Wallabies defeat All Blacks – Highlights

Busier today than expected… but sharing the highlights of the Australia vs New Zealand game…

All hail the Robbabies!

Robbie Deans takes the Wallabies to a 39-19 thrashing of the All Blacks!

More on this phenomenal victory tomorrow…

Role reversal?

For a very long time, players from overseas have come to Japan to finish out their rugby careers.
The various sides in Top League rugby here in Japan are littered with players from Australia, New Zealand, the British Isles, South Africa, and the Pacific Islands.

Kosuke Endo has his sights set on reversing the trend.
Endo is headed to New Zealand, to play for perhaps the strongest side in club rugby, Canterbury. Endo will don the red & black in the Air New Zealand Cup.
Japan’s coach John Kirwan was pleased for Endo, and suggested that if he can play well enough, he might even get a chance in the Super 14 squad – The Crusaders.

It’s a huge chance, and one that Japan’s Top League Rugby chiefs recognise as being important – not just to Endo but to Japanese rugby players in general. To that end, they have changed a rule demanding that to play Top League, all players had to be in Japan in August. Endo has been told he can return to Toyota Verblitz, even if Canterbury reaches October 20th’s Cup final.

It’s not the first time Endo’s played club rugby overseas – the 27 year old played in Australia for Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.

George a Sungoliath

There are very, very few stars in World Rugby as big as George Gregan. And the player who has the most caps as Australian National Team captain will play for the next two years in Japan’s Top League for Tokyo’s Suntory Goliath.

Gregan joins the influx of players, most recently former Wallabies team-mate Stephen Larkham who joined the Ricoh Black Rams in the competition’s second division.

Post the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Gregan spent a year with French side Toulon, and is expected to land in Japan in August. The money must certainly be good playing in Japan, as Gregan was reportedly on E400,000 for his one season – so for him to leave Europe, the money must indeed be good at Tokyo. Gregan’s just the latest of top-flight antipodean players leaving their home shores for far off lands where the money flows more freely.

Gregan will be united with former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, who has been under Suntory employ as a technical advisor for many a year now.

Suntory’s bound to be one of the stronger teams for the 2008/09 season – as last season they
won last year’s competition, defeating Sanyo Wild Knights 14-10. Adding a player of Gregan’s caliber will only strengthen them further, putting the pressure on other teams to step up, or risk falling further behind.

Suntory’s season kicks off on September 5th when they open with a a night game at Tokyo’s Chichibunomiya Stadium against Sanyo Wild Knights.

Sports Immigrant? Welcome to the ARU’s latest acquisition!

Introducing the latest NZ immigrant to Australia – and he isn’t even applying for the dole!

In an almost unheard of positive move by the ARU, Robbie Deans is officially crossing the Tasman and is the new (and first foreign) coach of the Wallabies. Deans has signed a contract that takes him through the 2011 RWC in New Zealand and ushers in a new era in Australian rugby.

5 things I like about this move.
1) The Wallabies are now coached by the most successful provincial coach of the past decade.
2) He’s a hands-on coach who gets out the paddock and runs his own show.
3) He signed a contract that takes him through the RWC. With Graham Henry’s contract only being until the end of 2009 there was always the danger that Deans would hedge his bets and see if he could slide in the back door to the All Blacks (hang on, that sounds like something that Murray Mexted might do…) In signing for 4 years Deans has made a strong commitment to Australian rugby and signaled his intent to finish what he started.
4) Most Kiwis will tell you that this is the man who should be coaching the All Blacks. Despite their flaws (and don’t get me started on how many of them there are), Kiwis know their rugby and can identify talent. Deans is the one that got away for NZ rugby.
5) RWC in the Shaky Isles in 2011. Imagine what will happen if the Wallabies can bring Bill home lead by a Kiwi. It makes George Gregan’s “4 more years” sledge pale by comparison!

Nice work by the ARU – and we don’t get to say that too often!

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The New Face Of Australian Rugby?

[Editor’s note: You may have seen him commenting around the traps here… his real name’s Rob & we’ve known each other for … well, a damn long time. I keep pestering him to write, well he has. Enjoy.]

