All Blacks Furious With Leaked Photo
The photo of the All Black playbook that is causing all the fuss.
New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen slammed the appearance of a photograph of a page of the All Blacks’ playbook in Australian newspapers on Wednesday as a breach of trust with the media.
The picture, showing the hand of New Zealand coach Graham Henry clasping notes detailing five different tactical plays from lineouts and scrums, was snapped during All Blacks training ahead of Saturday’s Tri-nations test against the Wallabies.
“At the end of the day you guys and photographers come to training and there are a few unwritten rules and the photographer has breached the trust. There’s not too much we can do about it,” he told local media on Wednesday.
“The good thing about it is yesterday was a defensive training day so we won’t have to change our tactics too much.
“There are a whole lot of things that are going to happen on Saturday night and I don’t think one photo is going to make too much difference.”
The picture was splashed across Australian newspapers accompanied by varying degrees of analysis.
The Australian newspaper concluded the All Blacks would target flyhalf Matt Giteau and wing James O’Connor in defence, while focusing on negating flanker David Pocock, whose ball-pilfering was praised during the 30-13 defeat of South Africa in Brisbane last week.
Australia’s assistant coach Jim Williams said he had not seen the photograph but dismissed the idea that it would influence his team’s preparations.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it myself and I probably won’t even bother looking at it,” Williams told reporters.
“(It’s) not going to make me take any extra precautions.”
The Wallabies host the All Blacks at Melbourne’s Docklands stadium on Saturday in their first Tri-Nations clash for the season.
Courtesy of REUTERS
Cooper Starts At Flyhalf For Wallabies
Australia coach Robbie Deans will hand Super 14 player-of-the-year Quade Cooper his first international start at flyhalf for Saturday’s Test against Fiji in Canberra.
The Wallabies regular stand-off Matt Giteau switches to inside centre, the position Cooper operated from during last November’s European tour.
Giteau and Cooper’s switch is one of a number of positional changes made by Deans, who is experimenting with his line-up ahead of two matches against England and one against Ireland.
Fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper switches to the wing in order to accommodate Kurtley Beale, and Digby Ioane also moves to the flank to allow NSW Waratah Rob Horne to make his debut at outside centre.
“This is the group we’ve opted to go with first up, a number of the combinations are familiar but the selection template is always a living document,” Deans said on Tuesday.
Cooper’s inclusion comes six months after he was arrested for an alleged break-in at the Surfers Paradise resort, which led to him being ordered by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) to undergo counselling before being considered for reselection.
The New Zealand-born back has been in sensational form since and his Queensland Red’s side narrowly missed out on a place in the Super 14 semi-finals for the first time since 2001.
With thanks to timesonline.co.za
Stormers Allegations Groundless
Referee Craig Joubert looks at the replay on the big screen during the Super 14 final between the Bulls and the Stormers at Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Sanzar will on Tuesday decide whether to act on statements by the Stormers’ captain Schalk Burger and coach Allister Coetzee, about the handling of the match by referee Craig Joubert, but statistics to a very large degree prove the Stormers allegations to be groundless.
The statistics of the match provided by South Africa’s refereeing boss Andre Watson, make it quite clear there was no “coaching” of the Bulls by referee Joubert at the breakdowns as alleged by Burger, who after the match said that two sets of laws were applied by Joubert.
“After reports in various newspapers and websites I looked at whether there were grounds for the allegations,” said Watson.
“According to the reports Craig Joubert allegedly “coached” the Bulls while the Stormers were simply penalised.
“With that as background, I went through every clip of the match – we have the technology to do so – and came to the following conclusions: “There were 167 rucks in the match. The Stormers took the ball in 85 times and the Bulls did so on 82 occasions. Craig (Joubert) spoke 25 times to the Stormers and 28 times to the Bulls at the breakdowns.
“On not a single occasion did he repeat any warning. He throughout warned both sides only once where it was applicable and then penalised them if the persisted.
“The Bulls were penalised seven times at the breakdowns and the Stormers twice. Every penalty but two, where he penalised immediately, came after warnings to the offending side.”
The statistics were gathered by Watson because Burger, after the game, openly said two sets of rules were applied by referee Joubert in what is widely construed as an act that comes close to accusing the referee of cheating.
Watson would not respond to whether action would be taken against the Stormers captain — and coach — for their utterances.
“That is not my place, its Sanzar’s decision.”
Sanzar’s director in South Africa, Johan Botes, said a decision whether to take the matter further will only be reached on Tuesday.
“At this stage the allegations are just hearsay. We are gathering all the facts and detail and Sanzar will take a decision tomorrow (Tuesday),” Botes said.
Brumbies flyhalf Matt Giteau was fined $5000 after critisising referee Steve Walsh’s handling of their Super 14 match against the Waratahs.
Walsh was replaced as referee for the Brumbies’ following match against the Reds after having been previously appointed to officiate in this fixture.
With thanks to timesonline.co.za
Giteau Told It Like It Is?
Steve Walsh speaks to Liam Messam of the Chiefs.
Sanzar got it right in deciding that Steve Walsh shouldn’t referee Saturday night’s Brumbies-Reds match but were wrong in forcing Matt Giteau to front its judiciary committee last night on a code of conduct charge.
Giteau was fined $5000 for making comments to a journalist about Walsh’s dreadful refereeing last weekend – comments many thought were perfectly justified, considering the despair the Brumbies felt after several of his decisions spoiled their chances of winning in Sydney.
Giteau was asked legitimate questions by a reporter on Monday, and he gave honest answers.
