Rising Rebels Vs Sydney Rugby

[Eyes and Ears]

Some pretty handy players in both sides, and some interesting names and selections there, would have been good to see a match report.

Henari Veratau back from OS I see. How old would he be these days and would he be a chance of cracking Super rugby again?

Veratau finished school in 2001, so 27ish, maybe turning 28 this year.

 

[spectator]

How did he go in this game? Could be a good 'short term contract' pickup for the Force given their dwindling outside backs stock.

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

It is unclear how many "players would avoid going to Uni" because they have heard that Uni players weren't released to play in Melbourne for a Sydney side in March 2011. We'll have to wait and see to what extent it damages Uni's recruiting in the coming years.

The reality of course is that the Uni first grade side took advantage of "a great opportunity to play in front of a crowd in Melbourne" when they played the curtain raiser to a Rebels game against the Victorian State side two weeks previously.

On Saturday Uni took part in an ‘Inter City’ challenge game in Canberra that the Tuggeranong Vikings initiated last year when they took on UQ, the Queensland Premiers, in October and challenged the winners of the Brisbane and Sydney competitions respectively. That would probably have been a priority for the Uni Club.

I doubt whether Hugh Hawkins played in Friday's game in Melbourne. If he did he backed up very well the next day in Canberra.

It is encouraging to see so many people with suggestions as to how the Uni Club should conduct themselves. Once this is sorted out there might be other clubs that could benefit from such counselling.

I agree it will be interesting to see what becomes of them discouraging these players from taking part. I don't know if you could compare those games to the experience of playing for a select or representative teams.

Silly decision i think, also in terms of having lower grade players coming up to fill the gaps in trials that would be made vacant to represent these teams. Players are going to get injured over this season and enivitably other players will have to step into those gaps.

I wish Sydney Uni all the best in achieving another premiership, i honestly do. But it's quite clear from this situation their number one focus is winning a grand final and keeping their players in house for that purpose. Nothing wrong with that at all, but all they have done is to deny them an opportunity to rub shoulders with someone like Bob Dwyer who has many Rugby contacts. I would encourage players who are looking to play at the highest level and play professionally overseas not to go to Uni for this reason.