suspect there's a few bleary eyed Australians around today after yesterday's Melbourne Cup. Makybe Diva... three Melbourne Cups in a row, what an awesome mare! I did my dough on the trifecta, but at least I picked her to win.

The ACT Brumbies' training has gone out on a limb, they're engaging in some Jiu-Jitsu with Marcel Rezendes who has been the Jiu-Jitsu world champion three times. Why not I say? Cross training is fun and apparently the skills are transferable from the martial art to rugby. I suppose they could take up karate and promptly chop any yellow cards in two next season.... :)

Stephen Moore to play in France

The Wallabies have flown Stephen Moore over to France to join the squad, Adam Freir injured himself at training so is in doubt to the Australia A vs Barbarians game today. No word as yet on which of the two will be take the field.

Mat Giteau wants to be at Flyhalf during the Wallabies European tour. Go for it Mat!! The other Mat who wants to play in that position is Mat Rogers.. well I like Mat Rogers, but I think that Giteau has the goods - or at least the edge.

Melbourne Cup... who to bet on.. Makybe Diva I guess, Leica Falcon? and.. I don't know...