World Rugby Tour's Darkest Hour

As you are no doubt aware the World Rugby Tour site is in troubled waters. We thought it best to outline the obstacles that have mounted against the tremendously popular blogsite and publish it as our final post.

Pressure on the site has been mounting ever since Stephen Hoiles spelt Millennium with only one L. Viewers were calling for heads right from the first post. Rightly or wrongly we the editors decided to ignore the countless emails and stick with the semi-literate former Waverly College student. We thought that time would heal the damage done by Hoiles, but as the grammatical errors piled up we were proven wrong. We urged Stephen to pen a response to the ever-growing list of detractors, but he said he didn’t know what "detractors" meant, also he didn’t understand what we were saying because we spoke to quickly. This is not the reason for the termination of the blog, but merely one of many challenges we faced.

The ARU’s unreasonable stance of not endorsing full frontal nudity was the most disappointing revelation over this past week. It seems that times have truly changed. As a public site we are prevented from using any footage from the Copa Mundial 2007. I won’t bore you with the details but pretty much everything we do as a team or in team kit or at a match venue cannot be published without authorisation. You may have noticed that we refrained from using the words Corld Wup in any of the posts; this was a measure the legal team thought necessary in the current climate. Needless to say the blocking of our attempt to air footage of players not in tournament kit(aka nude)was a fatal blow to the site. This event was the catalyst for the brains trust at the world rugby tour to decide to reach a settlement for conflicts and abstain from adding any more articles, videos, photos or polls to the site.


On the bright side we have had some great moments over the last month. The polls were extremely popular and provided some interesting results. One that immediately comes to mind is the overwhelming majority of polers who thought John Muggleton, the great ball playing backrower and now longest serving wallaby coach, had broken his nose more than 37 times. This is apparently not true, but what is true is that 0% of voters thought he had broken his nose less than 5 times. Another poll worth mentioning is the “Who would you like to date your sister?” poll, where Stephen Larkham was a clear winner with nearly 50% of the votes. David Lyons however didn’t fair so well with less than 8%. Surprise Surprise, people didn’t want a 120 Kilo Number 8 who strangely resembles Ed Kemper, going out with their sister. What is still the most contentious poll to date was the “Which Wallaby sent Eddie the treason text” Matt Dunning beat Rocky Elsom 125 to 117 of 376 votes. All I can say about this one is that despite the fact Eddie and Rocky are mates, Rocky does not have his phone number or access to it.

Undoubtedly, the greatest interest has been associated with the rise of Al “The Fuse” Baxter. Matt Giteau’s version of events, the 50th cap article and Al Baxter – Out of control were all extremely popular posts. Al had complained to the editors that this was unwanted attention, but it has become apparent that he brings the spotlight on himself. Not only did he have in his own words a “storming” game against Canada, he also carried on like he’d won the world cup after but he also scored his maiden 1st class try. Embarrassing? yes but not surprising, because as we have come to realise, with the Fuse you never know what your gonna get and that’s the way people like it. As one emailer put it, “I had no idea that Baxter’s life could bring me such entertainment.” Which is why we at the world rugby tour were so happy to bring you this service over the last few weeks. And that is exactly what it is, a service to the rugby loving public of Australia (and anyone else with the internet). It is also worth mentioning that no player has received any financial benefit from this project. Except for Stephen Larkham, who got $500 for his geekishly titled first post Episode One. Which we though was fair enough considering his deal with Edinburgh fell through two weeks back.

So in conclusion we hope you enjoyed the world rugby tour and we thank you for your support of the Wallabies.

Rocky Elsom Read more!

