Blossoming Brumbies show up warring Tahs

Spiro Zavos IT wasn't meant to be this way for the woeful Waratahs this season. When SANZAR scheduled tonight's Waratahs-Brumbies match it was intended to be a warm-up for the local side before the climax of the...

Rugby

Numbers right and Izzy should start for Wallabies

Spiro Zavos IT'S probably a journalistic instinct to preserve a thought but I often find myself scribbling notes as the rugby play surges on before me.

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Flawless Smith sure to get Test tick as bungler Cooper stays in the cold

Spiro Zavos A FEW days before NSW played their first rugby match against a British rugby side, on June 2, 1888, a Probables- Possibles match was contested in Sydney to work out a starting XV.

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Rugby

Beale must concentrate on tackling his demons

Spiro Zavos IT seems a blink in the mind's eye, but several years ago the ABC presented a live telecast of Joeys playing Riverview in the GPS rugby tournament.

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Rugby

Hard-nosed packs give Kiwis a wake-up call

Spiro Zavos AFTER the sensational Highlanders - Chiefs match, the new backs coach of the Waratahs, Daryl Gibson, contacted his former Crusaders teammate Justin Marshall with the claim that the New Zealand...

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Rugby

When the music stops, McKenzie may go Irish

Spiro Zavos THERE is no doubt that by announcing the end of his association with the Queensland Reds at the end of the Super Rugby season, Ewen McKenzie is stating he wants to coach the Wallabies.

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Henry in Pumas' corner shows coaches transcend nationality

Spiro Zavos THE main Wellington newspaper, The Dominion Post, had a killer photo on its main sports page this week.

Rugby union

Myopic Deans bashers reveal the ugly head of xenophobia

Spiro Zavos THIS week a xenophobic antagonism towards Robbie Deans has emerged in mainstream media. It is being asserted publicly that a New Zealander - and an All Black to boot - can't be trusted to coach the...

Spiro Zavos

McKenzie's blunder raises questions over his tactical nous

Spiro Zavos In the 20th minute of the engrossing qualifying final between the Reds and the Sharks, Ewen McKenzie made a fateful and wrong decision.

Spiro Zavos

Reign of Foley has run its course as Horror-tahs fail to kick their habit of dispiriting fans

Spiro Zavos ROD Kafer is bringing down the house at rugby lunches with this barb: "I congratulate the Waratahs on being in their 16th year of their three-year plan to win the Super Rugby tournament."

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Spiro Zavos

Deans cruelled by Test scheduling and critics' short memories

Spiro Zavos WE were a miserable group, dripping wet, cold and shattered, coming back from Newcastle on the train after the agony of watching the Wallabies snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Scotland.

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Spiro Zavos

Race to the Super finals is reaching fever pitch

Spiro Zavos NOW, where were we, before the June Test series stopped this year's Super Rugby tournament in its tracks …

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Spiro Zavos

Foley's folly - NSW must end reliance on kicking

Spiro Zavos SO HERE we are at the launch of the 2012 Super Rugby season. Michael Foley, the new NSW Waratahs' head coach, dapper in a businessman's suit and club tie, is insisting that his side will be more...

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Spiro Zavos

The fine line between winners and losers

Spiro Zavos 'MOST ball games are lost, not won," Casey Stengel, the eccentric, folksy manager of New York's Yankees and Mets once told a gaggle of sports writers.

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Spiro Zavos

Waratahs must drop work-to-rule attitude if they want to win

Spiro Zavos IT was a dispirited and sullen crowd that shuffled from Allianz Stadium after the Waratahs' depressing loss to the Western Force last weekend.

Spiro Zavos

Waratahs prove winning smart beats winning ugly any day

Spiro Zavos THE greatest spectacle in rugby is the ensemble try, especially when it is scored to win the match. This is rugby as a great orchestra in full, soaring voice.

Spiro Zavos

Investment in youth sadly lacking with Australian franchises

Spiro Zavos SOME decades ago Evan Whitton (the ''onlie begetter'' of this rugby column) and myself were at Concord Oval watching the Australian Schoolboys play Ireland.

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Spiro Zavos

Gouge claims leave Bulls open to scorn

Spiro Zavos The ''Gougegate'' affair is becoming murky. There are too many unanswered questions relating to it that need to be resolved by SANZAR if public confidence in the new process is to be maintained.

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Spiro Zavos

Personal agendas rear ugly heads up north

Spiro Zavos A month ago the Brumbies were at $13.25 to win the Australian conference of this year's Super Rugby tournament.

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