Aussie Pro Rugby
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FFS our best hooker by a fair way has picked up another knock.
Billy Pollard added to Wallabies squad after Porecki head knock
Brumbies hooker Billy Pollard has been added to the Wallabies squad ahead of the first Test in Mendoza.
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@Higgins said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA Have never really heard of this guy and after looking at the Brumbies squad I now know why - he looked to be number three hooker on their roster.
He played for Aussie A recently.
There's some good info in this article.
It is the first national squad selection for Pollard, who was a sought-after talent as a teenager after playing junior rep footy in both rugby and rugby league. Big-name NRL coaches such as Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy attempted to sign Pollard, but the Sydney-raised youngster elected to sign with the Brumbies. Former Brumbies coach Dan McKellar, who is now the full-time Wallabies forwards coach, told the Herald earlier this year that he didn’t think Pollard would choose rugby when he initially began trying to recruit him. Part of the pitch was that Pollard would have to spend two years learning the dark arts of the rugby scrum, and other set-pieces. “He is a very good footballer, he’d be a very good league back-rower, there’s no doubting that,” McKellar said. “He has speed and athleticism and skill-set, and he’s tough. But learning the dark arts of scrum, lineout and maul take time. “We made it really clear from the start that an 18-year-old ... that he was going to need a couple of years development, and get his set-piece to the level it needs to be at.”Pollard called up to Wallabies after Porecki ruled out with concussion
Twenty-year-old Brumbies hooker Billy Pollard is on his way to Argentina after starting Wallabies hooker Dave Porecki suffered a head knock at training.
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My rugby weekend - strap yerself in:
Saturday
Knew we had a heap of guys out, but still fronted up for 2 Grades at Epping, who are sitting in the top 3 both grades.Fuck me. I was expecting 25 guys at least, not 21. As a result, I started both Grades, played about half of Seconds, and all of First Grade at hooker. We were shit - lost 2nd XV 53-19 and First Grade 108-0.
No, that is not a typo. Nor did we switch to AFL. One Hundred And Eight. And the ref called it about 10 minutes early.
I went over to the sideline at one point, and asked the opposing coach if they had anything left they wanted to show us. He says "My players want 80 minutes. What's happening out there isn't my fault". Yeah spirit of the game you shitcunt.
Still, the opposition guys out there were nice enough and we all had a bit of a laugh. That's park footy some days. Hope they all woke up with sore hamstrings from running in a mud bath. Shit field
Sunday
Got up at sparrowfart to go run a womens 7s tournament at our ground. Stressed as fuck thinking no volunteers were coming but it all worked out. The womens tournament hasn't run for a couple of months due to the wet weather here so everyone was grateful just to play.Two fields, 9AM kickoff, nonstop rugby. Our girls won their division (tho why they were in Third Division I'm yet to understand)
At one point I spied Matt Burke - yes World-Cup-Winning-Wallaby Matthew Fucking Burke - whose daughter plays for Manly Womens Rugby. Marched over in my Ground Marshal bib and introduced myself. Had a good old chat. He compliemented our field and I said "yeah but the ingoals are a bit narrow" to which he replied "I remember one year at Murrayfield we had the same thing - barely anywhere for the reserves to warm up!" so that was a reality check
Later on I learned that one of our girls (fantastic AFL player and rugby fits her like a second skin) is going out with Aussie 7s player Matt Gonzalez who came by the canteen and I said hi. Poor Jade hyperextended her knee in our last pool game and so Matt had to take her to hospital.
Stopped just after lunch at Parramatta Eels office to talk to their Football Operations Manager about how the day was going. There were a few things to chat about like the upcoming development in the precinct and how things were going during the season. They're a good bunch and you always know where you stand.
Packed up the second field when they finished at 3PM. Winding down to finals on the main field just before 5PM the Treasurer and I toasted a pretty successful day overall. Got compliments on our ground, canteen banked $2K, and I got to press the flesh and promote the club. Racked up 23,000 steps on the Garmin and didn't get badly sunburned despite the glorious sunshine.
Went through about 30 loaves of bread and probably 300 of our butcher-quality snags on the day, as well as a fuckload of powerade. Not much beer or spirits which was a little disappointing TBH but we're all set for Old Boys Day next weekend.