Australia Vs Fiji

The team enjoyed another successful game Vs a spirited Fiji in very tough conditions. Not only was it played at a hectic pace but the temperature was 30degrees +.
Although the Coaches weren’t too happy with our 1st half performances a 55-12 victory was still something to smile about after the game. The lead up to the game was something most players I’m sure will remember for a long time. The amount of support the Wallabies are getting is fantastic.
Not just at games but also in the streets of Montpellier we are overwhelmed with the amount of Green & Gold we are seeing. There were reportedly 30,000 Aussies who made the trip to the south of France for the Australia - Fiji game and from a players point of view we can’t thank them enough. It was a busy & memorable night in town last night. Most players spent a good hour or two mingling with fans in the streets while we got to catch up with friends and family too. At one stage I looked around & could see Matt Dunning surrounded by fans generously giving up his limited time allowed out to chat & take photos with all the well wishes. And for once he got to walk in the hotel foyer with the majority of the squad smack bang on 12am. With only a 6 day turn around before our last pool game Vs Canada on Saturday, the players were asked to enjoy the night but be home early and in a responsible state. We have rapped up 1st place on our pool and look like facing the winner on England Vs Tonga in two weeks time. Having said that, it is still business as usual Vs the Canadians this Saturday in Bordeaux. Its extremely important we play well leading into the finals and I’m sure I speak on behalf of all players we don’t want to face another half time dressing down from the coach like the one we received yesterday after a poor 1st 40minutes Vs Fiji. In response to all the comments received on last weeks story I’d have to say that it’s a good thing the NRL grand final is on this week because while most of the Wallabies are keen followers of League, myself included, the attention of all sporting lovers will hopefully turn to the Rugby World Cup the following week, just in time for all the big games to begin. And thanks to all my old “school colleagues “ for keeping in touch. I’m not yet convinced the name next to the comment is who they say they are but it’s all to exciting for me, I’m staying out of it.
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Video: Matt Giteau's version of events

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Al Baxter - Staring down Ewen McKenzie

This week Wallaby tight head Alan Baxter reaches 50 tests, a very rare milestone for Australian Props. After running on against Canada he will join his long time mentor and NSW head coach Ewen McKenzie as one of only two players to ever play over 50 games as a prop for Australia.
Baxter is best known to his team mates as the bloke who knows “stuff” and stuff about stuff you didn’t know existed. There are so many stories of Al being able to decipher riddles or give fully detailed accounts of random people throughout history. My personal favorite occurred at a beer tasting event put on for the wallabies in 2005 where he successfully identified Thiamin as a mineral that had been added to most beers to preserve the life of drinkers who failed to eat. There is more to this story (write in if you want to hear the full version, if not take my word it was astonishing)
Apart from having an abnormally large brain he is possibly one of the nicest guys many of the players have ever met. Sure he has a fuse shorter than Adam Freier’s torso and a temper that usually erupts into some form of blood bath. Take me for example, just this morning I shed half a gallon of claret after an Al Baxter head-butt. But that is his on field personality (and occasionally home life personality), but that’s it, the rest of the time he takes his place as one of the most well liked men in world rugby. For all you out there that say he is a maniac and should be in shackles until game day, and that people only say they like him in self-preservation, all I can say is that such comments have little merit.

A true iron man in the modern game Al has raced to 50 test caps faster than most (possibly the fastest time wise). His debut in 2003 was during a very uncertain time for Australian rugby. The great Argentinean born tight-head Patricio Noreiga has succumbed to what can only be described as “bad back”, a likely outcome after 15 years of professional scrumaging. Compounding that was Ben Darwin’s career ending neck injury in the 2003 world cup semi final. This placed enormous strain on the Australian Scrum. So in his debut season for the Wallabies Al found himself shouldering the responsibility of the Australian scrum in the World Cup Final, against the most dominate pack in the world rugby. Big Al passed the test and went on to represent Australia in nearly every test since.

It is right to marvel at this extraordinary achievement and I think it is appropriate to look at what it is that got Al to where he is. I believe a large portion of Al’s ability to stay at the top lies with Al’s capacity to excel physically. He is the type of bloke that makes any strength and conditioner look good.
Where most props have to work hard to maintain their lean physique (I use the word lean very loosely) Al never had to worry about such matters. Being very gifted physically he has been able to adapt to changes in scrumaging, international rule changes, the rigors of the extensive travel associated with pro rugby and also the changing styles of coaches over the years. His ability to do this earnt him the nick name “Super Al” (which he quite likes and sometimes introduced himself as). This name soon wore off as his darker side became apparent and some aspects of his personality failed to match up with the do gooding Superman. Regardless he thoroughly deserved the title, if only on a physical basis. He is the only prop know to man who consistently gets over 12.5 in the beep test while still staying as strong as an ox. His chiseled physique has irritated more than one or two fellow props, fearing Al was raising the bar unattainably high. These concerns weren’t anything a straight right couldn’t sort out in a hurry.

