If Eddie Jones’s young team can challenge the World Cup hosts, Australian rugby may just get the ‘historic reset’ it needsThe French invented the amuse-bouche and aperitif to prime the palate before a great feast. The Wallabies will be of similar service when they whet local appetites for the Rugby World Cup in the one-off warmup Test against host nation France on Monday.The Stade de France clash is the fruit of a deal hatched over lunch between the RA chair, Hamish McLennan, and former French rugby boss and World Rugby vice-chair Bernard Laporte in 2021. On the menu in Saint Germaine that day was hare-in-hare-blood-gravy. But the rabbit in the headlights this weekend is Eddie Jones who needs to improve...
Man City’s Alex Robertson makes debut as Aiden O’Neill, Keanu Baccus and Garang Kuol also show strength of next generation in Ecuador winDespite him being barely 30 minutes into his senior international career, nobody can accuse newly minted Socceroo Alex Robertson of showing a lack of ambition for the future. Indeed, it would be difficult for him to be showing any more. “You’ve got to reach for the stars and win a World Cup,” he told reporters after Australia’s 3-1 win over Ecuador on Friday. “You never know what’s going to happen. You see what [Australia’s] just done at the last one and for the next few years, building up to [2026] I think we can do some really big...
The nine-time Australian Open winner is keen to put debacle of deportation behind him but his public reputation is tarnishedNovak Djokovic’s quiet return to Australia this week could not be starker in contrast to the absurdity surrounding his arrival in Melbourne and subsequent deportation last January.There has been no social media post nor any official words from the nine-time Australian Open champion as yet, though he did practise on Wednesday at Memorial Drive in Adelaide. Continue reading...
The actions of those who stormed the pitch were a betrayal of a club that has done much to empower fansAAMI Park was not where the Melbourne Victory managing director, Caroline Carnegie, wanted to be on Sunday morning but, given the events of the previous night, she had little choice. As she made her way into Victory’s offices, the weight of what had transpired in the Melbourne derby was clearly visible in her step.In just over an hour she would somehow attempt to make sense of the indefensible; answering for the Victory fans who had stormed the field and attacked Melbourne City’s goalkeeper, Tom Glover and the referee, Alex King, minutes after they had thrown a flare that injured a...
Wallabies ground out comeback win over Wales in a context-free match neither team needed but neither could afford to loseFive weeks ago, when Blair Kinghorn hoofed a ball high into the frosty Edinburgh air, five consecutive Tests in five different countries for Dave Rennie’s Wallabies seemed like a good idea. His team had blown hot and cold during the Rugby Championship and had shown glimpses of their potential in a 2-1 series loss to England. This end of year tour would complete the Six Nations set to go along with their regular bouts with the southern hemisphere giants. Less than a year out from the World Cup, all stones would be turned.Now, the best thing we can say about this...