Bizarre stuff with the BaaBaas, they announced that Quade Cooper was called up for the squad and then Cooper tweeted to say he never agreed to play
What do we think of the new Ireland kits?
Pretty unimaginative as always from Canterbury
https://www.elverys.ie/Elverys/Rugby/Ireland-Rugby-Jersey-%7C-Shop-Irish-Rugby-%7C-Elverys/Irish-Rugby-Kit-%7C-Ireland-Rugby-Jersey-%7C-Elverys/Canterbury-IRFU-2021%C2%A0Pro-Home-Jersey/p/000000000001118068_GREEN
Well, it depends more what you think of the change strip, because World Rugby have made a new policy to avoid colour blindness clashes for the viewers so green and red and lack of contrast will be mandated. In other words, Ireland and Wales are unlikely to face each other in traditional colours again.
I do have some sympathy for this, I'm a bit colour blind down the dark end of the spectrum myself and recently when Australia wore their dark green native art kit and Argentina wore Navy with blue trim, it just looked like 30 All Blacks to me.
1000% nicer than the current ones
And yet still a million times better than what Adidas produce for the Provinces.
I think it looks decent. Looks like they just combined the 2018 and 2019 6N jerseys and out came that. Better than the 2019 WC one. Although I don’t know how much of that is down to the memories it evokes :D
How Canada have fallen , were a very strong team in 1990's now failed to qualify for World Cup, beaten by Chile. Good luck to Chile.
It seems that Canada weren't allowed or able to or decided not to call up some of the European players, with former captain Tyler Ardron only hooking up with the team for the last game. In the Canooks defence they had played just two summer tests since 2019 before this series so ring rust was undoubtedly a factor for them. That said, Chile were excellent value for their win and were definitely the better team over the two games. For their sins, Los Condórs have to play the US Eagles for the final spot in the summer of 2022; watch this space.
With the South African teams now playing in our league, what do ye all think of Irish lads signing for a Bok side? I would love to see some of out lads give it a shot.
About as likely as an Irish player signing for a Welsh or Scottish team.
I don't know? If a contract is offered in S.A, I think some players may jump at the opportunity! It certainly could be an option!
I dont think so, unless SA unions find some serious dough from somewhere
I think the SA teams are going to have a tough enough time retaining their Bok eligible players.
Also, if I was a foreign player coming to SA I wouldn't want to be paid in ZAR.
We might see one or two head down over time but in reality any Irish player with potential to get capped will likely be playing regularly for one of the Provinces!
Ian Keatley was playing for Glasgow just last season!
Well indeed - you might get the odd fringe/completely internationally non-existent player going to play, but it won't be any more common than it is now. Which is not very.
Beirne's route is analogous though. I could see younger players, the likes of those who don't graduate into the senior teams from academies, trying their hand with one of the SA teams. The lower wages might not matter so much to guys coming out of the academies who decide to give rugby a couple of years to see how it goes. They'll be in the shop window playing against the provinces each season. I could see a couple of those teams being more competitive than the Welsh or Italian in the coming years, and Ill bet a young player would get some good coaching in SA.
Very sad news coming in about the passing of Sean wainui in New Zealand.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/oct/18/sean-wainui-new-zealand-rugby-mourns-death-of-super-rugby-star
He had great things ahead of him, such a shame, RIP.
some good news
HIGHLANDERS SECURE NEW LICENCE
The Highlanders ownership group have secured a licence in perpetuity from New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to operate the Highlanders Club in the wider Otago and Southland region.
The current licence to operate expired this year and the process of renewal has been ongoing between NZR and the Highlanders ownership group.
Obtaining the new licence is positive news for the southernmost Super Rugby Club locking in the Highlanders presence in the region and any future Super Rugby competitions
The scoreline is impressive, but for me what's even more eye catching is New Zealands squad. So many of their u20's made a successful transition to senior pro rugby and then the test side. There's more than a dozen from that side who went on to win senior caps for the All Blacks. Must be the most successful U20 side ever?
the kiwis must have been short players that day cos a welsh bystander had to come in a play in the 13 jersey for them ;)
Davy Tweed is dead.
Thats the best I can say for him.
If you were asked to name the one player in the kiwi team who went on to play for Wales....
Him and the loose head prop are the only 2 names i don't recognise. All the others went on to play test rugby. Hell of a team.
Joe Schmidt dipping his toe back into coaching with a part time gig with the Blues. Wonder if we'll see him getting back to it full time in the next few years.
I thought he had a role with world rugby at the moment?
He's finished that at the end of the year
https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12321/12398171/joe-schmidt-former-ireland-head-coach-to-leave-world-rugby-role
See the Blues announced it this morning.
He's only 56 so still some miles in the tank.
in the next edition of "what could have been"...
where would Australian Rugby be if they had have taken twiggys offer back in 2017.
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/aru-call-to-reject-twiggys-50m-offer-will-hurt-grassroots-rugby-20170824-gy2v7k.html
https://twitter.com/RugbyKino/status/1455626071068614659?s=20
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