One can only conclude that the big fella knows how to work and I can only assume that the big engine that is Alan Baxter has plenty more tests to come. Next cap Al will become the most capped test prop in Australian Rugby history a fitting accolade for one of games true servants.

Rocky Elsom
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Background on Chris Haseman

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Pre World Cup Boot Camp and The Fuse

To explain the following video, the Wallabies had a Boot Camp where all players had to at some stage glove up and take on Chris the Hammer Haseman, one of if not the greatest mixed martial arts fighters Australia has ever produced. Mixed Martial Arts is Ultimate Fighting/Pride ect. Anyway all reports suggest that Al took this very seriously and was able to land a solid right hook to the jaw of the Hammer with devestating effect. This ended the fight and while most of the fights were filmed by ARU staff this one was not. It was filmed and we are trying to track down the footage which we will post as soon as we get it. We will also post some clips of the great man, Chris Haseman to show who he was up against. Also we are going to post some footage of The Hammer bashing other players. Read more!

Real Player Profile: Mark Chisholm

Mark Chisholm…

Despite having the biggest guns in World Rugby (you may recognise him from a recent Qantas advertising campaign) this giant of a man has been the cornerstone of the ACT Brumbies tight five for teh past few seasons. Mark made his Test debut in 2004 and has been an outstanding team player who can play 2nd row and backrow. He has the remarkable honour of being apart of 34 of the last 36 test matches.

Big Chis has recently come to fame as the poster boy of Qantas, where after scoring a try during the 2006 domestic test season he held a right flexed bicept pose for about 30 seconds, ingoring the pleas from teammates to return to half way. Suprise suprise he was snapped by a photographer and the rest is history.

This year Mark declined strong offers from the Queensland Reds to stay with his beloved Brumbies. Apparently, now that he runs the set piece at the Brumbies he prefers to be known as the "Lineout General" while about town in Canberra. Chis is on a strict diet from Wallaby medical staff not allowing any sugar after 2pm in the fear of an energy spike which leads to out of control giggling.

Mark is a great team man and always fun to be around. In his spare time he loves nothing more than having his 3year old son Zac read him a bedtime story. Read more!

Spines in Line - by Steve Moore

The most powerful display in sport explained by Steve Moore

The clatter of bodies is signalled by a dull grunt. The blood rushes straight to the head and one is oblivious to all else other than the two tonnes of weight crashing into each other. No its not a car accident, it’s the intial stages of a rugby scrum. This highly specialised area of the game has become a vital cog in the wheel of any successful team, and its highly evolving nature makes it a large part of preparations for a test match. Scrums nowadays are as great a contest for possession as they ever were, and the Wallabies have worked in earnest to continually improve this facet of the game. This is an insight into the teams scrum preparation for a game at the Rugby World Cup 2007.

The Scrum gets a bad rap among ladies and the drifting supporter. Sure it looks impressive and lets the backs get a sweet opportunity to atatck from but what most onlookers don’t realise is that the scrum is crucial for almost all phases ensuing. A powerful scrum, usually led by a dominant tight head, can isolate the opposition back row and give a good attack a superior attacking platform. The 1st phase battle can have a huge bearing on the outcome if the test and that is why it is such a pivitol part of the teams preparation.

The seed is sown very early in the week with hours of analysis going into forging a plan for the week ahead. A typical week will start with all of the front rowers analysing video clips of opposition scrums. It’s astounding the role that video has played in the modern game. Its now possible for us to break down opposition footage frame by frame in our analysis. Footage comes in from all corners of the globe. Be it Heinekin Cup, Six Nations, Tri-Nations or Super 14, any match played anywhere ends up at our fingers tip on the laptops. This footage allows us and the coaches to come up with a plan for the weekends game, identifying strenghts and weaknesses of the team we are facing.

Hours will be spent throughout the week drilling against each other with our plan for the weekend in mind. We will scrummage on the machine and in a live situation, all aimed at simulating the conditions we expect to face at the weekend. Usually this will occur early in the week. These sessions are known to get quite fiery. Hightenened emotions and buckets of testosterone contributing to what some might say are harder circumstances than those experienced in a game. The days later in the week are usually used for recovery and treatment, with most of the boys pretty fatigued and beaten up after the taxing sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Friday everyone is primed and the preparation is complete. Small meetings to tie up any loose ends round out the weeks prep.

