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Rugby News Australia, World Champions Springboks unstoppable with their brilliant start to the 2024 Rugby Championship following a 33-7 win over the Wallabies

by Sports Benches

The Summer Olympics may not be over just yet but we had a Rugby match just now over at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane to kickstart the 2024 Rugby Championship season between the Wallabies and Springboks. The first half 100% belongs to the Boks with three early tries (21-0) before they kept on adding another 1-2 tries later on to safeguard their huge win & the Wallabies finally added the one and only TRY that late following a tough afternoon in the office with a few mins to go when the Boks had to play 13 men due to their yellow card punishments. The final score was Springboks 33-7 Wallabies.

Everyone in Rugby can’t get enough of the Springboks left winger Kurt-Lee Arendse following his two-try haul this afternoon v the Wallabies in Brisbane. He’s one of the Boks best players any team would want him any day of the week having won both United Rugby Championship and World Cup titles including last year. Not only he’s an outstanding team player as long as Arendse is supported via the passage of play, he’s also an unreal athlete when it comes to these 1 v 1 battles as well as team-supported tries through the gate.

Here’s another Bok who always have been there and done that before with lots of winning games and titles and is still doing it with no introduction to Pieter-Steph Du Toit on the second row at No.5. One word to describe his performance today – a beast in all areas every time the Boks go their way. Also, having lots of ball benefitted his game too including these winning penalties and ball carries on the counter-attack that led to so many tries including an early 1st half TRY for himself.

Gotta say the Bokke were simply too good to begin their 2024 Rugby Championship campaign & they’ve have another match to come v Wallabies also away from home (It’s going to be like this going forward every two years probably due to the long travel times since the 2022 edition) next Saturday night at Optus Stadium in Perth.

And the best Wallabies player to look out for today in spite of an underwhelming performance today v the World Champs is Hunter Paisami at second five-eighth No.12. He did his best all afternoon who has all the physical skillsets to smash and lock up any opposing team, especially when playing regularly at Suncorp Stadium every first-half season for the Reds. It’s so unfortunate the Wallabies have lost it for the most part when less ball and ill-discipline came back to bite them, not even a late TRY was even enough & it’s up to them to match the Boks attack for the 2nd Test in Perth.

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Rugby Union Today: Wallabies break away from Georgia’s 2nd half improvements with the eleven-point win at Allianz Stadium

by Sports Benches

It’s been an excellent contest of International Rugby throughout the afternoon at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park between the Wallabies v the emerging Georgia team as we now turn our attention to the Rugby 7s over in Paris for the Olympics next week followed by another year of the Rugby Championship campaign that will begin early next month. 

Georgia opened the scoring first off the back of the three-point penalty goal but it was the Wallabies at home who dominated the first 40 including another set of tries right on half-time, 26-10.Second half saw Georgia improving their game at the restart where we witnessed two quick sensational tries that puts them back on track to the Wallabies radar at one point.

At the end of the day though, the Wallabies have held their lead baton through full-time with the 11-point win, 40-29. They benefitted a series of opposition handling errors & ill-discipline with no disrespect to Georgia, who gave them a hard time all along, as Wallabies now has three wins now so far in 2024 under the tutelage of coach Joe Schmidt. 

The Wallabies long-term back rowers are safe with Fraser McReight on the openside 7 following his A-game performance this afternoon v Georgia. He’s the go-to man who can lock up defenses every time the opposition lack numbers. Not only that, he has power of physical steel that makes a big difference with a few tries off the back of Georgia’s silly mistakes/handling errors, especially in attack having ensured the win for the Wallabies at the end of the day.

Then we have another Wallabies main man at the back in Tom Wright at 15. He knows how to make that attack flow as seen regularly with the Brumbies where he never stops running while Tom can smash the opposition blocks – all of this has been created so they can get the job done with both hands. That’s without saying this contest was a practice match v Georgia which wasn’t easy & he’ll make sure the Wallabies continues with the Rugby Championship set to begin next month.

And shoutout to Aka Tabutsadze following his sensational 2nd half display on the Georgian right wing at 14. You can’t underestimate his abundance on pace who can win these 1 v 1 battles from out of nowhere as if he’s competing in the 100m sprint Final – Georgia should get him on their Track & Field team now to Stade De France for the Olympics next month!!

