A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Wales have vested interest in Test against Australia
WALES are leaving no stone unturned in their preparations for Saturday’s Test match against Australia – even to the point of players wearing weighted training vests. The Millennium Stadium clash could boil down to a survival of the fittest, especially in its likely punishing closing stages.
And Wales are determined not to be left trailing in Australia’s wake during any stamina-sapping finale. “We’ve had the guys wearing weighted vests to try to fatigue them a little bit and push them pretty hard,” said Wales head coach Warren Gatland. “It feels like you are running a little bit harder than you normally would.”
Lock Alun-Wyn Jones feared the worst after seeing the vests lying around Wales’ Vale of Glamorgan training base. He said: “The vests have always been there, and I’ve always looked at them and wondered, ‘was it going to be today, or tomorrow?’ Inevitably, it was this week, but we are glad we did it.”
“I would say the novelty wore off within about two days! Have I seen the benefits? Yes, taking them off! I can feel my knees and ankles again.
“The idea was we train shorter, but with the vests you are carrying the extra weight and you get the sling-shot effect. Not the first session we took them off, but the second day, we were definitely a little bit sharper.
“It’s good. It’s extra work without knowing you are doing it, and ultimately it’s what the actual game is like, whether you are hitting rucks or kick-chasing.”
Hayes passes on prop torch
YESTERDAY’S team announcement marked the first time John Hayes will not be part of a major Test match in Dublin since his maiden voyage as Ireland tighthead prop against Scotland in 2000, writes Gavin Cummiskey.
And The Bull has an astonishing 102, almost uninterrupted, caps to prove it. Despite the Irish management’s stated intention to bring the Limerick farmer to the World Cup next year, Hayes did not feature last summer against New Zealand or Australia as Tony Buckley was installed as the first-choice number three. This has also been reflected in the Munster frontrow selections so far this season.
Hayes turned 37 yesterday. The starting XV to face South Africa seems like confirmation that the torch has been passed. Buckley is a relative babe at 30 in propping years and certainly under-exposed with 19 caps and just five starts in a green jersey. Having finally got a clean run from injury, he seems poised to become the chosen one in the most important position in rugby union.
Mike Ross provides another option having impressively anchored the Leinster scrum in recent months. Predictably and understandably, any notion of Hayes being put out to pasture was dismissed by Declan Kidney.
“Not at all. Definitely not. In the matches he has played so far, he’s played 80 minutes. In Magners League and Heineken Cup you have 23 togging out so most props haven’t been getting 80 minutes. The fact that we have 22 means the guy who has played 80 minutes is in a good place to contribute and the way those interpro matches are going at the moment they are just as difficult as what we are doing here.”
The versatile Tom Court provides the cover for Buckley and Cian Healy against the Springboks but Hayes may yet see game time against Samoa or Argentina. “There are a lot of players there who continue to give great service to Ireland and who I think will continue to give great service to Ireland over the next 12 months,” Kidney added.
Try statistics will be seen as triumph for new rules
THE 2010 Tri-Nations had the highest average of tries per game in more than a decade and saw a dramatic reduction in tactical kicking, according to an International Rugby Board (IRB) report released yesterday.
The 52 tries scored over nine matches played between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa was almost double the tally for the 2009 tournament and compared favourably with the 3.2 tries per match in the Northern Hemispheres Six Nations. The statistics will be seen as a triumph for new rules governing the breakdown, which were aimed at improving the attacking team’s ability to recycle the ball quickly at the tackle and keep the action flowing.
The increase bucked a trend of a 60 to 70 per cent reduction in the number of tries scored over the last 10 years in the two major annual international rugby tournaments, the report said. Another encouraging trend, it said, was the decrease in the proportion of tries to penalty kicks, from 2.5 kicks to one try in 2009 to near parity this year.
The increasing influence of goal kicking in rugby has long been one of the main complaints of mainly Southern Hemisphere critics of the trends in the international game. Those same critics would also have been delighted with the reduction in kicking in general, almost certainly a result of the importance of retaining possession under the new rules.
There was an average of just 37 kicks from hand per match compared to 60 in earlier years, the report said, with one match featuring just a single punt from a player who was not under pressure.
RUGBY FIXTURES
Friday: UCD Rugby Club Centenary Match: UCD v Combined Universities XV, Belfield Bowl, 7.0.
Saturday: November Internationals: Wales v Australia, Millennium Stadium, 2.30, W Barnes (Eng) - Live BBC Two; England v New Zealand, Twickenham, 2.30, R Poite (Fra) - Live Sky Sports 1; Ireland v South Africa, Aviva Stadium, 5.30, N Owens (Wales) - Live RTÉ Two.
Tuesday: Connacht v Samoa, Sportsground, 7.05.
Sheridan back in the front row
Andrew Sheridan will return to the England front row after a 20-month absence for Saturday’s showdown with New Zealand after recovering from shoulder surgery. Sheridan’s inclusion at loose-head prop in place of Tim Payne is the only change England manager Martin Johnson has made to the side which started the 21-20 victory over Australia in June. Lewis Moody has been retained as captain after recovering from a serious eye injury.
