Rogues Rant, an occasional look at all things Rugby.

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The Wallabies under Ewan McKenzie have shown improvement in their outings against Argentina and the All Blacks. Unfortunately though Saturdays match in Dunedin showed just how far New Zealand rugby is ahead of Australia at the moment. With key players missing due to injury the Kiwis were still able to dominate the Wallabies with a clinical, well constructed attacking game. The replacement players fitted into the side seamlessly and the All Black machine just rolled on. McKenzie and former coach Robbie Deans would surely love to see that sought of depth available in Australia. There were good signs at times, especially in the scrums, on Saturday and against the Pumas, but there were far too many errors at the breakdown and defensive faults. The Wallabies have definitely improved their application under McKenzie, but they will need to be able to maintain pressure for the full 80 minutes if they are to be real contenders in the next world cup. They won’t be up against the All Blacks in the upcoming northern tour so let’s hope we see some sound performances.

The Junior Gold Cup has arrived in earnest. More than 90 players phone number list out for the Trials during the week and the standard was very high. The squads will be announced over the next couple of days. Keep an eye on the website for more details.

Illawarra coaches are coming to the fore at the moment. The Australian Women’s Team for next years’ World Cup is being coached by Paul Verrel and Jay Tregonning. Shannon Fraser has been appointed coach of the NSW Country Cockatoos and Phill Green retains his job as coach of the Country Colts. Former Illawarra Caldwell Cup winning player and Coach, Ian Westwood has been enjoying success for a couple of years as coach of NSW under 15’s. Tony Leeder-Smith has just completed a stint as Coach of the NSW Country under 16’s who competed in the national championships last school holidays. There are plenty of other quality coaches going around in our area at the moment and we could well see more Illawarra coaches get some of these prestigious jobs in the future.

They tell me that the doors weren’t closed at the Camden clubhouse until the Wednesday evening after the Grand Final. The Rams partied hard and a good time was had by all. I hope someone turned the lights off.

There is much discussion going on at the moment about the future structure of the IDRU competition. All clubs need to start looking at the big picture and what is best for the future of rugby in our whole area not just in their own precinct. We can’t continue to have so many byes in our premier competition as happened this year. Clubs can’t survive long term either if they don’t develop strong junior programs. It’s time for everyone to have a good hard honest look at their own backyard and make some hard decisions to ensure a prosperous future for rugby in our area.

All opinions offered in this column are the opinion of the author. They should not be considered to represent the views of the IDRU.