Former Wallabies captain Stephen Moore says Australian rugby must get to the root cause of their problems and stop looking for short-term solutions to fix the game.
Ireland’s coach Andy Farrell and captain Johnny Sexton have hit out at the Rugby Football Union’s tackle height law changes to the amateur game.
While fresh details have emerged of the night Kurtley Beale is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman.
Here is today’s rugby news edition.
Former Wallabies coach Stephen Moore says Australian rugby need to invest in the grassroots of the game and build the game up from the bottom up. Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Moore’s truth bomb for Rugby Australia
It’s been half a decade since Moore hung up the boots, but already the highly decorated rugby figure says he deeply concerned by the direction Australian rugby is heading in.
The former Wallabies captain, who competed at three World Cups and led Australia to the final of the 2015 tournament, didn’t miss when he said Rugby Australia must build the game up from the bottom up.
“Australian rugby has drifted from one level of mediocrity to the next over the last couple of decades, and we’ve never been honest about that,” Moore told CODE Sports.
“We’ve never fundamentally looked at the problems, and here we are again replacing the Wallabies coach.
“Sure, there’s a lot of positivity around Eddie – and I think he’ll do a really good job – but at what point are we going to fundamentally address the issues with rugby in Australia?”
He added: “It’s disappointing. I’m really disillusioned with the game, which is a shame, and a lot of my mates who l played rugby with are in the same boat.
“I’d dearly love for it to turn around, but the things I see and hear just blow me away.”
Eddie Jones is back as Wallabies coach, but Stephen Moore says Australian rugby’s troubles extend beyond the coach. Photo: Nick Laham/Getty Images
Moore said greater planning had to be put in motion to ensure the Wallabies had multiple candidates to coach the national team and lead the team from a captaincy perspective.
While Moore questioned the sustainability of five Super Rugby franchises, the former hooker said money had to be pumped into the grassroots of the game.
“It starts with community rugby, goes up to the provincial game, the women’s game and Sevens rugby,” Moore says.
“It’s been 20 years since we’ve been fair dinkum about being the best in the world.
“At different times over the past 20 years, we’ve had mixed levels of success – a World Cup final here and there – and for a long time we have been in the top two or three teams in the world, which is great. But we’ve never been the best in the world.
“That’s where we’ve been before and where we need to get to, but there’s no real long term vision for the game in Australia that I can see.”
Moore also supported moving to a centralised system, which Ireland adopted almost two decades ago and have tweaked ever since.
“We need to be honest in saying that we need to build it back from the ground up,” Moore said.
“Changing the Wallabies coach, while it comes with some positivity, it’s not going to solve the problems in the long term.
“We need to work together a lot more, that’s really important.
“We need more alignment between the provincial unions around high performance, commercial arrangements – all that kind of stuff.
“For that to happen, the head organisation needs to be humming. We need to get our own backyard in order before asking New South Wales, Queensland and the Brumbies to sign up.”
Johnny Sexton (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Tackle height changes smashed by rugby stars
It’s fair to say Ireland’s master and commander have not missed regarding the RFU’s tackle height changes.
Farrell and Sexton were speaking at the Six Nations launch in London on Monday and the highly respected duo slammed the proposed changes, which were announced last week.
Farrell, a former dual-international turned defence coach and now head coach with Ireland, said teaching the correct technique and not fundamentally changing the tackle was important.
“I think it’s super important that what has to come with [the new laws] is the correct coaching, the correct technique,” he said.
“If you are ever just saying to a kid that ‘you need to tackle lower’, then you become even more vulnerable in my opinion. If you’re just sitting there with your arms in front, trying to wrap, with your head down etc you’re a sitting duck. [It’s an accident] waiting to happen.
“The coaching and technique of how it’s applied to tackling below the waist is absolutely crucial, otherwise we’re going to have a serious problem.”
Sexton, who suffered multiple concussions, came out strongly against the changes.
“Look, I don’t agree with it,” the 37-year-old fly-half said.
“There’s no point sitting on the fence really, is there? I just think you have tall people who play the game. It should be their decision to how they tackle.
“Of course we need to get the head shots out of the game, but the tackles we really need to take out are the reckless, out-of-control, sprinting-out-of-the-line, tucking arms, all of those types of ones.
“Hitting someone [at chest level] should be an option. It’s not like you can’t get concussed by chopping someone’s knees. I’ve seen a hell of a lot of concussions from people getting their head on the wrong side, a knee to the temple or a hip even to the side of the head. So, I strongly disagree.”
Beale’s return could be over before it started
The future of the Wallabies’ most capped indigenous player, Kurtley Beale, is hanging by a thread.
The 34-year-old was arrested on Friday for an alleged assault on a 28-year-old woman on December 17 at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi Beach.
It is understood that Beale was with teammates on the evening of December 16. The Herald reports he was with no teammates, however, when the alleged incident is said to have occurred in the early hours of December 17.
Later that evening, Beale was charged for two counts of sexually touching another person without consent, inciting another person to sexually touch them without consent, and sexual intercourse without consent.
He was subsequently stood down by Rugby Australia.
Beale is expected to plead not guilty to the charges, with his barrister, Stephen Stanton, on Saturday telling the court his client’s phone call activity was “an admission of infidelity, no more, no less”.
Beale was granted bail on the condition that he does not contact the complainant, does not enter an airport, surrenders his passport and reports police at Waverley twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
His case was adjourned to Waverley Local Court on March 22.
Given that Beale signed a one-and-a-half-year deal with the Waratahs and Rugby Australia, which finishes following the World Cup in France later this year, the 95-Test Wallaby will likely struggle to be offered another contract regardless of the outcome of the trial.
St George Illawarra player Jack de Belin spent two-and-a-half-year on the sidelines as he fought sexual assault charges in court.
De Belin returned to play in June, 2021, after two trials resulted in hung juries and the Director of Public Prosecutions opted against pursuing a third trial.
On that basis, Beale is unlikely to play for the Waratahs in 2023, which would impact his ability to be selected for the Wallabies.
Scotland’s Finn Russell has been backed by coach Gregor Townsend. Photo: Paul Devlin/SNS Group via Getty Images
Scottish maverick backed ahead of World Cup
The love-hate relationship between Gregor Townsend and Finn Russell seems to be back on track, with the Scotland coach backing his star No.10 ahead of their Six Nations opener against England.
Townsend sensationally left Russell out of the end of year Tests before recalling the 30-year-old after Adam Hastings suffered an injury against Fiji.
But Russell’s scintillating display against the All Blacks and then Argentina has seen his coach warmly embrace the Racing92 playmaker, who is set to make a high profile move to Bath in the English summer.
Townsend said Russell was growing as a person, but declared him “one of the most skilful players to ever play the game” and was “coming into his prime years”.
“He’s coming into that time where physically you’re still able to compete and do what you want to do, but you have that knowledge of ten years playing at No 10 and are aware of what a defence might look like after two or three phases. So it’s a great opportunity for him – this championship, and obviously the World Cup too,” Townsend told reporters at the Six Nations launch.
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