Yes, he had some mistakes including the ill-discipline that forced the Wallabies hand at times but he won’t be short of suitors as better competition v the top teams more often including domestic level as they hope will make him & his country reach new levels – such as getting Tier 1 status so Georgia can look to crack the Top 10 rankings as well as the chance to play in the Europe’s elite United Rugby Championship competition in the long run. We’ll keep a good track on them as time goes by.

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International Rugby News 2024: Wallabies hold on tight v Wales with a 2-0 series clean sweep victory tonight at AAMI Park

by Sports Benches

The two-test series belongs to the Wallabies with a 2-0 whitewash v Wales on what has been a close encounter tonight under wet and wild weather at AAMI Park in Melbourne. Wallabies fired off well where they were comfortably ahead whereas Wales struggled for the most part until they found the touch line twice off the back of two successful line-out penalties as Wallabies lead by nine points at half-time, 23-14. 

Wales did have an excellent restart that puts them back in the game by a two point difference at one stage. However, the Wallabies puts them into bed off the back of Wales’s series of silly and disciplinary mistakes. Not only the Wallabies continued to score a couple of more tries, but they’ve done enough to stop Wales from closing out the match with the eight point win, 36-28. My predictions for that game wasn’t bad with Wallabies to win the other day by eight & they did win by eight!!

Plus, also happy to see a Trans-Tasman clean sweep with the All Blacks also won v England earlier this evening at Eden Park by 24-17 on top of their one point win (16-15) last Saturday in Dunedin. Now there’s one last set of matches to go in the July Internationals next Saturday where the ABs will jet off to San Diego v Fiji while the Wallabies will be back at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park this time in the arvo v Georgia at 3.45pm.

The flying Filipo Daugunu showcased his magic as usual on the left wing like he did with the Rebels this year & sure he’ll continue to do so when he will back at the Queensland Reds next season. He’s not afraid to go up high while having an abundance of who finish it off with the ball with two tries and can also defend, having been a goalkeeper & even striker in the past through junior soccer. Melbourne Rugby fans will always remember him for his contribution there both club & country.

If one Melbourne-related rugby player isn’t enough to cheer on, how about we look at someone that is born and bred & now plays for the ACT Brumbies? His name is Rob Valetini on the back row this time on the open flanker at No.6. He’s the man who can get down and steal the ball back defensively that leads to turnovers/winning penalties before Rob can be an exceptional force going forward at the breakdown that proved to be a big difference tonight, especially when he kept the lead away from Wales in the 2nd half.

And the only man that pushed Wales as best as possible through the very end is another left winger in 24-year-old Rio Dyer. Love how he processed that quick ball assist to Liam Thomas where Wales were two points off at one stage after half-time before he has unbelievable pace to finish things off like that sensational 70th minute masterclass TRY. It’s a shame that Wales suffered ill-discipline all along + a series of silly mistakes when most of his backline buddies were a horror show, especially when trying to pass the Wallabies for the lead under pressure & yet Wales still without a win so far in 2024.

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Top 3 Rugby Union news this week: Trans-Tasman’s perfect start to the two-match July Internationals, ACT Brumbies to hand over control to Rugby Australia & Club Rugby is back on 9Gem for another year this weekend

by Sports Benches

There has been plenty of rugby news over the last couple of days ahead of another big weekend of International Rugby where a couple of two-match tours is about to come to an end, although they do have another match left to play but this time it will be against the lesser sides before we turn our attention to the Rugby 7s at the Summer Olympics in Paris towards the end of this month. Not only that, there’s a huge change coming at the ACT Brumbies in Canberra when it comes to the off-field operations and Club Rugby is back on free-to-air once again via 9Gem that will go for little over a month including Finals beginning this weekend whether if you’re tuning in for the Shute Shield in New South Wales or Hospital Cup in Queensland.