Got home, wife has defrosted steak and snags for a fucking BBQ
I could barely go through with it after smelling BBQ all day. Got it done, then sat down with a bourbon to watch the Wallabies.Fuck me, what a weekend!
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
My rugby weekend - strap yerself in:
Saturday
Knew we had a heap of guys out, but still fronted up for 2 Grades at Epping, who are sitting in the top 3 both grades.Fuck me. I was expecting 25 guys at least, not 21. As a result, I started both Grades, played about half of Seconds, and all of First Grade at hooker. We were shit - lost 2nd XV 53-19 and First Grade 108-0.
No, that is not a typo. Nor did we switch to AFL. One Hundred And Eight. And the ref called it about 10 minutes early.
I went over to the sideline at one point, and asked the opposing coach if they had anything left they wanted to show us. He says "My players want 80 minutes. What's happening out there isn't my fault". Yeah spirit of the game you shitcunt.
Still, the opposition guys out there were nice enough and we all had a bit of a laugh. That's park footy some days. Hope they all woke up with sore hamstrings from running in a mud bath. Shit field
Sunday
Got up at sparrowfart to go run a womens 7s tournament at our ground. Stressed as fuck thinking no volunteers were coming but it all worked out. The womens tournament hasn't run for a couple of months due to the wet weather here so everyone was grateful just to play.Two fields, 9AM kickoff, nonstop rugby. Our girls won their division (tho why they were in Third Division I'm yet to understand)
At one point I spied Matt Burke - yes World-Cup-Winning-Wallaby Matthew Fucking Burke - whose daughter plays for Manly Womens Rugby. Marched over in my Ground Marshal bib and introduced myself. Had a good old chat. He compliemented our field and I said "yeah but the ingoals are a bit narrow" to which he replied "I remember one year at Murrayfield we had the same thing - barely anywhere for the reserves to warm up!" so that was a reality check
Later on I learned that one of our girls (fantastic AFL player and rugby fits her like a second skin) is going out with Aussie 7s player Matt Gonzalez who came by the canteen and I said hi. Poor Jade hyperextended her knee in our last pool game and so Matt had to take her to hospital.
Stopped just after lunch at Parramatta Eels office to talk to their Football Operations Manager about how the day was going. There were a few things to chat about like the upcoming development in the precinct and how things were going during the season. They're a good bunch and you always know where you stand.
Packed up the second field when they finished at 3PM. Winding down to finals on the main field just before 5PM the Treasurer and I toasted a pretty successful day overall. Got compliments on our ground, canteen banked $2K, and I got to press the flesh and promote the club. Racked up 23,000 steps on the Garmin and didn't get badly sunburned despite the glorious sunshine.
Went through about 30 loaves of bread and probably 300 of our butcher-quality snags on the day, as well as a fuckload of powerade. Not much beer or spirits which was a little disappointing TBH but we're all set for Old Boys Day next weekend.
Got home, wife has defrosted steak and snags for a fucking BBQ
I could barely go through with it after smelling BBQ all day. Got it done, then sat down with a bourbon to watch the Wallabies.Fuck me, what a weekend!
From a Rugby perspective mine was a bit more brief.
Saturday: Read the fern ( paying particular attention to score predictions and Fozzie threads )
Sunday: Slept through the Rugby, woke up, read the score, read the fern, while on two tip runs listened to hilarious talkback whinging about the ABs ( unintentionally funniest was an old bloke mentioning Pine Tree would be turning in his grave at some of the haircuts on display and they should all go to Jordies barber ) Read more fern…..
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
My rugby weekend - strap yerself in:
Saturday
Knew we had a heap of guys out, but still fronted up for 2 Grades at Epping, who are sitting in the top 3 both grades.
Fuck me. I was expecting 25 guys at least, not 21. As a result, I started both Grades, played about half of Seconds, and all of First Grade at hooker. We were shit - lost 2nd XV 53-19 and First Grade 108-0.
No, that is not a typo. Nor did we switch to AFL. One Hundred And Eight. And the ref called it about 10 minutes early.I've been on the wrong end of a hundred point flogging and it feels like they kick off, 30 seconds later you're behind your posts. Rinse, repeat.
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@antipodean it's not much fun aye.
Get's particularly stink when nearly the whole opposing team manages a meat pie.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
My rugby weekend - strap yerself in:
Saturday
Knew we had a heap of guys out, but still fronted up for 2 Grades at Epping, who are sitting in the top 3 both grades.
