17 September 2024 #011
Good morning once more G&GRs and welcome to Tuesday. The Wallabies had the weekend off after their final begin in Argentina, however the Wallaroos and the Australia A girls performed in opposition to Eire and Samoa respectively, so a bit of reports and commentary on these video games.
There may be nonetheless some motion occurring domestically with Tremendous Rugby signings throughout the groups to cowl, and the Tremendous Rugby format for 2025 was introduced on Friday.
And as Hoss identified on Friday, the Pacific Nations Cup semi finals have been performed on the weekend.
Butz coated the Wallaroos loss to the Irish within the Monday information, and it definitely was disappointing that Australia weren’t capable of apply extra strain and push Eire nearer than the 26 level margin. What’s extra disappointing is the participant turnover over current years as outlined by Nutta within the feedback part yesterday. Rugby, and Womens Rugby loses approach too many gamers to each league and AFL as a result of they’re extra organised and provide greater than rugby does.
Hopefully the newly minted Australia A workforce will assist by offering extra alternatives for rising and fringe gamers to get worldwide expertise. You possibly can learn the match abstract by Lachlan Gray over on Rugby.com.au right here. Samoa triumphed 20-17 over Australia A in Apia in a detailed recreation the place the margin stayed inside 7 factors all through. Samoa scored a strive within the 76th minute to degree the scores after which the flyhalf Siataga kicked a 43 metre penalty on full time to place them in entrance for the second time within the recreation and seal the win.
For Australia A Teenage duo Waiaria Ellis and Ruby Anderson starred of their first worldwide video games, Ellis is 16 and hopefully has a shiny and lengthy future within the recreation. Different gamers to be careful for sooner or later are wingers Bishop and Urwin who scored 3 tries between them.
The Australia A team-sheet is proven beneath, lets hope that these girls can keep within the recreation and star in a house world cup in 2029.
Reds participant signings
In what’s nice information for the Reds, and Wallabies, Liam Wright has signed on for 2025 with the Qld Reds. It is going to be his eighth 12 months on the Reds. After a implausible tremendous rugby marketing campaign Wright was rewarded with a Wallabies recall and being named captain within the first take a look at of the 12 months in opposition to Wales. Sadly it was his solely look in gold this 12 months because of damage.
After a tricky run with accidents over current years, right here’s hoping that Wrongaz can get a sustained interval on the sphere for the Wallabies as I believe his management will assist the inexperienced Wallabies as they head North on the Spring tour.
Different key Reds gamers to re-sign for 2025 embrace Hunter Paisami, Josh Flook, Ryan Smith, and Jock Campbell. With the addition of among the Rebels squad, the Reds are trying the products for 2025, time to get on board.
Tremendous Rugby 2025
Tremendous Rugby will kick off per week earlier in 2025, starting on Friday 14 February with a brand new format. Sadly we don’t get the complete dwelling and away season that we needed to see (or at the very least I did). Every time will play 14 common season video games, 7 dwelling 7 away, and there can be a 6 workforce last sequence performed over 3 weeks.
There’s a full article on the format over on Rugby.com.au right here, however in abstract every workforce will play 4 different groups twice (with a concentrate on rivalries), and the remaining 6 groups as soon as. In excellent news there can be extra Sunday afternoon video games on provide, which have been a rarity in recent times.
It’s a step ahead for the competitors and hopefully the additional video games and tighter finals sequence will make it extra compelling for the followers.
Pacific Nations Cup
The Pacific Nations Cup semi finals noticed Japan tackle Manu Samoa, and Fiji play USA. Fiji have been too good for the USA and prevailed 22-3 with three tries to nil. Fiji’s final strive particularly had all of the hallmarks of the flying Fijians and is price watching the highlights at least.
Japan have been a lot too robust for Manu Samoa and ran away with it 49-27. Each groups performed quick attacking rugby with loads of offloads, and once more the highlights are effectively price watching.
This weekend will see the USA tackle Samoa within the third place playoff, and Fiji will play Japan within the last. Needs to be good match ups.
The facility of workforce sports activities and constructive influence on psychological wellness
I used to be performing some analysis about among the Wallaroos gamers which can be lacking from the squad for this tour, particularly Emily Chancellor, and Grace Hamilton, who have been stand outs within the 2021/22 World Cup.
By means of that I discovered a hyperlink an article with Grace Hamilton on the Athlete’s Voice, which you’ll learn right here. It’s a written article that tells Grace’s story and the struggles that she and her household have had. It describes very well how Rugby has helped right here by means of darkish instances, and credit score to her for being so open about that.
I didn’t play as a lot rugby as others on right here (Keith, AO, Nutta) however I did play soccer till I used to be 50 with nice workforce mates, and definitely getting to place all the pieces else apart and spend Friday nights with my mates was an exquisite factor to do. For me there have been two facets to the constructive influence of it, firstly there was the bodily factor to it, which is constructive and helps to reset the thoughts on the finish of the work week. The second facet of it was the depth of the friendships, which implies which you could focus on tough subjects and be supported by your mates.
It’s an exquisite factor and I’m grateful for it.
That’s a wrap for this week
If you happen to made it this far, thanks for taking the time, that’s it for me this week, over to you G&GRs.