International Rugby

All Blacks were relieved to see off England unscathed by a single point 15-16 in Dunedin while the Wallabies may have a huge task ahead following their disastrous World Cup pool stage run last year but at least a win is a good start to get on top of the under-pressure Wales side 25-16. What’s even better that both sides were able to hold onto their respective series plates, even though the final Test results aren’t guaranteed to see out for sure when they retained them last time around. Now the ABs will head off to Eden Park in Auckland which is place they do so well all the time and Wallabies play at AAMI Park in Melbourne this Saturday. The reception there in Melbourne is going to be mixed when Rugby Australia decided to axe the Melbourne Rebels at season’s end towards the end of May & it won’t be the same without rugby fans going there as if they have no home-supporting player to cheer on for the Green and Gold – despite the team’s one & only rare good season that wrapped up the Rebels’ 14 year existence but again, it was due to financial reasons & the board moved on with the times now.

Predictions: All Blacks to win v England by 13 points and Wallabies to win v Wales by 8 points – so another Southern Hemisphere/Tasman clean sweep then to round off their respective two-match July tours.

Super Rugby 1: Australia

Speaking of Rugby Australia, their plans to have their Super Rugby teams being centralised (similar to the setup in New Zealand and Ireland) has taken another step this week as the ACT Brumbies now became the second team after the NSW Waratahs to hand over their off-field operations to the governing body – such as the high performance, players/staff and the commercial departments. That way, RA will look after both the Brumbies and Waratahs in the hope of getting back to their best while the state-run organizations will focus on getting the best out of Club and Grassroots Rugby – even though the Brumbies is by far the No.1 Australian Super Rugby side every year. They won’t be leaving Canberra after all which is good news, although they might be open to host some games in Melbourne since the Rebels is now gone (again not a merger).

If that happens, then it will be great to see Melbournians return to AAMI Park by getting behind the best Australian Super Rugby team in the Brumbies and that is gonna help inspire the kids there to start playing Rugby in their local area before they can make a name for themselves once they’ve grown up through the junior representative ranks with Rugby Victoria. All of that can be done while the Brumbies will always remain first and foremost in Canberra hoping they can make the Grand Final at last by knicking the championship. Even though Western Force will stay on as Australia’s 4th Super Rugby team, hoping they can get some support from Japan like reviving to boost their on-field performances if they can’t do well next season when a national third-tier competition is back on the cards – as if Japan is the perfect nation to replace South Africa in Super Rugby without having to sacrifice their own Top League competition thanks to the huge amount of seasoned Internationals they’ve got there. Again, most of the home games would come from Perth with some over in Tokyo and Singapore.

Super Rugby 2: New Zealand

Looking across the Ditch a bit in NZ, the Highlanders have re-installed Jamie Joseph as their head coach once again with Clarke Dermody demoting as his No.2 assistant coach. Yes, it was great seeing them enjoy some success in 6th this season but the Highlanders still have a long way to go if they want to challenge the Blues, Chiefs and Hurricanes someday since their last championship back in 2015 under Joseph during his 1st spell before he went on to coach Japan and is now back at home to turn things around for Otago. Their attack has been somewhat hesitant at times that consigned them to losses, especially when playing against the Australian teams but most of home games they’ve played though ain’t bad. Watch this space as this is the team they wanted to reclaim its former glory having last won the Super Rugby title under the six-team Playoffs format before its complicated expansion between 2016-2024, which is expected to be revived as a 11-team competition next season.

Club Rugby

And last but not least, while the respective Shute Shield and Hospital Cup competitions are ongoing since the start of April, it’s great to see both Club Rugby competitions return to free-to-air a bit relatively early this weekend via 9Gem for another year in 2024 starting with the last five regular rounds followed three weeks of Finals. That gives you a huge Saturday viewing line-up of Rugby there with Club Rugby in the afternoon before finishing off the rest of your evening with some of the Wallabies action when playing at home including the 2nd Test v Wales in Melbourne. Although it remains to be seen whether if next weekend’s Shute Shield free-to-air viewing would bump into Sunday or be pitted at the same time as the one-off Wallabies match v Georgia that is going to be aired on the main channel at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park. The same thing should apply with the Hospital Cup for those tuning in from Queensland. The Shute Shield commentary team will look a bit different when Will Davies will be out for a while to commentate Field Hockey at the Olympics soon for Nine with former Hockeyroo Georgie Parker, but he should be back after this to call the Shute Shield Finals like he did last year – having also called a series of Super W games more often, as well as some Wallaroos Tests and the odd Super Rugby match (Force v Fijian Drua) so far this year.

