White says Boks return can wait

[slomo]

apologies going though some tough times... very ill father.... I wish you all good times...

all the best to your old man, skip!....

[mudskipper]

Thanks to all the well wishes... very kind

cheers m

[mudskipper]

As one of his first points of business as Brumbies Head Coach and supporter of rugby in Canberra, Jake White has announced that all contracted players will be allocated an ACT club to play and train with when they are not with the main team.

The move has been supported by Canberra’s club coaches and presidents who have grown tired of seeing quality talent hit the Hume Highway to Sydney to play in the Shute Shield once their Brumbies commitments are finished.

Players with prior history at a John I Dent club, like Robbie Coleman at Queanbeyan or Christian Lealiifano at the Vikings, will be sent back to their origins when they are not required by the Brumbies.

The remaining players have been sorted with considerations given to what the Canberra clubs need and the likely availability of the players.

With an extended Super Rugby season that almost eclipses the John I Dent Cup, the reality is that many players will not feature in the Canberra competition.

But clubs will still be given access to big name players, to attend team functions, award nights and game days.

White said the change had taken place so his players could be more easily managed while strengthening the local competition.

“I want people to be able to come and to a game here in Canberra and watch the best players in the ACT,” White said.

“There is no reason why we can’t have our top line players strengthening the local competition. It will be good for rugby in Canberra and I’m sure it will work to attract better players not only to the Brumbies but the John I Dent Cup as well.

"I'm not interested in having players travel back to Sydney to play with a club team on Tuesday and Saturday. It's about encouraging them to be a part of the ACT community.”

A full list of the player allocation can be found below.

Uni Norths
Forwards: Ben Alexander, Dylan Sigg
Backs: Tom Cox, Ian Prior, Joe Tomane,

Wests
Forwards: Fotu Auelua, Peter Kimlin, Scott Sio,
Backs: Pat McCabe, Jesse Mogg

Royals
Forwards: Sam Carter, Stephen Hoiles, Siliva Siliva
Backs: Kimami Sitauti, Matt Toomua

Queanbeyan
Forwards: Jono Owen, Leon Power,
Backs: Robbie Coleman, Tevita Kuridrani, Nic White

Easts
Forwards: Ben Hand, Michael Hooper, Stephen Moore, Jerry Yanuyanutawa
Backs: Andrew Smith

Vikings
Forwards: Colby Faingaa, Ben Mowen, Scott Fardy
Backs: Zack Holmes. Christian Lealiifano

Gungahlin
Forwards: Dan Palmer, Ita Vaea, Rory Murphy
Backs: Cam Crawford, Henry Speight


http://www.brumbies.com.au/News/Arti...0/Default.aspx

The Shute Shield just got its guts ripped out.... Its a shame they kicked the Brumbies out all those years ago...

[mudskipper]

The ACT Brumbies are ''desperate to impress'' their fans and earn back respect when the Super Rugby season kicks off next year.

The Brumbies coaching staff and players Ben Mowen and Christian Lealiifano fronted a members' forum at the University of Canberra last night to give their supporters an insight into how they are rebuilding the club.

It was a chance for fans to get answers for what went wrong last season, and learn how new coach Jake White planned to erase the memory of a dismal campaign.

Unlike a NSW Waratahs forum earlier this year, there were no scathing questions directed at the coaches and there were no demands for immediate results so early into the tenure of White, who coached South Africa to victory in the 2007 World Cup.

However, fans were keen to know how White would resurrect the two-time Super Rugby champion after a disastrous 11 months.

''One of our themes is going back to the future - honouring the things of the past but looking what we can do to change the future,'' White told the members.

''Not for one minute are we admitting defeat or admitting mediocrity.

''But we have to start somewhere and get that feeling back here.

''... We believe we've got 15 boys who if we put them on the field we can beat any team in the competition.

''The challenge for us as coaches is managing those players for a whole season and bring the best out of them.''

More than 100 members listened intently as White and his staff outlined how they were trying to turn the club back into a powerhouse.

White was joined by assistant coach Laurie Fisher, athletic performance director Dean Benton, performance analyst Warrick Harrington, and Mowen and Lealiifano.

The Brumbies have held similar forums in the past, but only made them available to foundation members.

This was the first time all of the club's 6500 members had an opportunity to get an in-depth view into the running of the club.

The floor was open for questions and the members covered a range of topics, including:

• why White thought the ''players went missing last season'';
  
• the relationship between White, the board and chief executive Andrew Fagan;
  
• getting the players to commit to club rugby in Canberra;
  
• how to deal with the members' expectations, and;
• erasing the disappointment of the past.

White is determined to move on from last season, in which Andy Friend was sacked and the Brumbies finish third last with only four wins.

