Australian newspapers on Monday hailed the Tri-Nations win by the Wallabies in South Africa as confirmation of the revival of Australian rugby.
Injuries, coaching concerns and travel fatigue loom as significant factors in the Super 14 rugby semifinals when the Crusaders, Waratahs, Sharks and Hurricanes front up on Saturday. Competition leaders the Crusaders are at home to the Hurricanes in the first knock-out match, followed by the second-placed Waratahs hosting the Sharks in Sydney.
The expansion of the Super 14 rugby finals to a six-team play-off next year is all but a certainty after this season’s logjam saw two form teams miss the cut. Sanzar officials have been considering revamping the finals, with the most obvious first step being to increase the number of teams involved following repeated complaints that a four-team final is far too restrictive.
An expanded United States conference-style Super rugby series is being touted by the New Zealand Rugby Union as a way of reviving the flagging Super 14 rugby tournament for the 2010 season. NZRU officials have begun a nationwide tour of all the franchises and provinces to divulge their concepts, which then need to be accepted by Sanzar partners.
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will look at introducing experimental law variations (ELVs) for this year’s Tri-Nations tournament. The International Rugby Board said on Thursday that 13 of the 23 ELVs, many of which are being trialled in this year’s Super 14 competition, would be adopted for a 12-month global trial from August 1.
A senior Australian Rugby Union official agreed on Monday with aspects of a written complaint about South African referee Willie Roos’s performance during the ACT Brumbies’ loss to the Wellington Hurricanes on Friday night. Peter Marshall said Roos’s decision to award 39 penalties and free kicks had a negative impact on the game.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) has distanced itself from speculation that a Japanese team might be included in an expanded Super 14 competition. The idea was floated by Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill who was quoted as saying the idea of adding a Japanese team was on the agenda of Sanzar.
Japan is being lined up as a Bledisloe Cup host in 2009 and could become the base for a new team in an expanded Super 14 competition. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said initial talks with Japanese officials about bringing the Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks to Asia’s top rugby nation had gone smoothly.
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/ 22 February 2008
Former Australia scrumhalf Matt Henjak had his contract with the Western Force Super 14 side terminated on Friday, but the Australian Rugby Union have not ruled out him returning to the game. Henjak had been found guilty by a Western Australia Rugby Union disciplinary committee of breaking teammate Haig Sare’s jaw after punching him at a Perth hotel.
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/ 17 February 2008
Scrumhalf Matt Henjak has returned home from Western Force’s Super 14 tour of South Africa to appear at a tribunal hearing into an incident which left teammate Haig Sare with a broken jaw. Henjak played in the Force’s 17-10 loss to the Coastal Sharks in Durban on Friday, the first of three matches the Perth-based franchise will play in South Africa.
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/ 14 February 2008
Matt Henjak is free to play in Western Force’s opening Super 14 rugby clash this weekend after a hearing into his alleged altercation with teammate Haig Sare was adjourned until next week. After scathing criticism from the Australian Rugby Union over the club’s handling of the incident, Force bosses fast-tracked a serious misconduct tribunal to Thursday.
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/ 13 February 2008
New laws more than new faces will add an element of unpredictability to the 2008 Super 14 rugby competition that kicks off Friday. The shadow of last year’s World Cup hangs over the tournament, adding a touch of intrigue, but it may be the adaptability of players to the experimental law variations that bears most heavily on its outcome.
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/ 6 February 2008
The cash-strapped Australian Rugby Union said on Wednesday it was shocked at a government decision to scrap funding for a national rugby academy in Queensland state. Former prime minister John Howard committed Aus-million to the project last June but the new Labour government of Kevin Rudd said it was now being axed under a cost-cutting programme.
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/ 4 February 2008
Crusaders and Wallabies coach Robbie Deans says players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa should be free to play in any of the three countries’ Super 14 rugby franchises. He is also supporting Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill’s view that the competition should be increased to two rounds.
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/ 30 January 2008
The Australian Rugby Union’s (ARU) chief executive, John O’Neill, has called for major changes to reinvigorate the game or it will slip into irreversible decline here. Amid falling attendances, ratings, revenues and performances, O’Neill said the ARU is in serious financial trouble.
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/ 21 December 2007
A Super 14 expansion side of Australians, Argentinians and Pacific Islanders playing out of Melbourne could be key to getting the Pumas into the southern hemisphere’s elite competitions, the Australian Rugby Union deputy chief executive Matt Carroll said on Friday.