UPDATE: Next round’s Shute Shield game for Round 15 is scheduled on a rare Sunday afternoon next weekend at 3pm between reigning champions Randwick v Warringah, so this should be on 9Gem while Nine will showcase Wallabies and Georgia to fill up the primary 3pm Saturday afternoon slot on the main channel. For Queensland viewers though, not so much where you would need both a TV and a portable device or a computer to watch both rugby games at the same time.

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Wallabies are back in business that gave Joe Schmidt his first win on the job in Game 1 of 2 v Wales by nine points at Allianz Stadium 

by Sports Benches

What a night it has been for the Green & Good to walk away with the win v Wales at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park as they now retained the James Bevan Trophy ahead of their 2nd and final Test next Saturday at AAMI Park in Melbourne.

The first half kinda scrappy where Wales opened the scoring account first via the three-point penalty goal including a penalty TRY, but the Wallabies had a narrow three-point advantage off the back of their first TRY by Taniela Tupou in between two successful penalty goals from Noah Lolesio going into the break 13-10. Nothing much happened into the second half despite some glimpses of promise from the Welsh when they were not far away from the Wallabies radar for the lead. However, a series of missed opportunities in open play including an observation that denied them the TRY forced the Wallabies hand later on where it ultimately came back to bite them as Wales still yet to taste victory this year off the back of a poor Six Nations campaign. Meanwhile, Wallabies continued to maintain their dominant ball off the back of a receiving Wales kick & their poor conversion play where they found the gaps well with pace of nowhere that surprised everyone including the opposition team.

They went on to touch down decent tries through the wide channels courtesy of Filipo Daugunu and Tom Wright before the Wallabies won in the end for the first time in a while off the back of a painful 40-7 Wales loss at the World Cup in France last year that consigned to their first-ever pool stage elimination. The final score was 25-16 with the Wallabies win by 9 points.

Tom Wright kickstarted the new Wallabies year with the bang from the back at 15. He had a really great night in the way he supported his wingers that got the best out of him and his team with thanks to the dominant possession while Tom had excellent recovery ball including from up high to kick his way out of trouble as being tested defensively. But what made him so special is his explosive pace that wowed everyone from out of nowhere. He read that gap well where no one was Wales was able to stop him before Tom got the job done that finally got the Wallabies talking following their worst ever campaign throughout last year as he hopes to give them better days more often like he does to the Brumbies every week of the season.

Although yet to commit to a club next season after good year for the one & only good Rebels season, but Taniela Tupou did well to keep the Welsh quiet on the front row at tighthead. Every time the Welsh couldn’t the best out of their counter-attack in open play or bottled the ball down, Taniela’s there to turn things around thanks to his excellent read and brute physicality that turned out to be his side’s way for the majority. Plus, he never put a foot wrong with great patience thanks to the dominant possession before he left the field in great hands for the Wallabies to get the job done with the win. He made Wallabies supporters in Sydney had a good night, why not do that more often if he goes to the Waratahs? We shall see…

And Wales No.8 Aaron Rainwright did the best he can to keep the Wallabies in check. He’s the man who never stopped working hard while being brave to smash the Wallabies defense that opened up plenty of opportunities for his Welsh side to get over the line. But unfortunately, Wales just couldn’t cut it that frustrated their fans every time when balls go out into the full/touch – despite winning a few penalties. Plus, they had less ball on top of poor line-outs, discipline & defense which was very disappointing. Wales still needs get the job done in order to build on their 2023 World Cup run to the Quarter-Finals & not blow it out like it was before where constant chopping & changing isn’t enough to make them win matches more often.

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Thoughts on whether Rugby Australia can still accommodate the resources & funding to support five Super Rugby teams after the Melbourne Rebels huge success so far in 2024

by Sports Benches

Last night, Melbourne has witnessed their own Rugby team winning another game this time v Highlanders in the form of the Rebels and they now sit in 4th place on the ladder with a bye next week before they resume to go all in & hopefully have their first taste of Finals footy. Although they did play in the Qualifying Final back in 2020 v QLD Reds under a temporary Super Rugby AU comp when COVID interrupted our daily lives at the time & the Waratahs weren’t doing much good back then.

