RUCK & MAUL
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans likes to stress the point he is not an All Black but a Wallaby. He was asked by a television crew this week what he did when he went home to Christchurch last week. "I went back to Christchurch to sort out some stuff I'd left unresolved. But it's not home anymore," Deans said. "To be honest, I didn't spend a lot of time when there talking rugby. Still, it was a good time to reflect on what we'd [the Wallabies] done, and obviously reflect on the wounds from our last outing [against the All Blacks]. There is a lingering ache." He did at least find time to pursue a favourite pastime - jet boating.
Short memories
Football officials have a way of bending the rules to suit their own means. Last week, Randwick were miffed their plan to qualify Morgan Turinui for the semi-finals by running him in lower grades was thwarted by the NSW Rugby Union. It prompted memories of 1991 when you had to appear in two first grade games to play for NSW. Ten days before NSW's first game, star winger David Campese returned from overseas. This didn't give him sufficient time. So with the full support of the NSWRU, one Saturday Campese ran on for five minutes of a fourth grade game, and then played first grade - thus playing the two required games. It's not what you know ...
Winning over dad
According to the Sydney club program, Rugby News , the Gordon Hall of Fame function was a rollicking night. Among the recipients was dual international Arthur Summons, who explained he was a devoted league follower when he told his father he was about to play union for Gordon. "Don't you dare," his father warned. "It's the worst game of the lot. If you do, I won't come to see you play." Summons said that at his third game he noticed his father's "nose poking over the fence". "After the game, I introduced him to the boys, he stayed for a few beers and I don't know how mum got him home on the train. Years later, when I told Dad I was going to league, he shouted: 'How can you leave your mates?' "
The name game
The mention of hilarious ground announcement moments in Monday Maul prompted Steve Parsons to write in about his horror moment when Italy played NSW Country in the early 1980s at Dapto Showground. Although he kept asking officials for the Italian team sheet, he received one from a Vikings club mate only as Italy took the field. "My mate then fell about on the floor of the box in hysterics as I mangled the 15 names. He'd had the sheet for hours." When program manager at Wave FM a few years ago, Parsons called on Toby Thornett, son of former Wallabies skipper John Thornett, to do the ground announcements at a Scotland-NSW Country match. In the second half when Scotland ran on replacements without numbers on their backs. "One of these players scored a try. I was wondering what Toby would do. It went like this: 'That try for Scotland was scored by the player without a number ... Sean Connery.' "
Hardy northerners
The staying power of former Waratahs lock Peter Besseling is impressive. The 38-year-old will be playing for the Port Pirates in the Mid North Coast grand final in Port Macquarie tomorrow week. But the braveheart award of the week goes to Old Bar Beach Clams back Matt Thompson, who six weeks after suffering a fractured eye socket, fractured cheekbone, broken nose and thumb from a head clash, scored a try in their preliminary final win over the Nabiac-Bulahdelah Bulls.
Rumours of the week
Concerns that a leading Sydney club player could head north because of lack of interest from the Waratahs. Two struggling clubs are again under pressure of being dumped from the NSW premiership. Some Waratahs players want board members to stay away from training and the dressing rooms next season.
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