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/ 18 December 2007
Wallaby fullback Chris Latham will move to English Premiership side Worcester later this year after rejecting an offer to remain in Australia, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said Tuesday. The ARU said it was disappointed at Latham’s decision to head to Europe on a three-year deal after the 2008 Tri-Nations series but respected it.
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/ 9 December 2007
Unsuccessful All Blacks coaching candidate Robbie Deans has been granted a late interview for the vacant Wallabies job, the Australian Rugby Union said on Sunday. Deans, who missed out on the All Blacks position when the New Zealand Rugby Union decided to reappoint incumbent Graham Henry on Friday, had now asked to be considered for the Australian job.
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/ 4 December 2007
Next year’s Super 14 competition will trial several law changes designed to make the game faster and more exciting to watch. The decision to introduce the Experimental Law Variations was taken at a South African, New Zealand and Australian Rugby Unions meeting in Sydney on Tuesday.
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/ 31 October 2007
Canterbury Crusaders coach Robbie Deans has confirmed the worst-kept secret in New Zealand rugby — he is keen to take over as All Black coach from Graham Henry. Henry is likely to be replaced following the All Blacks worst-ever World Cup showing this month when they were knocked out by France in the quarterfinals.
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/ 30 October 2007
There seems to be little sympathy at SA Rugby for World Cup-winning Springbok coach Jake White’s unhappiness that he was not considered for the shortlist of four from which the next Springbok coach will be appointed. White, in Tuesday’s press conference, pointed out he had a clause in his contract that states he has the right to negotiate an extension of his contract.
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/ 30 October 2007
South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach Jake White has shown interest in the vacant Wallabies post via his agent, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said on Tuesday. ARU high-performance manager Pat Howard confirmed that agent Craig Livingstone contacted him on White’s behalf last week, but he had heard nothing further.
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/ 24 October 2007
Former Wallabies coach and Springbok consultant Eddie Jones on Wednesday dismissed calls for changes to rugby union’s rules after a drab World Cup final that featured no tries. Jones, who helped South Africa to their win in Paris, said the demand for change was ”Australia-centric” as the calls in that country have grown since the Wallabies’ defeat by a defensive England side.
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/ 24 October 2007
Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chairperson Peter McGrath said on Wednesday he was determined to clear his name following allegations he was drunk at an official function during the World Cup. Speaking on his arrival in Sydney after the World Cup, McGrath said he would be ”defending his reputation vigorously”.
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Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has blamed his successor, John Connolly, for Australia’s shock World Cup exit last weekend at the hands of old enemy England. Connolly replaced Jones two years ago and there has been no love lost between the pair, particularly since Jones signed up as an adviser to South Africa for this year’s tournament in France.
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Australian newspapers on Monday sought to ease the pain of the Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup exit at the hands of England — and the boot of Jonny Wilkinson — by taunting the All Blacks. ”At least we didn’t choke,” Brisbane’s Courier-Mail screamed across its back page.
Always fierce rivals in sport, Australia and England’s World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday should be a classic if it matches the same level of animosity that has dominated the build-up. The players have stuck to the sportsman’s mantra that they respect their opponents and will have to be at their best to win.
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When it comes to ritual sporting humiliation, England have more often than not resembled the bloodied corpse and Australia the merciless executioner. The 2005 Ashes cricket success and the 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph have been rare highlights for England’s long-suffering fans, who have grown wearily familiar with the power of the Australian juggernaut.
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/ 29 September 2007
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Springbok coach Jake White issued Australian rugby with a dare to plunder South Africa’s burgeoning rugby talent as the Wallabies look to boost their shallow player depth ahead of the next World Cup. ”The reality is that not every South African superstar is going to be playing for South Africa,” said White on Friday.
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/ 13 September 2007
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The Wallabies are shocked by what they see as an over-the-top crackdown on foul play at the Rugby World Cup and are on notice to keep it clean during the rest of the tournament. The International Rugby Board (IRB) has sent out a firm message to the teams that foul play will not be tolerated with four citings and suspensions from the opening matches.
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/ 3 September 2007
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The great debate: Is this the Wallabies’ A team? Or merely the Wallabies’ A-frame team? That’s the question controversial Australian rugby columnist Greg Growden ask in his Monday Maul. It is impossible to avoid the fact that the Australian World Cup campaign revolves around those on their last Test legs, rather than those at the peak of their careers.