However, questions will still need to be answered by Rugby Australia amid the Rebels still being broke as whether or not if they have the resources including the talent pool to support as many as five teams? It’s been a long-running debate that saw two teams end up in the hole including the ACT Brumbies whose existence will not be taken away anytime soon thanks to their decorated history regularly up front that reflects long-running success. There’s another team that won’t be in for the axe at all is the NSW Waratahs whose history is also so strong in a Rugby dominated state/market that goes back to hundreds of years despite their mediocrity over the last couple of years; Same goes to the Queensland Reds – so rule both of them out too as removing those big influences & RA investing more into the Brumbies, Rebels & even Western Force won’t help that much.

While we’d like to go back to the way things were when the Wallabies were oh so good with just three teams in the 1990s and early 2000s, it won’t happen since the world has changed over time with most professional sports here having an excellent national footprint. At the end of the day, it’s still going to be five teams without needing to axe a team again under a few conditions – if the Rebels get cut, 1. I’d to see a like-for-like replacement with the Jaguares coming back this time as a Melbourne-based team by inheriting most of the Rebels players with a few Los Pumas Internationals coming over and 2. Western Force gets some help from Japan and merge with the Sunwolves while still playing most of the games in Perth.

That way, we will able to meet the goal of having all five Australian Super Rugby teams thriving against the long-dominating New Zealand counterparts. Plus, the talent pool will be stronger as ever which in turn will get more quality Australian Super Rugby players coming from all five teams for the benefit of the Wallabies returning to its former glory by winning games & silverware again while expanding overseas selection availability since the Springboks won back-to-back recent World Cups under this model including the next crop of local grassroots kids who will learn massively from the seasoned Internationals playing here.

And hopefully no more fighting after consistently losing to the All Blacks over the last 20 + Bledisloe Cup editions while experiencing the worst World Cup campaign ever where they exited the group stages for the first time last year in France as the worst thing can happen is for RA to face someone in the courtroom yet again like the Force back in 2017, The end.

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Thoughts on the Melbourne Rebels experiencing its lowest downfall behind the scenes with no guarantee they will be back playing after the 2024 Super Rugby Season

by Sports Benches

Things are going from bad to worse at the Melbourne Rebels who are operating by little by little now. First of all, they’ve entered voluntary administration 1-2 weeks ago while they were owed lots of money in debt. Now not only a few of their staff including the board were forced to leave but also they have just $17,300 left with just a few pieces of office furniture, gym equipment & two cars. Although they will be playing out this season since the fixtures have already been laid out for the over the next few months as there’s no way back, but still no guarantee the Rebels will return in 2025 which will be highly unlikely. 

It will be devastating to see Rugby leave Melbourne where they’ve been the host of the three-day annual Super Round weekend for a few years, which isn’t too far away now for Round 2 at the start of March. They also hosted the home Bledisloe Cup games when the Wallabies v All Blacks over the last two years (2022 at Marvel Stadium & 2023 at MCG) & will be hosting Wales during the 2nd mid-year tour match in mid-July at AAMI Park. Yes, they have also produced a few Wallabies players of their own over the last few years & not being able to play for a local professional team like the Rebels like underage level & then into Super Rugby before stepping up at International level would see them end up elsewhere. Regardless of what happens, there will always be some people wanting to play rugby from a young age in Melbourne & across Victoria.

But if you look at the on-field results however, they barely do anything good apart from the rare 9th placed finish back in 2018 when they benefited from Western Force’s axing from Super Rugby at the time. You might also tell that they do have a great line-up of players too from the off-season despite a huge mess off the field lately, but don’t think it will make much of a difference when all of the players’ contracts including the coaching staff under Kevin Foote will last through the end of June.

Look it’s so hard to tell having looked at options to see the Rebels live on such as merging with another team like the ACT Brumbies from Canberra and even Moana Pasifika. But no matter what you think whether or not if the merged squad would be even stronger, it’s unfortunately not a good idea when merging two teams would see plenty of uproar amongst fans in the Rugby community here. That means, you will be taking out the history they’ve built for such a long time like 27 years & it won’t be good to see that kind of value go, who fear the team they support will soon be gone under a different location & new team identity. It means a lot to them & that will be irreplaceable as Rugby Australia never wanted to do it anyway.

