Aussie Pro Rugby
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So he's an 11 year old playing U12s helping out the U11s...
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JUST POLITICS MATE: Local brown-trout fisherman, Jeremy Dunning (37) has today arrived in Sydney with his local solicitor to begin court proceedings against Rugby Australia.
Jeremy claims the Wallabies would have put in a “superior performance” if he had been selected for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and he could have possibly captained “a trophy-winning Wallabies team” in the future.
Jeremy, who is currently playing prop in the 4th-grade side for the local Betoota Muttaburrasaurus’s, says he “coulda brought back Bill” if not for poor decision-making by ARU executives.
The father-of-six is a prominent social member of our town’s struggling club that plays in the Western Queensland Group 139 competition. He says it’s pretty clear he’s missed out on quite a payday because he never got to play at the level he believes he was capable of playing.
The 150-kilogram Betoota Heights resident claims his career trajectory in rugby union was dashed by ‘fucken politics and other bullshit’ during his briefly promising colts season.
It is believed that the plaintiff has been inspired by former Wallabies player turned CTE case study Israel Folau, who yesterday increased his damages again Rugby Australia by $10 million, according to new court documents.
An amended statement of claim from Folau, released on Wednesday, shows the damages figure has been increased to $14 million from a previous estimate of $10 million.
Folau, like Dunning, has never before captained a side in any three of the domestic Australian football codes.
Other similarities between the two cases include the fact that both men were very bad Christians before they got married, and that both of them own an exorbitantly expensive luxury vehicle that they can’t afford on their current salary.
Speaking to The Betoota Advocate today from his desk at Dunning’s Get ‘Er Dun Plumbing – Jeremy claims that Queensland Reds selectors chose Rodney Blake over him in 2004 because Blake had a cool nickname, and therefore, kept him out of the Super Rugby system. “I’m sorry that Big Jezza doesn’t sound as good as Rodzilla!” he says. “Just fucken politics mate”
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
@MiketheSnow said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Tough one - particularly if communication has been attempted but failed for any reason.
If he's really that big for his age, then his parents and coaches should also have sought advice. How are the other parents supposed to feel if this big unit is out there, monstering their kids?
It's U12 FFS...
I played with and against Dai Young - Wales & BI Lions prop - from U11 .
He was twice the size of me at that age.
Taught me how to tackle properly.
Yeah but that was a different time, and you would have played rugby no matter what.
These days, particularly in Australia, kids have got about 5 sports clamouring for their attention before rugby.
Sure, some of these kids having to come up against man-child are going to relish the chance to smash him for glory.
Some are going to get run over, then want to move away from contact sport.For the big unit himself: running over other 11yo kids half his size might be fun, and his parents and coach will delight in having such a natural advantage on the park.
But this is a tricky age; in a couple of years when the other kids will catch up to him, and unless he's done a lot of extras, he'll drop away.
Happens with a lot of teen superstars: never had to work.
Played rugby on Wednesdays and Saturdays, football on Sundays.
Same happened here. Bullies soon get found out.
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From another third-hand account: apparently he'd been given dispensation to play up in age, but then couldn't come back down as one of the conditions. The rumour mill says he'd been going back down anyway on a semi-regular basis. Club and parents asking them to please cease and desist.
Just that this was the first time on the day an official had enforced it.
Awesome publicity for rugby
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Poached.
Tiaan Tauakipulu joins NSW Waratahs
The NSW Waratahs have added highly-rated tighthead, Tiaan Tauakipulu to their Elite Development Squad for the 2020 Super Rugby season.
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@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:
Poached.
The NSW Waratahs have added highly-rated tighthead, Tiaan Tauakipulu to their Elite Development Squad for the 2020 Super Rugby season.
Isn't he Australian?
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:
Poached.
The NSW Waratahs have added highly-rated tighthead, Tiaan Tauakipulu to their Elite Development Squad for the 2020 Super Rugby season.
Isn't he Australian?
He is of Samoan heritage but I am not sure where he was born. Maybe St Kents casts their net across the ditch too.
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@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:
Poached.
The NSW Waratahs have added highly-rated tighthead, Tiaan Tauakipulu to their Elite Development Squad for the 2020 Super Rugby season.
Isn't he Australian?
He is of Samoan heritage but I am not sure where he was born. Maybe St Kents casts their net across the ditch too.
They should fucking stop doing that then. Stop developing future Aussie Super players - I don't fucking care if you want to win a few games - stop it!
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@KiwiMurph said in Aussie Rugby:
@gt12 nz rugby is better off with just-strong-enough-not-to-be-total-shit-but-still-easily-beaten Aussie rugby.
Fixed.
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Alright, so a bit of news on the Wallaby coaching front today:
Scott Wisemantel joins as Attack Coach, and Chris Webb as General Manager. Both good fluffybunnies from what I hear.
Dean Benton as national head of athletic performance (S&C).
