Rugby

Wallabies improving, just don't tell them

Paul Cully It would be easy to imagine Wallabies coach Robbie Deans with a look of contentment as he surveyed the state of play after the weekend.

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Rugby

McKenzie has plans for facing All Blacks

Paul Cully EWEN McKenzie is not a coach who takes backward steps. He has declared he wants the Wallabies job and says he already has plans on how to beat the All Blacks.

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Rugby

Bulk squared: Lions' simple equation

Paul Cully Believers in small but symbolic battles that punctuate games of the intensity of the Wales v England encounter at the weekend did not have to wait long for their moment.

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Rugby

Roar of Lions: Gatland wary of Wallabies with X-factor

Paul Cully Warren Gatland does not come across as a man who lacks respect for opponents .

Rugby

Wallabies should heed the words of a Lion tamer

Paul Cully In 2009, a stocky 22-year-old openside helped to break the hearts of the British and Irish Lions.

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Rugby

Streetwise Warburton stakes his claim

Paul Cully The role played by two hands stuck in the head after watching Wales grind out a 28-18 win against Scotland at Murrayfield at the weekend.

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Paul Cully

Manu mountain: Tuilagi is trouble for Wallabies

Paul Cully There are 112 kilograms of trouble coming the Wallabies' way in the unmistakeable form of Manu Tuilagi.

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Rugby

Farrell evokes Johns in Irish stew

Paul Cully After the openness of the first round of Six Nations, came something more familiar. Ireland and England, adventurous just a week ago, succumbed to a force greater than either of them: Dublin's grey...

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Paul Cully

Six Nations kicks off with questions to be answered

Paul Cully IT IS apt in this year, a Lions year, that the Six Nations kicks off this weekend with a famous Lions voice ringing in many ears.

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Six Nations delivers strong message

Paul Cully There a couple of ways of looking at the opening weekend of the Six Nations.

Expansive England send message

Paul Cully There are a couple of ways of looking at the opening weekend of the Six Nations.

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Dublin, Edinburgh and Cardiff rejoice at All Blacks' decimation

Paul Cully Occasions when the Irish, Scots and Welsh take any satisfaction from famous victories at Twickenham are rarer than accords stating all affairs are best run by the born-to-rule crowd from Westminster,...

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Wallabies off the mark and still drifting away

Paul Cully No one has ever claimed it wasn't a cruel game: for most of the match Italy's five-eighth Luciano Orquera had outplayed his opposite, Kurtley Beale, yet it was left to him to hit a 79th-minute...

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Paul Cully

Tests will shed light on Lions' pivotal man

Paul Cully It's a sign of the age that on the eve of an influential tour of Europe a Quade Cooper tweet about a computer game has been occupying rugby minds.

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Paul Cully

Sharpened team has grounds for optimism

Paul Cully Rugby's difficulty at dealing with an unwelcome visitor, the drawn Test, has produced a divergence of views about Saturday night's absorbing third Bledisloe Test.

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Cheap shot shows cost of coasting is expensive

Paul Cully Blanket accusations of a lack of spite from the Wallabies last Saturday night are not quite true.

Rugby

Cruden awakening: Wallabies' lack of back-line size is exposed

Paul Cully Upon the completion of the Super Rugby tournament, Australians seeking to get a glimpse into a rosy future by the study of numbers were confronted with some unco-operative data.

Kiwis' great expectations play into Wallabies' hands

Paul Cully On a bitterly cold Christchurch night in June, squat Irish loose-head prop Cian Healy pushed, the vaunted right side of the All Blacks' scrum wobbled and eyebrows in two hemispheres were raised.

Missing out on chocolates comes with sweetener for Wallabies

Paul Cully Robbie Deans this week engaged in some worthy attempts to sweeten the absence of Australian franchises from the pointy end of the Super Rugby season.