Now here’s what will happen if the Rebels meet their comeuppance, as said, it would be so sad to lose an Australian Super Rugby side as RA always wanted to keep all five teams in order to have a national footprint, which is understandable. 

But the results and lack of silverware including their worst ever World Cup last year is still weighing against them over the last 20 + years as the question is can they support five teams? The answer is no unfortunately because RA proved that they are unable to make room to support themselves financially for all five Super Rugby teams in order to have the best success as we will be down to four after this with the Queensland Reds, NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies & Western Force. Yes, there were rumours about the Brumbies also entering the same way (voluntary administration) as the Rebels, who are also running tight on funds. But considering their strong on-field presence year-long round that includes making the Finals every year where they went all the way as the only Australian team here to the semi-finals meaning it will be too difficult to see them go.

Even so with four teams here that was done on more than a few occasions, they still haven’t translated much success into International level as the Wallabies used to enjoy dominating on the field with just three Super Rugby teams of Reds, Waratahs & Brumbies back then in the 1990s & early 2000s. So is abandoning the national footprint plan for a pro-rugby state strategy that would finally see the Wallabies return to winning ways just like Rugby League does mostly in NSW & QLD? This could finally be the answer with the Western Force from Perth either playing in Japan or relaunching their own comp in Global Rapid Rugby considering Andrew Forrest has lots of cash in the bank. They are a side that has been in and out off the comp for a long time since 2006 whose form weren’t bad during most home games last year but still yet never made the finals.

In the meantime, Rugby Australia has lots of issues to address where the silverware cabinet has been mostly empty other than the rare 2011 Tri Nations & 2015 Rugby Championship as time will tell soon enough with or without the Melbourne Rebels.

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Rugby News Australia, 2024 Super Rugby Season Preview

by Sports Benches

We are about to enter the 28th year of Super Rugby & yet things are still not the same as it once was back in the glorious 1990s-early 2000s when Australia (Wallabies) benefited so much success right until the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Yes, they won just three Super Rugby championships ever since but that doesn’t mean they are on the same standard as their Tasman neighbours, New Zealand. There has been so many changes through the off-season with regards to musical chairs at players and coaching staff amongst multiple teams. Waratahs handed over control to Rugby Australia recently while the Reds got a new head coach. Plus, Brumbies staying strong as the leading Super Rugby team here, as well as Western Force who are looking to return to the finals with the recruitment of some experienced players. And this week, the Melbourne Rebels entered voluntary administration even though they will continue to play just for this season, despite some star hirings of their own.

Over in New Zealand, most of the five teams (Blues, Hurricanes & of course Crusaders) except Chiefs & Highlanders will now have new head coaches where most of them from last year have joined Scott Robertson at the All Blacks as the Crusaders will begin a brand new era in 2024 without him. He was the one who delivered so many Super Rugby championships including last year’s final v Chiefs & it remains to be seen if the Crusaders can keep on winning including delivering another championship under former Waratahs coach Rob Penney. And for the Highlanders, they are under a big rebuilding phase with Jamie Joseph back onboard to try & return to its former glory as the head of rugby after they missed the Top 8 finals bubble in 9th last year.

We also don’t forget the two Pasifika teams to round off the line-up with Fijian Drua coming off from a great second season before they were elminated by the Crusaders in the last 8 as winning away from home would be the great next step to stay in the Top 8 & Moana Pasifika needs more time so they can really win games after they finished last over the last two seasons.

This year could be a great opportunity to see an even/level playing field where it’s Australia’s time at last to catch up to NZ but despite there will be some really close games, the outcome won’t change much where we will see a New Zealand winner once again whether it’s going to be the Crusaders or Blues or Chiefs by surprise whereas the Brumbies will continue being the best Australian Super Rugby team. Likewise in previous seasons though, the Brumbies will unfortunately still be nowhere near the Grand Final radar either in the quarter or semi finals. Yes, Rugby Australia is going with the high performance centralisation system alongside Joe Schmidt as their new head coach in the hope of also winning games again following a disastrous group stage campaign for the first time ever at last year’s World Cup in France. But the question remains to be seen whether or not if they can support five teams, having seen the Rebels fall into trouble off the field this week? While there will always going to be some Victorian/Melbourne born talent, there’s no guarantee that the Rebels will continue to play at AAMI Park going into 2025 and beyond. For now, the new season will start on Friday 23rd February right until mid-June where every game is live and Ad-Free on Stan Sport while there’s always a Saturday night game being simulcast via free-to-air on 9Gem.