…
Robbie Deans.
This is the face of the new Wallabies coach – barring an unexpected disaster.
Deans is the most successful non-international coach involved rugby today. His record in Super rugby is unparalleled, unmatched and unrivaled. He has sustained excellence for well over a decade. Deans has helped to produce some of the most prodigious talents on the world rugby stage. He’s a tactical genius, he gets the best out of his players, he knows how to win…

Oh yeah, and he’s a Kiwi.

When it comes to sports there are few things that I am more passionate about than the Brumbies and the Wallabies. I live and die with each Wallabies game and have massive doses of depression-like symptoms whenever we lose.
I want to see the Wallabies succeed more than anything else I wish for in sports.
The last few years, in fact, the last 6 years, have been mired in a morass of mediocrity – the improbable run to the RWC final in 03 not withstanding. It has been a gradual decline since Rod MacQueen rode off into the sunset. Some bad coaching, no coaching (S-C-R-U-M is not a dirty word), off-field indiscretions (Wendell, Matt Henjak, Lote, Matt Dunning, Wendell again, Mat Rogers, Wendell yet again) and some abject displays have eroded confidence in what used to be the jewel in the crown of Australian sport.
As an Aussie, the thought of a Kiwi coaching our Wallabies is anathema to me. Why not get Jake White or Clive Woodward if you want someone to hate?
But you know, at the end of the day, it’s about winning… and it’s about the best man (or woman) for the job.
Right now Robbie Deans is the best choice available to bring back some respectability to Australian rugby and end the years of ‘over-paid and under-performing’.

Of the other candidates, only David Nucifora has any kind of pedigree to go into the job and he is light years behind Deans in results. Concerns over Deans’ ability to be 100% focused on an Australian victory in a Bledisloe Cup match do no justice to the professionalism of the man nor to ability of any of us to do our job in any situation whether we have conflicting emotions or not.
Rugby, as with so many other sports, is a global game, with a global outlook and options beyond our national boundaries.

In my opinion, Alan Jones has the resume but has been out of the game for too long to be considered a serious contender. If David Nucifora, Ewan MacKenzie, John Muggleton or Laurie Fisher came close to Deans’ resume I would be wholeheartedly supportive of an Australian coach. The fact of the matter is that the best available coach is a Kiwi. Hire him. And if Jake White or Clive Woodward were available? As unpalatable as it might be, they would have to be considered because they too have the credentials to help the Wallabies rise from the mire.
It’s time to start
calling him Deansy, buy him a beer… and get with the program!

…

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Top League – Rugby’s firing in Japan!

Some HUGE wins on the weekend… Toyota Verblitz skewered the Dynaboars, Sungoliath totally eclipsed the IBM boys, and the Sanyo Wild Knights – well… let’s just say that I was never more wrong than tipping against them! Game of the round – Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers vs Kyuden Volten – was as predicted a fantastic game indeed! The Steelers were made to work, but in the end got home against a very good Kyuden unit. Kobelco are the only team to have maximum points for the first two rounds.

The second round looked like this:

Yamaha Jubilo 19 NEC Green Rockets 23 (missed this – picked Jubilo)

Coca Cola West Red Sparks 25 Kubota Spears 13 (got this)

Toyota Verblitz 59 Mitsubishi Dynaboars 10 (got this)

Sanyo Wild Knights 72 Fukuoka Sanix Blues 5 (never more wrong than this one)

IBM Big Blue 13 Suntory Sungoliath 52 (got this)

Toshiba Brave Lupus 40 Ricoh Black Rams 24 (got this)

Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers 33 Kyuden Voltex 31 (aaaand got this!)