The conversation went:
Reporter: How are you guys going to be if Steve Walsh is refereeing on Saturday night?
Giteau: Mate, I don’t know if we’ll turn up. What’s the point?
Reporter: So you’re hoping he gets relegated then?
Giteau: Yeah, I think so. I think everyone is.
Earlier he was asked what he thought of Adam Ashley-Cooper’s try being disallowed.
”Like anyone that knows rugby, it was a try,” Giteau replied.
If Sanzar prefers censorship, fine. But if that is the case, it then has no alternative but to closely scrutinise comments yesterday by its referees’ boss, Lyndon Bray, and hit him with a code of conduct charge as well.
Bray went on New Zealand radio to justify why Walsh was pulled from the Brumbies-Reds match and replaced by Chris Pollock, and the subject soon turned to Giteau’s comments. At the time of this radio interview, it was widely known that Giteau was expected to face a Sanzar judiciary hearing.
Bray said he thought Giteau ”definitely needs to face a disciplinary hearing on the comments”. He added that Giteau had to be held ”accountable”, and that it would be ”nice” if Giteau was suspended at least for the Reds match.
Nice!!! These are not ”nice” or particularly smart comments before a SANZAR judicial hearing.
They come across as a high-ranking official putting pressure on others within the organisation to make sure Giteau is penalised. For that, Bray must be pulled into line, especially as he also said that, in his opinion, the ”hammer” had to be brought down on Giteau taking an emotional approach when criticising Walsh.
As perplexing was the reasoning behind Walsh no longer being the referee at Canberra Stadium. According to Bray, Walsh’s demotion had more to do with concerns the game would turn into a circus if he was the referee, rather than a penalty for the numerous diabolical decisions he made last weekend, or the running battle he had all night with Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles.
”We have to look at the best interests of the game this weekend, as well as what’s in the best interests of Steve as a referee,” Bray said.
”It is very unfortunate the Brumbies have come out very publicly with those particular comments. They have made it very untenable for Steve to be able to work in that environment.”
So it was all the Brumbies fault. Who’s kidding who?
Bray then defended Walsh for disallowing Ashley-Cooper’s try for a ”double moment”.
If Bray seriously thinks Ashley-Cooper’s try wasn’t a try, it just proves why so many referees have got it wrong in the past, because such try attempts, which aren’t exactly uncommon, have regularly resulted in five points being awarded.
At least all this brouhaha has momentarily succeeded in diverting everyone’s attention to the real problem at the Brumbies – internal division from there being too many chiefs and not enough indians. Who knows – the Walsh debacle may see them band together again.
Courtesy of stuff.co.nz
HAVE YOUR SAY: Should he have been censored? Or should he voice his opinions whether or not they are tru?
Reds Chase Historic Victory
Queensland Reds: Rampant
There is plenty at stake for the Reds in their impending match against the Brumbies.
The nerves are jangling but Queensland coach Ewen McKenzie insists it’s business as usual for the high-flying Reds in the countdown to their most significant Super rugby match in almost a decade.
Widely written off pre-tournament as title pretenders, the fourth-placed Reds can take another giant stride towards securing their first playoff berth since 2001 with an historic victory over the sixth-placed Brumbies in Saturday night’s high-stakes derby at Canberra Stadium.
The Reds’ dreadful 1-14 record against the Brumbies in Super rugby includes none from eight in the nation’s capital, but McKenzie says past results are totally irrelevant to his free-spirited class of 2010.
“Those sort of records, while undesirable, are always there to be changed,” he said on Friday. “So to change a bit of history would be nice this weekend.
“I’ve won lots of games down here – but obviously in different capacities.”
Indeed, the hoodoo-busting McKenzie has made a career of rewriting history, both as player and coach.
High among his list countless firsts achieved during a five-year reign as NSW coach were plotting the Waratahs’ maiden win in Canberra in 2005 before taking the sky blues to a first Super final the same season.
And just like those trailblazing Waratahs, McKenzie says his history-chasing Reds had embraced every challenge to confront them this campaign and were approaching their latest assignment with equal relish.
“We’re looking forward to the game,” McKenzie said.
“The players have been a bit nervous for the past few weeks, (not just this week).
“Collectively since the Sharks game we’ve been walking a bit of a tightrope so it’s not like this week is any different.
“The last three games we’ve had a fair bit of pressure.
“We’ve got a very excited fan base and sponsorship base. Queensland’s pretty excited about what’s going on in terms of the rugby.
“But that’s been great. It’s been a lot of fun and we’re making sure we enjoy the occasions, enjoy the moments as we go along.
“We’re not getting bogged down in pressure.”
Skipper Will Genia shared McKenzie’s quiet confidence.
“It’s obviously been mentioned that we haven’t won here since rugby went professional (in 1996) so it’s definitely something that we’re looking forward to breaking,” he said.
Despite the Reds having knocked off all three sides above them on the ladder, the level-headed Genia said there was no chance of his side underestimating the Brumbies, who have lost back-to-back matches to fall out of the four.
“It’s definitely going to be a tough challenge,” he said.
“The Brumbies, with their team on paper, if they click, they can beat any team in the competition.
“Last year they came off a massive loss to the Hurricanes and ended up beating us by 50 points.
“You’ve got to nullify their threats and they’ve got threats all over the park, guys like Matt Giteau, Rocky Elsom, Adam Ashley-Cooper …”
While the Reds could lose and still make the semi-finals, anything but victory would cruel the Brumbies’ playoff hopes as they sit precariously seven points adrift of the top four with just three rounds remaining.
With thanks to stuff.co.nz
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