Predicting ladder 2024

  1. Crusaders (champions)
  2. Chiefs (then semi-finalists)
  3. Blues (runners-up)
  4. ACT Brumbies (then semi-finalists)
  5. Hurricanes
  6. NSW Waratahs
  7. Queensland Reds
  8. Highlanders
  9. Fijian Drua
  10. Western Force
  11. Melbourne Rebels
  12. Moana Pasifika
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2023 Rugby World Cup Free to Air Programming, Nine will now just show weekly highlights and the Final live following the Wallabies early Pool C exit

by Sports Benches

As the 2023 Rugby World Cups heads into the knockout stage this weekend with four quarter-final matches to kick off, it seems Nine will only air the big Final live now on Sunday 29th October at 5am AEDT since the Wallabies are out of the pool stages for the first time (3rd in Pool C thanks to losses against Fiji & Wales last month).

Other than that, it’s just going to be one-hour weekly highlights show on a Saturday afternoon (2pm tomorrow on the main channel) for the rest of this month. That means, all four quarter-finals, two semi-finals & the bronze medal match will only be shown on Stan Sport – which is Nine’s paid streaming platform where you can watch it without ads. I’m also sure that they will have their own on-air talent for each day of the finals matches as well.

If the Wallabies did make it into the last eight, then we would have at least have two quarter-final games on Nine as well as maybe both semis there and possibly the Bronze Medal match on FTA regardless of their results. But then none of this happened by surprise unfortunately & therefore, Nine will only just air the big Final in order to finish off this tournament.

Then the Rugby season is over for us here as we come back next year with one weekly Saturday night Super Rugby game, as well as selected Shute Shield and Hospital Cup Club Rugby games & the home Wallabies games during the second half of the year live on Nine & 9Gem.

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2023 Rugby World Cup, Wallabies finish their difficult Pool C campaign with the win v Portugal as they sit 2nd behind Wales for now

by Sports Benches

The Wallabies has returned to St Etienne for their 4th & final Pool C group stage match v Portugal earlier today where they opened the scoring account first with a three-point penalty goal before they fought back well from their opponent’s brief 1st half lead with three tries ahead of half-time 24-7. Portugal on the hand has made every serious effort all along which is their 2nd time playing in the Rugby World Cup since 2007 also in France, having made a few big scoring attempts to try & get themselves back on track.  Although they eventually found one at last later in the 2nd half, but the refs’ repeated NO TRY decisions saw the Wallabies hold on & extend their winning share via the bonus point 34-14. So Portugal are out now where they will end up 4th with one match left v Fiji next Monday. Speaking of Fiji, all the Wallabies can hope for is for them to lose during their week-long off if their small Quarter-Final chance can be possible v England on the 15th this month.

Nick Frost has made a huge difference in the Wallabies first half display on the Second Row at No.4 just like he has been all along as seen with the Brumbies in Super Rugby level. He’s two metres tall with excellent physical power to not just hold the opponents up through a brick wall but also muscles his way forward when his side has the ball before Nick earned an early rest not long after half-time at 24-7.

There’s another Brumbies player who never stopped working hard also for the Wallabies is Rob Valetini at No.8, having saw off a threatening Portuguese attack whenever possible. He’s got the pace, physical strength, backing up/communication & vision there to help find the Wallabies get past the opposition line with the ball where tries were made there. They too had another great year in Super Rugby where the Brumbies finished Top 4/semis, but here’s hoping they can get some support & create some robust competition in order to win trophies going forward – which is a clear message Rugby Australia must fix ASAP.

And Samuel Marques has been such a huge threat to the Wallabies own half, who has lots of experience playing in France as well for the Portuguese National side at half-back (No.9 shirt). He has great control with the ball while he communicated with his team-mates well in order to strike the best scoring chances possible; Plus, he can be a handy conversion kicker too. Yes, Portugal should’ve scored more than just the two tries if the ref didn’t deny them, but sure they will continue to improve over time – it’s the things we love to see in World Rugby.

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