So there you have it. Whilst there may only be 10 scrums or so in a game, a far greater amount of time is spent in the week prior to make sure that when we step over that line we are ready to fire. With the likes of Carl Hayman, Os Du Randt and co at the ready, nothing is left to chance.
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Al Baxter Out of Control - Excert from SMH

Wallabies prop Al "The Fuse" Baxter continues to strike fear into the hearts of his teammates. They have been scared of the Wallabies tighthead ever since he decked wrestling guru Chris Haseman during the team's boot camp on North Stradbroke Island. At Wednesday's training session in Montpellier, The Fuse was again throwing his weight around, according to teammate Phil Waugh. "The Fuse is now the standover man in the team," Waugh said. "Remember Tim Bristow? The Fuse reminds me of him. There he is. Whack. You should have seen him at today's mauling session. He was unstoppable." And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Real player profile: Adam Freier - The little train that could

This tenacious pocket rocket is one of the games great characters.Vertically challenged since berth, Adam has proved his critics wrong his whole life.
He was taunted & laughed at by his school colleagues when he turned up for basketball try-outs at the age of 12. The coach even suggested he apply for the job as team scorer or mascot.Adam refused to hop into the life-size mascot’s suit & 5years later was the schools 1st captain and MVP. He even worked in a basketball card shop where he developed an obsession with Game-Boy Tetris, which eventually cost him his job.

He tried his hand at Rugby League as a child & although he showed promise as a hooker Adam struggled with the laws of the game. He was given a 1 year’s suspension (imposed by the coaching staff) from the South Sydney Junior’s competition for repeatedly kicking the ball out on the full from inside his 22m on his team’s 1st or 2nd tackle. (Unconfirmed by any source)An inspirational leader he still likes to pump his players up by using the Chicago Bulls basketball style huddle with “All hands in, what time is it? Game time” chant. This method however, much to Adam’s disappointed is not well accepted by the current Wallabies squad.

Adam has also developed an obsession with kneeboarding. While he has yet to build up the courage to grace the water, he has mastered all aspects of the sport on land. We'll load some videos on later in the week so you can get the jist.
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Real Player Profile: George Smith

This Rugby warrior is a rare talent, both on and off the field. At the young age of 26, George has already played an incredible 83 test for his Country and is regarded by his peers as one of the greatest ever backrowers. He is looking like the only player capable of coming close to George Gregan's test cap record. Pryor to a momentary lapse in concentration, where he shaved his dreadlocks off, George was one of the most rcognisable figures in world rugby. Now he often get mistaken of Reds centre Lloyd Johannson.

He claims to be half Tongan, although after chopping the famous Dred locks looks more Asian than Jackie Chan.He is fluent in 4 languages, English, Tongan, and Pigeon with his language of choice being Tonglish.

He has a lovely wife and two beautiful children, with his son a proud Ginger Kid.In his spare time George likes colouring in his children’s books and as a child was disqualified from a Connect 4 competition for continually miscounting & shouting “connect4 with only 3 colours in a row”.

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Diary: Steven Hoiles on Australia vs Wales

What a week it’s been.
We had just finished our captains run on Friday (teams last session of the week) & all was looking great.The session was complete and Steve Larkham was doing some kick off practise when he miss hit a drop kick and his knee locked on him. The look on his face was that of a shattered man.
He was taken back to the hotel to shower and head to the Hospital for scans. In the mean time in the shower his knee unlocked and he was doing sprints up and down the corridor of our hotel, to convince himself and anyone who would listen that he was ok.

After scans revealed not too much damage, the medical staff decided it was to big a risk to play him.Enter Berrick Barnes, only 14hours before he was out with the dirty dirtys (The non 22 members of the team).They all have a night out together sometime before the game. Luckily Berrick didn’t have a huge night and was ready for his 1st run on test.

Everyone in our squad had complete faith in him. He did extremely well last week and although the Welsh test would be a much tougher assignment, we all knew this young bloke had what it takes.In front of 80,000 fans he took control of the game and was a stand out player for us.

It was a great win in what was our biggest pool match of the world cup. 32 to 20 didn’t seem a fair reflection of the dominance we had over the Welsh.They scored two 2nd half tries, 1 while we had 2 men in the sin bin.Dan Vickerman got his 50th cap tonight, which is a special achievement and was the main attraction in the Dressing room, until Prince William walked in & congratulated us on the win and took some photos with the players and staff, which was very nice of him.

