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You would think that he has been signed. Badge promotes Brisbane 10s (the RA spins bs to pull the WA team so sinks piss in the stands), says publicly that he would like to play IPRC, close to home, no current contract abroad, brilliant with the fans, till young and has to support family as the main provider (haven't seen anything in the media to mention how his old man is going). He ticks all those boxes you would think that he is a guaranteed signing.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
The Pek!
But happy for Tessman, louwrens, Stander as well
Who from Europe or Japan could we still lure back that supporters would love to see in WA?
Just saw a promo on Nat Geo. The Badge has a series starting on 20 March. It's called Meanwhile in Australia. Not terribly original but it has Nick travelling the country seeking out people and their stories according to the promo. With his turn of phrase it should be a right larf.
I really, really hope he's getting back on board. Marketing managers dream and a great past player. Rats Arse - what a battery of bumbling bullshitters.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Sam Wykes only 29 he must be nearly Japanese qualified. Riley Winter a WA product has been playing club Rugby in Ireland for Shannon and Ballynahinch for the past two seasons. An extra year in Ireland would complete his residency so it will increase his chances of getting a pro contract.
TPN don't know how long his contract is for at Leicester. MOC is just clinging on to his job at the moment.
Dan Heenan and Berrick Barnes (regardless of Fishpaste's situation Aus Rugby needs flyhalfs) are still going in Japan.
Brock James has just signed with Bordeaux if he was thinking about going to Australia you would think that Twiggy would have signed him. Blair Connor is still at the club and can't play for France as he has played for Aus 7s. Jake McIntyre must be up for renewal at relegation threatened Agen.
Based in Australia. Kyle Godwin has started the season well for the Brumbies using his footwork rather than go straight in to contact. Contract is up this year.
Naisarani playing some really good stuff at the moment only on a one season deal. Mees Erasmus who should be playing as the Brumbies scrum has been rubbish so far and Verity Amm only on EPS deals.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
OMG!! J'OC of course
I am godCome home Judas, all is forgiven![]()
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor
If Japan want Sam Wykes they’re welcome to him.
What's Matt toomua up to these days?
C'mon the![]()
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'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Nic Natanui![]()
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Rudy Paige was dropped from the Bulls squad by Mitch.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
This just appeared (even though Alcock is already signed):
https://thewest.com.au/sport/western...-ng-b88763098z
"Easy sell for flanker Chris Alcock to rejoin reborn Western Force
Nick Taylor | The West Australian
Sunday, 4 March 2018 5:00AM
When former Western Force flanker Chris Alcock was asked to join the reborn club he didn’t have to think twice.
“It was an easy sell,” said the popular back-rower who made 30 appearances in “old” Force colours in four injury-marred years.
His journey has now come full circle after a season with the Brumbies and a spell with Japan’s Kamaishi Seawaves.
He is equally excited about his new two-year deal with Andrew Forrest’s radical Indo Pacific Rugby Championship club as he was by his first move to Perth from the Waratahs as then coach Michael Foley’s first signing.
The Force are planning games against international sides Fiji, Samoa and Tonga and Super Rugby clubs the Crusaders and Brumbies before the National Rugby Championship in September.
The focus will then switch to the IPRC that is due to kick-off in March next year."
more at the link
"12 Years aSupporter" starring the #SeaOfBlue
Best news in that article, rebels not mentioned in the list if exhibition games. Perhaps minder has been listening to the faithful on here
C'mon the![]()
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Wayne Smith comes out with a sledge hammer. Alan Jones is getting the job done already. As for John O'Neill he has done enough damage to the game and make people more angry.
Raelene Castle’s conundrum: If rugby dies in the heartlands, who takes up the slack?
WAYNE SMITH
The Australian12:00AM March 3, 2018
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Nothing like a little “whiff of grapeshot” in the form of anAlan Jones column to grab the attention of Rugby Australia and its chief executive Raelene Castle.
There were a couple of things that could be considered a little unfair about Jones’s rant in The Australian yesterday. The Queensland Reds, for instance, having been assured that Will Genia would not be coming home from Europe, went ahead and signed three halfbacks. Then, of course, Genia had a change of heart but Queensland were stuck with their three halfbacks. Now, whether Queensland should then have moved heaven and earth to grab Genia is the moot question. On the evidence of his performance last weekend, they could have culled any of their squad members, no matter how valuable, just to have him. After all, that system worked so well for the Australian Rugby Union last season.
