The Rogues Rant

RoguesRantWelcome to The Rogues Rant, an occasional look at all things Rugby.

With the local Illawarra Rugby scene showing signs of a period of regeneration with several of our Traditional clubs now being able to enter a full complement of teams this year, it’s interesting to see what’s going on in other Country zones. For a couple of years now there has been ongoing discussions between the New England zone and neighboring Central North zone with consideration being given to amalgamating their competitions. Negotiations stalled again this year and they will run separately for the 2018 season as usual. Unfortunately though due to the uncertainty, neither zone has been able to put together a squad for this year’s Country Championships in Warren. With the assistance of Country Rugby officials a solution has been found to get the best of the areas players to the Championships to push for Cockatoo selection. A combined squad to be known as The Northern Bushrangers will participate in the Richardson Shield tournament. Meanwhile in Newcastle the Waratahs club has withdrawn from the Newcastle Hunter Premier Competition for 2018. In recent years the 77 year old club has struggled for player numbers, resulting in only being able to field two sides in 2017. The very difficult but inevitable decision has been made for the club to drop back down the grades in an effort to rebuild the club to its former status. The club has produced something like eight Wallabies with the list headed by Cyril Bourke and the great John Hipwell. Let’s hope that with the efforts of Rugby tragics up that way, this great club can once again be returned to its former glory.

The IDRU 2018 Season Launch will now take place at Shamrocks headquarters at Ocean Park, Woonona from 3.00PM this Sunday 25th March.

The on again off again Australian Schoolboys Tour of Great Britain seems to be back on the agenda again. Rugby Australia has apparently made $100,000.00 available for the tour with the participants to be given the task to fund raise the remaining costs. However it comes together it would be a shame to see this tour go be the wayside. It’s a must though that the tour squad should be made up of the most talented players and not just those who can afford to pay their way.