That leads us to this week’s match-ups.
Round 3
Nov 10 (Sat)
NEC Green Rockets v Kyuden Voltex (Morioka Minami Koen, Iwate prefecture)
Suntory Sungoliath v Coca Cola West Red Sparks (Hanazono, Osaka prefecture)
Ricoh Black Rams v Sanyo Wild Knights (Morioka Minami Koen, Iwate prefecture)
Toyota Verblitz v IBM Big Blue (Mizuho rugby stadium, Aichi prefecture)
Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers v Mitsubishi Dynaboars (Hanazono, Osaka prefecture)
Kubota Spears v Yamaha Jubilo (Chichibunomiya, Tokyo)
Toshiba Brave Lupus v Fukuoka Sanix Blues (Chichibunomiya, Tokyo)

Black Rams at home vs Sanyo could be a very good game… tipping the Wild Knights after their run-away win last week. Another I’m not certain on is Jubilo vs Kubota… not sure how good each team is!

The ladder… (played/won/points)
Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers – 2/2/10
Sanyo Wild Knights – 2/2/9
Suntory Sungoliath – 2/2/9
Toyota Verblitz – 2/1/6
Kyuden Volten – 2/1/6
Toshiba Brave Lupus – 2/1/6
Coca Cola West Red Sparks – 2/1/5
Yamaha Jubilo – 2/1/5
Ricoh Black Rams – 2/1/4
NEC Green Rockets – 2/1/4
Fukuoka Sanix Blues – 2/1/4
IBM Big Blue – 2/0/1
Kubota Spears -2/0/0
Mitsubishi Dynaboar -2/0/0

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Top games in Top League – Japanese Rugby

So, here’s a quick wrap-up of last week’s games, and a preview of this week’s round.

Last week:

• Toshiba Lupus 3 – Suntory Sungoliath 10
• Sanyo Wild Knights 19 – Kubota Spears 6
• Yamaha Jubilo 26 – Toyota Verblitz 20
• Ricoh Black Rams 9 – IBM Big Blue 3
• Kyuden Voltex 37 – Mitsubishi Dynaboars 15
• Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers 36 – NEC Green Rockets 21
• Fukuoka Sanix Blues 17 – Coca Cola West Red Sparks 13

Watched the Wild Knights game on TV, and it was a pretty good game despite inclement weather.

Round 2
Nov 3 (Sat)

• Yamaha Jubilo v NEC Green Rockets (Mizuho rugby stadium, Mizuho ward, Nagoya city, Aichi prefecture)
• Coca Cola West Red Sparks v. Kubota Spears (Hanazono, Osaka prefecture)
• Toyota Verblitz v Mitsubishi Dynaboars (Mizuho rugby stadium, Aichi prefecture)
• Sanyo Wild Knights v Fukuoka Sanix Blues (Hanazono, Osaka prefecture)

Nov 4 (Sun)

• IBM Big Blue v Suntory Sungoliath (Chichibunomiya, Tokyo)
• Toshiba Brave Lupus v Ricoh Black Rams (Chichibunomiya, Tokyo)
• Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers v Kyuden Voltex (Nishi Kyogoku athletics stadium, Kyoto prefecture)

This week Lupus will bounce back from the loss to Suntory, and Suntory will go on their winning way. An excellent game will be between the Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers and Kyuden Voltex – both of whom had very big scores last weekend. I’m tipping the Steelers to get up.

Should be a good weekend of rugby…

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Rugby – the times they are a-changin’… and so are the rules

ELVs.
No, not the lil’ pointy-eared guys, but Experimental Law Variations. They were used in the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship, and hopefully will be introduced into SANZA (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia). The ELVs are aimed at bringing a more free-flowing play to rugby.
Here they are, in the hope that we can discuss ’em a lil’…

1. Touch Judges can indicate offside at the tackle by raising their flag horizontally in the direction of the offending team. This flag raising will be mirrored by the opposite TJ so as to provide visual assistance to the referee. The referee however is not obliged to act on the offence.
2. Corner post, and post at corner of touch in goal and dead ball line are moved back 2 metres. This ensures consistency of touch along the entire length of the touch line and touch in goal line.
3. When a defending player receives the ball outside the 22 metre line and passes, puts or takes the ball back inside the 22, the following can occur:
   a. If the ball is then kicked directly into touch, the lineout is in line with where the ball was kicked.
   b. If a tackle, ruck or maul is subsequently formed or an opponent plays the ball and the ball is then kicked directly into touch, the lineout is where the ball crossed the touch line.