Fuck me. I was expecting 25 guys at least, not 21. As a result, I started both Grades, played about half of Seconds, and all of First Grade at hooker. We were shit - lost 2nd XV 53-19 and First Grade 108-0.
No, that is not a typo. Nor did we switch to AFL. One Hundred And Eight. And the ref called it about 10 minutes early.I've been on the wrong end of a hundred point flogging and it feels like they kick off, 30 seconds later you're behind your posts. Rinse, repeat.
The secret is to call Prop's Justice and just stay at halfway
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@voodoo said in Aussie Rugby:
At least at 108-zip you wouldn't have had to pack many scrums...
You'd like to think so.... I lost count but think we packed at least 15 scrums. The conditions were otherwise dry so they had no excuse for dropping the ball.
Their Fijian fullback scored 3 tries and converted 13 in total.
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The NSW Waratahs have signed former Crusaders and Leicester flyer Nemani Nadolo for the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season.
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
At one point I spied Matt Burke - yes World-Cup-Winning-Wallaby Matthew Fucking Burke - whose daughter plays for Manly Womens Rugby. Marched over in my Ground Marshal bib and introduced myself. Had a good old chat. He compliemented our field and I said "yeah but the ingoals are a bit narrow" to which he replied "I remember one year at Murrayfield we had the same thing - barely anywhere for the reserves to warm up!" so that was a reality check
genuinely one of the nicest blokes you will ever meet
Love you Matt
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@mariner4life said in Aussie Rugby:
@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
At one point I spied Matt Burke - yes World-Cup-Winning-Wallaby Matthew Fucking Burke - whose daughter plays for Manly Womens Rugby. Marched over in my Ground Marshal bib and introduced myself. Had a good old chat. He compliemented our field and I said "yeah but the ingoals are a bit narrow" to which he replied "I remember one year at Murrayfield we had the same thing - barely anywhere for the reserves to warm up!" so that was a reality check
genuinely one of the nicest blokes you will ever meet
Love you Matt
Never met him himself, but a few Sydney mates have had a few lunches with him and said he was a grade A arrogant fluffybunny.
Goods days / bad days I suppose!
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Aussie Rugby is OVER - at least for this little black duck. Last regular season game saw us miss finals by a few wins in both Grades, so we didn't really deserve to be there. Got to build depth for next season.
As Club Secretary, have mentioned to the President and Treasurer that it was probably my last season with the boots on. I just got home from a massage, desperately needed after getting folded at scrum time against blokes half my age. My bullshitting to the ref only gets me so far these days at hooker, and my lineout throwing and tackling is not improving post-46.
I'm going to focus on refereeing where possible and running game day for our club. Off-season is going to be a red hot go at getting the necessary volunteers we need, rather than just relying on the same few people who will burn out and leave.
The coach wants to start preseason in November. Hopefully by then I'm back under 100kg and have thrown the slippers into the bin. Think they are past their prime...
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@NTA white boots? Bit flash for a 46 year old hooker.
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Aussie Rugby is OVER - at least for this little black duck. Last regular season game saw us miss finals by a few wins in both Grades, so we didn't really deserve to be there. Got to build depth for next season.
As Club Secretary, have mentioned to the President and Treasurer that it was probably my last season with the boots on. I just got home from a massage, desperately needed after getting folded at scrum time against blokes half my age. My bullshitting to the ref only gets me so far these days at hooker, and my lineout throwing and tackling is not improving post-46.
I'm going to focus on refereeing where possible and running game day for our club. Off-season is going to be a red hot go at getting the necessary volunteers we need, rather than just relying on the same few people who will burn out and leave.
The coach wants to start preseason in November. Hopefully by then I'm back under 100kg and have thrown the slippers into the bin. Think they are past their prime...
another loss to Aussie rugby!
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I wouldn't risk getting called up to the Wallabies as last man standing either
Sad day though eh? Good on you for sticking it out so long in club. That's an effort and a half especially when front rowers don't get the ladies.
I had one club game in Oz and realised I was going to spend my time coming up against young failed mungo players that wanted to smash seven shades of shit out of old blokes to prove themselves. Veterans it was for me.
You might make a very good ref though considering all the advice available here.
