Rugby Union | Blogs | Paper Round

September 2, 2010

Pacy Pesamino keeps Sale guessing over his arrival date

Samao star Mikaele Pesamino cruises over for a try during the London Sevens in May © Getty Images

The Independent reports on the increasingly curious case of Mikaele Pesamino, the Samoan Sevens ace who signed for Sale Sharks two months ago but has yet to appear at Edgeley Park.

"Mikaele Pesamino, the spectacularly successful seven-a-side specialist from Samoa, is widely considered to be among the quickest players in world rugby. Unfortunately for Sale, his new employers, the Pacific islander's move to the north-west of England has been slow to the point of tortoise-like.
"A day before the start of a new Aviva Premiership season that is pivotal to the club's future as a serious force in the domestic game, there is still no sign of the man, although if he is as fast as people say, he may possibly have been and gone without anyone noticing.

"Mike Brewer, who is about to embark on his first campaign as the head coach at Edgeley Park, is more than a little baffled - hardly an ideal state of mind, given the proximity of tomorrow night's opener against Newcastle."

Toughest test yet for Irish provinces

Posted 7 hours, 38 minutes ago

Hugh Farrelly of the Irish Independent assesses the challenges facing the four Irish provinces ahead of the new Magners League season.

"With the World Cup just over a year away, and Ireland's frontline players operating under a carefully managed protection policy, the provinces face into their most challenging season since the inception of the Magners League a decade ago.
"Squad strength, particularly in Munster and Leinster, will be tested like never before and the respective coaches find themselves in the difficult position of trying to create cohesion without having the luxury of consistent team selection.

"Injuries do not help matters, with only Ulster heading into the campaign close to full strength. Leinster have captain and second-row Leo Cullen, prop Stan Wright and flanker Kevin McLaughlin on the long-term injury list while Munster are without twin totems Paul O'Connell and Keith Earls."

IRB foolish to keep playing loyalty card

Posted 7 hours, 51 minutes ago

Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills addresses the issue of player release ahead of the new season.

"The international game is booming; the style produced by New Zealand in particular in recent months, the finest advertisement possible for the old game.
"In Europe, a new season begins this weekend and hopes are high. With a World Cup now just 12 months away, immense challenges face both players and coaches. Even in these financially stressed times, sponsors continue to beat a path to rugby's door. It is a wonder to behold.

"And yet trouble looms in the field of player availability. The International Rugby Board's desire to sanction more and more international matches, sometimes regardless of hitherto agreed 'windows' in the year's playing calendar, threatens to cause huge trouble."

McGahan looks to re-energise Munster

Posted 7 hours, 57 minutes ago

In an interview with the Irish Times, Munster boss Tony McGahan talks about the pressure he is under to deliver some silverware this season.

"By most normal standards, it would have been deemed a singularly competitive campaign. Despite being ravaged by injuries - five of their first-choice pack and a key back started less than half their games - they reached the semi-finals of both competitions only to lose both away from home. But this is Munster.
"When they did enjoy a relatively settled spell of games they reached their peaks – Perpignan and Treviso in January, Northampton in the quarter-finals. What rankled though was the manner in which they lost to Leinster and Biarritz, especially the way the latter blitzed the Munster scrum.

"It must have made for a lonely end-of-season and long summer for Tony McGahan. 'I suppose any job has its pitfalls or its obstacles, whether you’re a top or middle club or one down near the bottom, but I was lucky enough to be here for a few years before I took over the coach’s head role so I knew the expectations from everyone involved - players, management, the branch, all the fans, not only in Munster but across the world. It doesn’t make it easy but you still enjoy it and that hasn’t changed.'"

September 1, 2010

Deans lays down the law

Posted 1 day, 8 hours ago

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has laid down the law to his under-performing squad © Getty Images

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has warned several players to get out of their comfort zone or their World Cup aspirations will be over. The Sydney Morning Herald's Greg Growden reports.

"What irritates Deans most is that he cannot penalise the repeat offenders because the back-up is so shallow. Some are holding on to their Wallabies spots simply because there is no one else available for selection. But he warned that when Digby Ioane, Ben Alexander, James Horwill, Wycliff Palu, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Peter Hynes, Rob Horne, Dan Vickerman and Rod Davies again became available, he would not be sympathetic to those members of the squad in South Africa who failed to lift their standards over the next fortnight.
"World Cup spots could easily be determined by how some players fare in Bloemfontein and against the All Blacks the following weekend in Sydney.

"Deans said he had not lost hope of former Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock returning via the Melbourne Rebels next year, explaining that players who achieve high-impact performances would help transform this erratic line-up."

New-look Leinster ready for the next step

Posted 1 day, 8 hours ago

Leinster manager Guy Easterby talks to the Irish Times' Gerry Thornley ahead of the new season.

"Three of last season’s coaching ticket have departed; a cadre of experienced players have retired; their European crown has slipped; they lost the Magners League final at home; they have a brute of a draw in the Heineken Cup, and a combination of central contracting and the imminence of the World Cup means many of their front-liners will scarcely play half the games in an expanded Magners League. Ye Gods. Leinster supporters are entitled to be a tad apprehensive about a new season.
"The new management ticket, headed by Joe Schmidt, always knew the 2011 World Cup was going to result in player restrictions, and new manager Guy Easterby maintains “it’s still a pretty good hand”.