''The last thing these boys want to hear about is a negative past ... there has to be a time to move on,'' White said.

Former NSW Waratah Mowen hoped strong performances next year would help the players win back respect.

''This is the toughest and most specific pre-season I've been involved in, there are no wasted minutes,'' Mowen said.

''We're desperate to impress the fans, we're desperate to impress the coaches and when you've got a group of people driven by that it leads to good things.''

White also outlined his plan to have up to 12 Brumbies players in the Wallabies' 2015 World Cup squad.

Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander and Pat McCabe were the only Brumbies who played at the World Cup in New Zealand last month.

Fisher identified Mowen and prop Dan Palmer as two potential leaders of the team's forward pack.


http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news...px?storypage=0

[mudskipper]

Laurie Fisher wants more mongrel in the ACT Brumbies forward pack and has urged his players to be more aggressive towards each other to prepare for the Super Rugby season.

Although most coaches shy away from having teammates belt each other at training, Fisher believes fierce rivalries and occasional scuffles will boost the Brumbies' chances of on-field success next year.

It's a philosophy he developed during his stint as the Munster forwards coach in Ireland over the past three years.

Training sessions would rarely go by without players turning on each other and punches being exchanged on the field.

It sounds like a toxic recipe for in-fighting. But Fisher wants to bring the same ruthless attitude to Canberra and warned his players to expect to spill blood in ruck and maul sessions despite being three mouths out from the first game of the season.

''[At Munster] they were disappointed if two blokes didn't come to blows by the end of the training,'' Fisher said.

''I don't think [that attitude] is here naturally, it's something we have to build.

''It's not that the guys here shy away from it, but it's not something they've been consistently asked to produce at training.

''We had a maul session last Friday which was probably 80-90per cent and we'll have a genuine crack [today] ... I'll be expecting people not to hold anything back.''

Fisher is attempting to reinvigorate the Brumbies forward pack after it was left battered and bruised last season. The team lacked a physical presence at the breakdown and it was a major contributor to the Brumbies' dismal results.

Fisher was the Brumbies' head coach for three years before joining Munster at the end of 2008.

Now he has returned as Jake White's forwards coach and been given the task of turning an inexperienced pack into one capable of matching the most dominant teams in the competition.

One of the Brumbies recruits who could get a chance to prove himself in the forward pack is Scott Sio, who admits making the transition to his first professional contract has been tougher than he expected.

Australian under-20s prop Sio is the second youngest player in the Brumbies squad.

He was added to the five-man extended player squad because he has the ability to play tight-head and loose-head prop as well as hooker.

The 116kg, 20-year-old said he was trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible so ''I can impress the coaches when I get my chance''.

''I've learned a lot of the little technical subtleties ... just with my versatility making sure I learn different manoeuvres in the scrum,'' Sio said.

''Laurie has come back and really hit us hard with a lot of breakdown and set-piece stuff we need to know.

''In Ireland they grow up with that aggression, here we're a bit more athletic and the stuff we're doing is building that aggression up and it's becoming more natural.''

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news...px?storypage=0

[mudskipper]

HE STARRED alongside James O'Connor as an Australian Schoolboy and played outside him for Nudgee College. Now former NRL flyer Joseph Tomane has returned to the 15-man code in the hope of rejoining his good mate on the international stage.

Poached by the Melbourne Storm as a teenager, he abandoned a promising rugby career to get a head-start in the NRL. After two years at the Storm and another two with Gold Coast, the 21-year-old is ready to pick up where he left off in rugby and chase his dream of becoming a Wallaby.

''The opportunity at the Brumbies to work with Jake White and to maybe reach that dream of playing for the Wallabies was just too hard to refuse,'' said Tomane, who moved from New Zealand to Brisbane as a two-year-old.

''I always had dreams of playing for the Wallabies ever since I first represented the Aussie Schoolboys. It's definitely a goal of mine, to find my feet back in rugby and play alongside those guys I grew up playing with, like Rabs [O'Connor].''

Before being signed by the Storm's recruitment guru at the time, Peter O'Sullivan - the man responsible for uncovering Greg Inglis, Israel Folau and Billy Slater - Tomane finished 2007 as the starting winger for the Australian Schoolboys team that included Rob Horne, James Slipper, Ben Tapuai, Luke Morahan and Matt Toomua.

''Me and Rabs played Schoolboys and Nudgee together and [with] a fair few others who have gone on to play Wallabies,'' Tomane said. ''I played on the wing then, with Tapuai at 12 and Matty Toomua at 10. Rob Horne was at 13 and I think Rabs actually started on the bench that year. But that's because he can do anything. He was always a freak.

