The Rogues Rant #316

June 30th 2022

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

By Ron Wood

It’s a busy weekend for our Junior Rep players this week. They will be participating in the NSWJRU Regional Carnival at Grantham Park, Seven Hills. There will be a total of five Boys and four Girls Country Teams involved over the weekend competing in a series of matches against Sydney based sides. At the completion of the Carnival the final sides for the City V Country matches will be selected for the weekend of July 31st in Bathurst. Good luck to all our Illawarrior players, we should know the final squads by Wednesday next week. The games can be seen on NSWRugby TV.

The Wallabies Home series of matches against England gets underway this week in Perth. Coach Rennie has given two players their first Wallaby Caps with Waratahs Hooker Dave Porecki and Brumbies Lock Cadeyrn Neville getting the nod for their first International matches. Japan based trio Quade Cooper, Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete have all made the starting lineup for the game in which the Wallabies will start favorites. It will be good to see Kerevi and young Len Ikitau together again in the centers. Kick off time is 7.55PM with the match to be live on Stan.

The IDRU Women’s competition will kick off this week. Wollongong University and Campbelltown get things underway at Wollongong Uni from 12.30PM Saturday. Teams are also coming together from Avondale, Tech Waratahs and with interest being shown from Shoalhaven now as well. Everything is moving in the right direction and IDRU Women’s Director Amanda Puckerage is confident things will continue to grow. For more information on how to get your team up and running, contact Amanda Puckerage on 0408 685714.

In local rugby this week there is one change of day and time with Vikings now hosting Avondale at Vikings Oval on Friday night with a 7.00PM kick off. All other matches are currently set as programed with 3.00PM starts. Five out of five for the Rogue last week so let’s see how we go this week. Vikings got back on deck last week against Bowral and were in the game until their condition let them down late in the match. Avondale had a hard one against Shoalhaven who produced one of the best performances seen in these parts for some time. With Vikings still having difficulties, The Wombats should be too good for the Blueys here. Avondale to Win. Bowral and Kiama are both sitting in the bottom half of the table but should put on a good match at Eridge Park. I don’t think there will be much between the two sides but I’ll go for a win for the home side. Bowral to Win. Shoalhaven really produced an entertaining performance last week with a big win over Avondale. With Camden anchored to the bottom of the table this could be another big score for the South Coast side. Shoalhaven to Win. University has Campbelltown at Home at Wollongong University. The students have some injury worries with some of their more experienced players sitting out injured at the moment. Campbelltown can produce some good football at times but consistency has been a problem for the Quinnies. This week however I think they can get the points. Campbelltown to Win. Match of the Round is between second placed Tech Waratahs and third placed Shamrocks at Saunders Oval. Tech Tahs are a big powerful side who have only lost once to Shoalhaven and deserve favoritism here. On the other hand Shamrocks have also only lost once this year to Shoalhaven as well. Everything points to a close encounter here but I think that Tech Tahs will prove too big and powerful for their northern rivals. Tech Waratahs to Win.          

Rugby Diary

4th July                      IDRU Coaching Series – Andy Gibson: Team Defence, Structure &                  Skillset

6th July                      IDRU Coaching Series – Sam Needs: Scrum    

9th July                      IDRU Round 13

                                   Campbelltown V Shoalhaven

                                   Camden V Vikings

                                   Avondale V Kiama

                                   University V Tech Waratahs

                                   Shamrocks V Bowral

9th July                      IDRU Women’s Competition Round 2

                                   University V Tech Waratahs

                                   Campbelltown V Avondale

31st July                    City V Country Juniors. Bathurst  

10th September        IDRU Grand Final

All opinions offered in this column are the opinion of the author. They should not be considered to represent the views of the IDRU.