We are heading straight back to Montpellier after the game & have 2 days off all training.The boys will head out tonight for a few beers, and while some may ask what can this do in terms of winning the RWC, all I can say to that is that it helps “A little thing known as Morale”(quote from the great David Brent).Some of the guys are heading to Barcelona & St Tropez while others are catching up with family and friends during our days off.

Poor Steve larkham is heading to the Surgeons table to have a clean out on his knee, anything else they might find in his poor excuse for a lower body. He will hopefully miss only 2 weeks. Maybe 3 but we can only hope for a Yana Pittman style recovery, as he is vital to our campaign.Next entry will have all the pics from our days off & hopefully some good stories to match.
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Video: Coops off the Top Rope in Lagos

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Diary: Steven Hoiles Writes about life in France and Game one of the world cup vs Japan.

Tour Blog Week 2:Our opening game vs Japan was a great start to our world cup campaign.In very hot conditions and after a slow start we ended up with a great win 91-3.Rocky Elsom scored 3 tries and had a blinder. He was carrying on in the dressing room, rein acting his line breaks, and talking to anyone who’d listen about how good he played and how he hasn’t scored a triple since his days at the famous Nudgee College as a school kid.Not much more besides Rocky was spoken about after the match, with our focus now on next week’s game vs. Wales at the impressive Millennium stadium. A crowd of 85000 people are expected. This will be our toughest pool game and every1 is very excited for next sat.

There were 2 significant moments for the Wallabies today. The 1st was the test Debut of Berrick Barnes.He was presented his Wallaby cap from our longest serving staff member John Muggleton after the game and preceded to shot gun a can of beer, which is a Tradition of the team. (No drinking problem in our team though)The whole team was thrilled for Barnsy and scoring 2 tries on Debut was very much deserved. He is now Wallaby Number 820In his short time in rugby he has quickly earn’t himself a reputation as a kid with huge amounts of energy and someone who has to be told regularly to get off the training field and save some energy.He’s like an 8 yr old who never stops running around chasing some kind of physical activity. He would have been a nightmare of a kid to control.

In some very sad news, Mark Gerrard’s world cup seems over almost before it started.
He came on as a late replacement with 15mins to go, caught a kick off and somehow twisted his knee and looks like he has snapped his medial ligament in his knee, which will rule him out for 3months.This is every player’s worst fear, to be ruled out of a World cup. What makes it harder is that his Wife, 2 young kids, parents, and his wife’s family are scheduled 2 fly out on Monday.I can’t imagine how bad he is feeling right now.

Off field its been pretty quiet leading up to the this game.The team had a few beers last Sunday night in Montpellier (our home away from home), I think it’s important we get out and about every now and then. As much as some people back home think we should all be tucked in bed by 9pm every night, getting out and relaxing away from the game is great for team bonding.My little mate Adam Freier has a great impersonation of a knee boarder and if we are lucky enough over the next month or so, we may even get some footage of his hilarious moves. As mentioned before, we now move our attention 2 Melennium Stadium which will be a huge occasion.

1 down 6 to go.
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Diary: Stephen Larkhams' Cup Diary

Our preparation has just finished, tomorrow we move to France to start the formalities for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The last 5 days have been spent based in a training facility called Browns in the seaside town of Villamoura. Villamoura sits half way between Faro and Lagos in the Alvarde region of Portugal. The Alvarde sits on the South Coast and is a popular holiday destination for the English, and other European countries that don't see much sun. Even though it wasn't peak season the area was teaming with tourists.

We arrived in Portugal on Friday night after spending 6 hours in transit in a hotel attached to the Gatwick International airport. The flight from Australia was mostly uneventful apart from the 6 blokes who were lucky enough to have their names pulled out of a hat and bumped up to first class. Apparently a party was had in the first class cabin on the second leg from Bangkok to London, and the Hass's (Adam Frier) infamous dry land knee boarding was brought out. He was knee deep in the green room and the cabin passengers loved it.

Prior to this flight the team had a three day camp in Sydney which culminated in a team farewell at the Sydney Town Hall. The team had various duties but the biggest was being presented on stage and being farewelled by the Prime Minister.

