Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Henry doubts depth of Australian talent
World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Graham Henry doubts whether Australia has the depth to continue to field five Super Rugby teams.
Henry believes guaranteeing a side entry into the semi-final purely by virtue of being the best team from its country devalues the tournament.
At present the Australia, New Zealand and South Africa conference winners progress to the play-offs, alongside the three other best finishing sides.
Australia's best performing side this season, the Brumbies, have the sixth best record in the competition despite playing more games against Australian opposition than Kiwi or Springbok sides.
"The Australian conference has been disappointing," Henry told Fox Sports.
"The idea of the team who wins each conference being in the semis may come under some question."
Super Rugby only allows teams to recruit two foreign players, meaning the bulk of a side's success revolves around home players, and Henry doubts whether there are enough good players in Australia to make up five sides.
"You wonder sometimes whether there's a depth of player to warrant five teams, and whether that's a positive for Australian rugby," Henry said.
"We need Australia strong - world rugby needs Australia strong.
"They're going to be strong as a group of 26 or 30 players, but we need some development underneath that. I'm not quite sure what the answer is."
Henry also spoke about Quade Cooper, who is nearing recovering from the knee injury suffered in the World Cup third-place play-off.
The former Wales coach said the Tokoroa-born fly half only had himself to blame for the bad reception he received during the tournament in his mother country.
"I've got a lot of respect for his ability to play the game, he's a talented player," Henry said.
"But a couple of Test matches prior (to the World Cup), in Hong Kong and then the Bledisloe Cup game in Brisbane, there were a couple of cheap shots.
"Those things live in people's memories.
"I think he brought it on himself quite frankly."
Tags: sport, rugby-union, super-rugby, new-zealand First posted May 04, 2012 09:39:56Monday, January 23, 2012
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Australian Under-20s lose to Baby Blacks
Australia lost last year's final 62-17 to New Zealand and was again clinically dismantled by the Baby Blacks, who now face England in the final in Padova on Sunday after beating France 33-18 in the other semi-final.
Scraping into the finals on a points differential countback, Australia chose to send the ball wide at every chance and that approach paid dividends in the 13th minute when winger Chris Nasiganiyavi crossed in the corner.
But New Zealand hit back quickly through winger Francis Saili and two late penalty goals to Gareth Anscombe gave New Zealand a 13-7 lead at half-time.
The second stanza was all New Zealand, with winger Charles Piutau touching down for the opening try while Anscombe slotted a penalty and then pounced on an error by Ben Volavola to score a simple try which he also converted.
With Australia looking unlikely to stage a comeback New Zealand coach Mark Anscombe rang in the changes, giving substitute half-back Mitchell Scott an opportunity to score the side's fourth and final converted try with three minutes remaining.
The final will be the third time in four tournaments that New Zealand and England have met in the title decider.
- AAP
Tags: sport, rugby-union, australia, italy, new-zealand