"Schmidt, with retained forwards coach Jonno Gibbes, skills and kicking coach Richie Murphy and scrum coach Greg Feek, inherits a high-achieving squad of players with a winning culture.

"Even the younger lads have been part of that winning mentality and they’re going to get their opportunity,” says Easterby. “For some of them it might prove too soon, but in a year or 18 months’ time we’re going to come out with a couple of decent players who may otherwise have never got that exposure at such a young age.”

"Easterby talks about the likes of flanker Rhys Ruddock, capped in the summer, and 20-year-old prop Jack McGrath, of whom much is hoped. To that can be added fellow flankers Paul and Dominic Ryan, and an opportunity should finally knock for Devin Toner."

French lesson for Higgins

Posted 1 day, 8 hours ago

Exeter's Andrew Higgins hopes French leave will help him bounce back from Bath shame. The Daily Telegraph's Mick Cleary reports.

"The road to redemption has not taken many players via a cocktail bar in the oldest quarter of Paris or a six-month stint keeping uppity waiters in check as the general manager of a restaurant in the French capital’s swanky 1st arrondissement, but Andrew Higgins has rarely conformed to type.
"The former Bath wing, banned for nine months after becoming embroiled in the club’s notorious drink-fuelled, scandal-ridden end-of-season party in May 2009, signed for Exeter Chiefs before they had secured promotion to the Premiership.

"Higgins, an abrasive, hard-running player, wanted to get back in after several months away from rugby and swirling allegations. He knows that he will be a curiosity item in these early weeks, the focal point for those looking to see if he can still deliver on the elite stage after an unseemly exit from Bath. Higgins, 29, feels he has something to prove, to himself, if not to others."

Hard graft pays off for Lee Jones

Posted 1 day, 8 hours ago

Edinburgh's desire to promote young Scottish talent more quickly is evident with their first team announcement of the new Magners League season as former Selkirk winger Lee Jones claims the No.14 jersey. The Scotman's David Ferguson reports.

"The 22-year-old wondered if the professional game had passed him by when he was left out of selection drafts for successive SRU academies and pro squads, but he never gave up hope and believes now that his failure to win contracts has turned out to be so beneficial that it has played a key part in him winning a starting slot against Cardiff on Saturday.
"It is hard to believe I'm in the Edinburgh team to be honest," he said, "especially when I look back to this time last season. Then I was looking forward to starting the season with Selkirk again, was called up by the Scotland sevens squad, went for acclimatisation training in Delhi, came back to club rugby and played the whole sevens circuit too.

"Now, looking back, I think not getting picked for the academies actually helped me because it meant I could play every week with Selkirk, and that is where I was able to develop, learn to be consistent and it's where players do things to get attention from the papers.

"All these things have definitely got me this chance and I'm delighted now to be involved in pro rugby and pretty keen to make the most of it."

No place like home for the Scarlets?

Posted 1 day, 8 hours ago

Nigel davies is looking for his Scarlets to keep the home fires burning as he casts an eye over the forthcoming season. He talks to the Western Mail's Simon Thomas.

"Davies’ men won only seven of their 14 competitive fixtures at Parc y Scarlets last term, losing six of their last nine on home turf. It was an unsatisfactory return from their first full season at the successor to the history-laden Stradey Park.
"And it was a contributory factor to them finishing as the bottom Welsh side in the Magners League, leaving them having to rely on the Blues winning the Amlin Cup in order to secure a Heineken Cup spot via the back door. Davies knows there has to be a significant improvement in their own back yard this time around.

"...We clearly understand what we need to be doing and where we want to be. But we just hope we can do our talking on the pitch. We don’t want to end up where we did last season and if we win 80 or 90 per cent of our home games we won’t.

"We have got clear goals and objectives which we’ve set in terms of where we want to finish."

August 31, 2010

Bath's Ian McGeechan heading for his half century and keen for more

Posted 2 days, 7 hours ago

In an interview with The Guardian, the new director of rugby at the Rec looks forward to the new Aviva Premiership season, explains why relegation from England's top flight should be scrapped and also refuses to rule out an eighth tour with the British & Irish Lions.

"My wife has given up on me growing up by now," Ian McGeechan says cheerfully on a rainy afternoon in Bath, as he looks forward to the start of yet another rugby season with the same enthusiasm he felt when he was 19. "I made the Headingley first team in 1965 and so it's been 45 consecutive years for me in the game now," the revered coach of the Lions and the new director of rugby at Bath remembers as he returns to his birthplace of Leeds this Sunday.
"I'm going back home," the 63-year-old Scot says, as Bath play Leeds in their opening Premiership match, "and it feels like I've come full circle. I'll have the same buzz on Sunday as I did all those years ago. The only difference is that, as coach, you get a much deeper satisfaction seeing what you take from the training pitch into a competitive match. But, otherwise, it's just the same thrill and that's why my wife keeps telling me I've never grown up."

"Yet after his experiences at the heart of the Lions, with his seven tours seeing him assume the role of head coach four times, there is hardly a more venerable presence in British and Irish rugby. McGeechan has twice won the European Cup as coach, with Northampton and Wasps, as well as the Premiership with the latter club. Those achievements explain why Bath were determined to appoint him after they were bought earlier this year by Bruce Craig - who, apart from being the Premiership's wealthiest owner, displays a genuine passion for the club."