We all lined up behind the stage and were called on one by one. On one of the back stage doors was a little A4 sized sign that said 'Performer', and Stephen Moore thought it would be funny to stick it on the back of Matt Giteau as he went on stage. Unfortunately Gits wised up to the joke and it couldn't be done. However Rocky Elsom wasn't so aware and the boys managed to stick it on his back. He was two people from going on stage when the lady organising realised the joke, didn't see the funny side and through much commotion took the sign off.

I was still laughing when it was my time to go on stage, and stepped to the edge of the curtain. There was a guy there who told us when to go out, and as we entered the stage through the middle, I asked him which side I was on. He didn't know, so when I was called forward I was searching for my name tag on the floor, and forgot about shaking the Prime Ministers hand. Quite oblivious the boys already on stage began to shout at me and I finally realised what I hadn't done. The Prime Minister had spent 5 seconds with his hand out chasing me around, the crowd thought it was hilarious. My only saving grace was that Chico (Chris Latham) did exactly the same thing stright after me.

Anyway back to Portugal. It rained the first night, heavy, and the locals said it broke the drought. The rain continued the next morning which started with a team meeting. Knuckles (John Connolly) started by reminding us that we were not on holiday and that this period was our last to do the hard work before the competition proper. The aim of the camp was to train as hard as posible without getting injured and do it in the heat. We then hit the gym, and cycled through seeing the physio, and doctor to make sure we weren't too stiff after the long flight. The afternoon was our own.

The team basically split in two, a golfing group and a fishing group. I was in the latter, and our group of 13 left at 12:30 for the Marina, which was the hub of Villamoura. After finding out the fishing charter company wouldn't take us out because apparently the swell was too big, Coops (Adam Ashley-Cooper), self-professed fisherman, preceeded to haggle with other companies in the Marina until he found one that would take us out. Still raining we set off for a little known ship wreck 6 kms off the coast. The swell had died down considerably to less than 1 metre, and all was looking good until we anchored and set up our lines. Firstly the hooks were tiny, no bigger than a finger nail, which we baited with pippies. The guys realised we wouldn't be catching anything big today. Secondly we anchored over the wreck which was 45 metres down on the reef, but the bait wasn't getting within 40 metres of the wreck by the time the current had taken it, even with heavy sinkers.

We managed to catch 4 fish in about 2 hours, Ed (Fitzgerald) our physio caught a 20cm mackerel, Pink (Guy Sheperdson) caught a 10cm Brim, Holmesy (Greg Holmes) caught a 15 cm Brim, but the catch of the day was Gerrardo (Mark Gerrard). A Groper measuring no more than 5cm, obviously he didn't even realise he had one. But it wasn't about the fish, never is. Coopy was filthy, no one likes him anyway.

The sun started to come out at the 2 hour mark, we fished for another 30 minutes soaking up the sun, then packed it in, and headed for dinner at the Marina. All in all a massive day of flexing rods and big fish tales, much the same as the Australian Cricket team's world cup fishing experience.

The only other opportunity we had to look around was on Monday. Most of the guys jumped in cars and headed to various towns on the coast, the most memorable journey was that taken by the guys who went to Lagos. Their trip started just after lunch, a 45 minute trip in two cars. The day involved swimming and sunbaking. Lagos is famous for its beaches and the caves surrounding them that most of the guys swam through. The first highlight of the day, apart from the serenity, was Coopy's backflip off a 12 metre cliff, into no more than two and a half metres of water, much to the delight of all the people on the beach. Apparently he had spent many hours honing his skills on the rivers and bridges of the 'Centy Coast'.

The second highlight was Hass's parading the beach in his speedos. Whilst everyone else was in boardshorts, Hass pulled his speedos up high. High enough to make them look like a 'thong'. He has an obsession with tanning, that's why we call him Hass, aka David Hasselhoff. On this day, through all of the niggle from his team mates, he got one step closer to achieving the perfect tan.

The rest of the time in Portugal was spent training, double sessions on Sunday and Tuesday. It felt longer than five days, but we got a lot out of it as a team. The last session was a team one and although the execution was sloppy the enthusiasm was high. The feeling in the camp is one of confidence, we've grown as a team over the last 12 months, to the point where we feel like we can beat any other side on our day. Read more!