''But the Storm had Peter O'Sullivan working back then and he was known for picking the best, and it was pretty awesome that someone who had picked all those superstars wanted me and thought I had something in me. I think at the time I was talking to the Reds about an academy deal but I couldn't pass up that opportunity at the Storm. So I signed and went there straight after school.''

Tomane was an overnight success in the NRL, earning a reputation as a powerful and elusive outside back with a 24-point haul against Brisbane in his ninth NRL appearance.

But with his baby daughter Starsha in Brisbane with his former partner, Tomane left the Storm and returned to his home state to play for the Titans. ''My baby girl was just turning one and I never got to spend any time with her in Melbourne, and I was missing her like crazy,'' he said. ''I was 19 and I had an opportunity to go home. Even now I miss her so much, I think about her every day.''

Storm coach Craig Bellamy has a big rap on Tomane but used his Melbourne newspaper column to vent his frustration at the star being poached by the Titans.

''On Wednesday morning I was angered as never before in my time as a coach,'' Bellamy wrote in 2009. ''Joseph Tomane came in to the office of our football manager, Frank Ponissi, and confirmed the rumours we had been hearing, that he had signed with Gold Coast. To say we were disappointed would be an enormous understatement … we weren't given a realistic chance of retaining a player we poured so much hard work in to since luring him from rugby union.''

But after two injury-affected years at the Titans and with his daughter set to be by his side in 2012, Tomane is ready to deliver on his potential under World Cup-winning coach White in the nation's capital.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...#ixzz1etMNJPVe

[mudskipper]

He's big, powerful and fast - ACT Brumbies recruit Dylan Sigg finally reckons he's got the motorbike to match his bulk and now he wants to throw his weight around in Super Rugby.

Gone are the days of Sigg trying to fit his 198cm, 108kg frame on a bike which struggles with his size.

One of the biggest players on the Brumbies' roster has his ''dream'' Harley Davidson and now he could be a perfect fit in an ACT forward pack desperate for more aggression.

Sigg is one of five players in the Brumbies Extended Player Squad.


He was recruited because he has the ability to play anywhere in the back row or slot in as a lineout specialist.

After juggling an electrician business with trying to win a professional contract, the 26-year-old feels ready to cause havoc if he gets his chance in the Brumbies' top squad next year. ''I'm one of the quicker forwards and I'm one of the tallest which usually isn't the case,'' Sigg said.

''That athleticism is a good attribute to have especially with the way rugby is evolving.

''It's really physical coming into this program and the fitness has been tough, but it's a step up I needed and it's given me the chance to lay the platform for hopefully an opportunity in the season.

''I don't want to be sitting on the sideline, I want an opportunity and if I do get that opportunity hopefully I make the most of it.''

Sigg hopes the freedom to concentrate solely on rugby will fast-track his development. He has been a member of the NSW Waratahs Academy in the past, but he was unable to win a spot in the full-time squad.

The versatile forward from Sydney spent last season playing with Parma in the Italian competition before he was given a chance to trial with the Brumbies.

Sigg's no stranger to hard work.

He trained to be an electrician while trying to force his way into the Waratahs set-up.

Eventually he started his own business and he still runs it from Canberra despite devoting all of his time to the Brumbies.

''It definitely makes you appreciate [rugby full-time] even more after you've tried to do both,'' Sigg said.

''I've had my own business for three years, but now I can concentrate on the rugby side of things more.

''I can put a lot more into my rugby, I don't have to worry about the business and you appreciate what you have to do here.

''It's a challenge, but I'm just happy I've got that chance to try to make a real go of it.''

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news...c/2371625.aspx


Must say, i do like the hog...

[palitu]

man, you really need a brumbies forum! but carry on.

[mudskipper]

man, you really need a brumbies forum! but carry on.

All good reading...

[jono]

All good reading...

so i shouldnt read the first 2 lines and skip the rest?

[jargan83]

man, you really need a brumbies forum! but carry on.

Muddy would be the only person on it

so i shouldnt read the first 2 lines and skip the rest?

Thats how I roll. You read one Brumbies puff piece, you've read them all

[mudskipper]

Muddy would be the only person on it



Thats how I roll. You read one Brumbies puff piece, you've read them all

not a fan of puff... more a thin base man? Served on a regular a thin base, I guess your not use to a little puff...

[jargan83]

not a fan of puff... more a thin base man? Served on a regular a thin base, I guess your not use to a little puff...

It it's a not a Mrs Macs take it back....

[mudskipper]

Word is S.Hoiles mutually agreed to step out of the Brumbies picture... apparently his achillies is still buggered and not looking good for the future...

[travelling_gerry]

Jakes loyalties are elsewhere ( and that's not the place that gets no rain).

Expect him to give the ponies the flick by Round 3.

Ask the Bookie.