The cognoscenti are happy.
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Alright, so a bit of news on the Wallaby coaching front today:
Scott Wisemantel joins as Attack Coach, and Chris Webb as General Manager. Both good fluffybunnies from what I hear.
Dean Benton as national head of athletic performance (S&C).
The cognoscenti are happy.
glad someone is happy with the coaches being assembled...
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Also: I was fucking around in Tableau and made this chart - it is NSW (Sydney) Suburban Rugby clubs (the level below your Premier clubs like Randwick) by Division. Bigger the circle, higher the division, centred on their home ground. Only Division 1 is really set in stone for next year, with a handful of clubs put into a Division by yours truly after a disastrous 2019.
The big space between Newport (top right) and the rest is basically Manly and Warringah Premier Rugby. The other gaps are basically league
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Wallabies are putting together a heck of a staff.
Former defense coach for Scotland, Glasgow, Super Rugby winning Reds 2011.
Another key piece has been added to Dave Rennie's Wallabies coaching line-up, with Matt Taylor confirmed as defence coach on a deal that will take him through to the completion of the next World Cup. -
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I had time last week to sit and think a bit about what I have seen recently and what I reckon it means. This is a piece I contributed elsewhere setting out where I think Australian rugby is right now. It was sparked by reports about the ARU appointing this bloke and that to assist Dave Rennie, such that they will need a second bus to follow the team bus about. This does not imitate what was offered to Robbie Deans or Michael Cheika.
Here we go ...
Dilkington – I venture Kane is observing the honoured tradition practised by several prolific contributors here at The Roar of pretending an intimate connection with someone on the inside, almost implying they may be a member of the ARU board.
This is, of course, a most interesting time, much like the heady days of welcoming the new age of Eddie, Connolly, Deans, McKenzie and Cheika followed soon after by an impatient campaign to have their attacking / defending / selection ineptitude dispensed with. Those campaigns are waged by the sworn enemy factions of NSW, QLD, Sydney University, Randwick and the players cadre, controlled by the NSW veteran heroes past and current.
No-one seems to have noticed a revival of the familiar cast of Scott Johnson and Wisemantel (both of the Mighty Woods and therefore good men and true) Fisher, Taylor, Grey and so on, who have waltzed around the Australian and European coaching scenes for years, to muted applause now and then. They have also been belted by our experts here for being as useless as Michael Cheika. I see Taylor’s decade at Scotland as defensive coach(?) produced the 5th best points conceded by the six nations teams - they got in ahead of Italy.
With Castle inexplicably now being eulogised as a canny negotiator, just up the page a bit, it can only be a matter of time before Larkham is forgiven and added as attacking coach. He can then re-join Nathan Grey on the platoon of camp followers. Nathan was voted out here a while ago because he is from NSW or something, and the Waratahs cannot tackle.
No, I am unconvinced by what the ARU has stumbled into for the immediate future.
Someone here calls for a ten-year plan as if it is a fresh new idea. Sir Graham Henry laid out the blueprint for such a thing 12 years ago; Eddie McGuire and Mick Malthouse laid out theirs in 2000. Both produced the expected successful result.
The ARU didn’t notice because it was too busy quickly spending the $42 million odd it banked after the 2003 World Cup. John O’Neill was clever but not clever enough to copy NZ Rugby’s or Collingwood’s lead. His successors demonstrated they were nowhere near as well qualified or able as him.
We now have a CEO who is demonstrably incompetent, with a lousy record at Canterbury Bankstown and since. We have tried a New Zealander as coach, which displeased more of the five warring factions (and assorted bit players) than it pleased. Rennie has been handed a squad which is incomplete as to skills, combinations, history together and so on. Some of them talk earnestly about maintaining a tradition of running rugby (last sighted from Horan, Little and a couple of Herberts, last century). They haven’t had a First Five since Larkham departed 12 years ago, nor a Number 8 since Totai Kefu.
I’ve lost track of where the Board is up to. Seven years ago the ARU reorganised itself based on a report by former Minister for Sport, Senator Mark Arbib – just seven years ago. That worked out well, eh? If one owned shares in the game one would be entitled to ask “You want to reorganise things in 2020 – how much money did we waste on commissioning a report and implementing change in 2012, which fell apart two years later?”
There will be a new board after March next year. Ann Sherry has gone – apart from being a notable woman during this era of marquee boardspersons her contribution is unclear. She has collected a lot of board memberships so I assume she was very, very busy doing other things a lot of the time (external director on 12 or 15 boards plus 5 or 10 other bodies she chaired or managed or led - clever person?!?!). Cameron Clyne jumped before being pushed a few weeks ago. Brett Robinson’s term is up – he is a decent fella – sincere – but, like John Eales, I don’t know what he has been doing there for the last decade.
There are a lot of people pulling a handsome wage or fee from such fabulous disorganisation.
Wisemantel joins Wallabies coaching fold