But whether the cannon might have scattered the grapeshot a little wide at times, its intent was entirely on the money. There is still a deep reservoir of unease among rugby followers about how the game is being administered and Jones was spot on in identifying that the problems start with the board of Rugby Australia.
There was a rumour circulating a year or so ago that John O’Neill, the former ARU chief executive, was angling to get himself back on the board. Now, I confess, John and I crossed swords more than once and when he stood down as ARU boss I wrote an entire column without once mentioning his name — which I now concede was taking it just a little over the top. But when I mentioned the rumour to an ARU executive of the time he stressed that it couldn’t happen.
“He’d never get past the nominations committee,” he said.
Yet Jones’s column prompted another thought. If the nominations committee could stop O’Neill’s campaign stone dead, who else was being blackballed? The only member of the board who has given himself body and soul to the game at grassroots level was West Australian Geoff Stooke and he resigned last August when the ARU took the vote to get rid of the Western Force. He hasn’t been replaced. Nor has Liz Broderick. RA has insisted that they will be replaced and that whoever fills Stooke’s position will most likely be from the west. Someone who will particularly watch over the interests of the non-Super Rugby states. I’ll bet that goes down a treat in Perth. Unless, of course, it’s Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.
Jones raises the possibility of Brett Papworth becoming a director. “Over my dead body,” would be the response from inside the club. But why? Papworth has some controversial ideas, some helpful, some not, but he is a former Wallaby and is working at the coalface at Eastwood so his views warrant consideration. And perhaps had the board not overseen the steep decline of Australian rugby, he wouldn’t have any need of his controversial ideas …
So much of the angst that has arisen in Australian rugby can be pinpointed in time: Tuesday, September 28, 2016. That was when a group of concerned citizens, most of them former Wallabies — not Papworth, although indications are he was involved up to his armpits — wrote a letter to ARU chairman Cameron Clyne that began: “Dear Cameron, we write as concerned servants of the game, with some educated observations, and more importantly some serious questions regarding the strategy of your board and executive ...”
Quite frankly, that letter scared the ARU witless. The criticism wasn’t coming from the outlying regions or special interest groups within the game. It was coming straight from the heartland of Sydney and Brisbane. These were the people they stood and chatted with whenever they went down to watch a club match. “Why are you cutting community rugby funding to zero?” the “concerned servants” wanted to know.
The ARU needed money to pump into grassroots rugby but the well had run dry. I’m figuring it was about this time that the ARU began to realise that the alliance announcement they had signed with the Force on June 3, 2016 — the one that casually mentioned they had bought back the Force’s Super Rugby licence — could be used for a purpose that went way beyond centralisation. Every West Australian who put pen to paper to hand the Force over to the ARU has looked back on the day and wished to have his time over. All of them feel betrayed.
So where is the $6 million that Bill Pulver, Castle’s predecessor as RA chief executive, assured the rugby community would be saved by culling a Super Rugby team?
Rugby Australia was put on notice at the end of 2017 that this would be the first question asked when it returned from the Christmas break.
RA then bought itself some time when it pointed out, quite reasonably, that Castle didn’t start until January 15 and she would need some time to get her head around the figures. So the media backed off. But it’s March now and, besides, surely the projects that had been earmarked for new or additional funding have been identified by middle management. Surely Castle had only to assure herself that the money was being well spent before signing off on it?
We all know, of course, that there isn’t going to be any $6m. The Force’s legal bill has cut deeply into it. That much we know. But we also know from the noises emanating from rugby HQ that other factors, so far unstated, have further eroded that figure.
The people of WA, hell, the people of Australia, need to be shown what the death of the Force achieved. Yes, you used to have a Super Rugby team but now you have X, Y and Z. Whatever answer is proffered, I guarantee you it won’t be viewed as satisfactory.
Jones’s column surely sums up the feeling of so many in the game. There is an ongoing malaise in the game. Even the traditional power bases of NSW and Queensland, while they are not stating their views publicly, must be infuriated at the direction RA is now taking. If rugby dies in the heartlands, what other areas are waiting to take up the slack?
Castle asked for six months, so that she could do some listening and thinking. It very much looks like she’s not going to get it.
WAYNE SMITH
Senior sport writer@WayneKeithSmith
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board