Month: September 2019

Former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal had a dig at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tactics.

Louis van Gaal said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer “parks the bus right in front of David de Gea” as he criticised the Manchester United manager again.

Solskjaer signed a permanent three-year deal last month after overseeing an upturn in results at United, however, the Red Devils have struggled since.

United – sixth in the Premier League and two points adrift of the top four – have lost five of their past seven matches in all competitions following a 4-0 Champions League quarter-final exit to Barcelona.

Former United boss Van Gaal, who initially questioned Solskjaer’s approach after replacing Jose Mourinho in December, insisted the club favourite is defensive in his tactics.

“I can see how Ole had some impact in the beginning, because United were ninth in the table when he took over and the team was nothing,” Van Gaal said via the Mirror. “United had been playing anti-football, as I call it, but don’t think that Ole isn’t afraid to park the bus either — he is more defensive than you think.

“I have been watching the team, because I always look at United still, and Ole parked the bus against Arsenal. He did it against Tottenham in the league. And at stages against Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona in the Champions League.

“He plays against all the big teams like that. The emphasis is more on defending than on attacking or wanting to play dominant football. I actually call it parking the bus. Ole does it not just outside the 18-yard box. He parks the bus right in front of [goalkeeper] David de Gea.”

Van Gaal – who was sacked by United after winning the FA Cup in 2016 – added: “When United play that way, they play 4-4-2 and play counter-attacking football with Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku. They are gambling on the speed of those two because they are faster than their opponents when they get the space. Rashford’s pace is incredible. You don’t catch him when he breaks away.

“But if Man United want to be a dominant force in Europe again – and in England – they have to have a different playing style.

“The problem as a foreign manager is that you find out that the English football culture is different from Germany and Spain. In those countries, you work on things in training. In England, everything is done by playing matches.

“They get fitter or gain stamina by playing lots of matches. It is a culture you cannot change easily. I wanted to change things, but it proved very difficult.”

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The Italian side’s huge investment in the Portuguese to try and secure Champions League glory has ended in failure

Cristiano Ronaldo’s hopes of Champions League glory with Juventus are over, for this year at least, after yet another stunning performance by Ajax in their quarter-final second leg in Turin.

Goals from Donny van de Beek and Matthijs de Ligt cancelled out Ronaldo’s opener and sealed a 3-2 aggregate victory for the Dutch side, who knocked out Ronaldo’s former club Real Madrid in the previous round.

Juventus splashed out €100 million (£86.4/$133m) to bring Ronaldo to Turin with the expectation it could fuel a charge for European glory.

The Portuguese forward is a five-time winner of the Champions League, first lifting the trophy with Manchester United in 2008. He has since gone on to win the competition four times with Real Madrid, including the last three.

Ajax’s shock victory has ended those dreams in stunning fashion, meaning the Champions League semi-finals will not feature Ronaldo for the first time since 2010, when Real Madrid were knocked out in the last 16.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a huge reaction to the failure of Juventus’ very expensive gamble.

The Force were the Australian Conference dark horse in 2017.

With a new coach calling the shots, some much needed reinforcements in the outside backs and a commitment to play a more expansive style of rugby, there were plenty of positive signs pre-season.

There were growing pains but the end result was a second place finish that brought a sense of optimism to the Sea of Blue, both on and off field.

HIGH POINT

There were three matches this season that rewarded the Force fans for their stoic support.

The 16-6 win against the Jaguares in Argentina was a huge result and Force fans love nothing more than knocking off the Reds, which they did twice this season.

But nothing comes close to the dominant final round win against the Waratahs, which sent Matt Hodgson off in the style he truly deserved.

LOW POINT

Dave Wessels preaches the importance of competing at every contest and playing smart rugby and that lends itself to the low risk, high reward style that the Force warmed into as the season wore on.

That often meant they were involved in low scoring affairs and as a result, there were only a handful of moments which the club would rather forget.

The only low point that sticks out is the 55-6 loss at the hands of the Highlanders, which was a drubbing in the second half.

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He may have only played nine games but in each of those starts, Adam Coleman has been influential.

Coleman is quickly becoming a world class lock, such is the consistency of his dominance in the second row.

He controls the lineout, leads the team defensively with thunderous hits and puts the attack over the gain line with every touch.

Tatafu Polota-Nau was a close second, as he has taken his game to another level since making the move west.

SURPRISE PACKET

There are a few young guns guns on the Force books that have taken great strides in 2017.

Two of those are at halfback, where Ryan Louwrens impressed early on before Michael Ruru filled those shoes with aplomb in Louwrens’ injury enforced absence.

Alex Newsome has made a spot on the left wing his own and that’s because he has a superb turn of foot, brilliant agility and a propensity to slip tackles.

He looks a star of the future and the more time Wessels gets with this team, the more clean ball Newsome will have to work with.

That is an exciting prospect.

UNDERACHIEVER

Newsome’s acceleration has seen Luke Morahan pushed out of the starting XV.

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The fact that he is leaving the club for Bristol may have played some part in that but there is no doubting he had a sub par year.

Outside of Morahan, there were consistent performers across the board in this Force outfit.

Positive signs for the years ahead.

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE IN 2018

To be completely honest, not a great deal.

Dave Wessels is a fantastic coach and there seems to be a terrific culture building at the club.

They will need a new spiritual leader with Matt Hodgson hanging it up, though Adam Coleman looks a prime candidate for that role.

The foundations of a finals bound team are there.

Bigger and better things beckon in 2018.

Final grade: B

The Reds back three may not look like the trio most envisioned prior to the start of the season but for now, there’s something about it that just works.

With Karmichael Hunt still awaiting the results of a Rugby Australia integrity unit investigation and Izaia Perese sidelined until at least early April through a knee injury, the spark from the back of the attack has been left in the hands of Aidan Toua, Filipo Daugunu and Eto Nabuli.

Toua was brilliant in the Reds’ win over the Bulls – soaring high above the ground to claim towering bombs from the boot of Handre Pollard, taking the playmaking load off Jono Lance by slotting into the backline and making the most of his left boot with some astute kicking.

But rather than focusing on his own game, Toua, speaking from Buenos Aires, pointed to the prospect of his wingers as the most exciting part of the Reds’ 2-1 start to the season.“I’ve got two pretty exciting guys on the wings in Eto and Filipo, who are both relatively new to rugby,” Toua said.

“Just keeping an open line of communication with them and making sure they’re doing their jobs for the team and leading our back three is a big role for me.

“I’m just trying to get the ball in their hands as much as they can.”

Daugunu made an early defensive blunder in his first start which gifted the Bulls a try but outside of that, he looks a particularly promising prospect.

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He isn’t the heaviest set winger at a playing weight of 91kg but with ball in hand he racked up 59 metres from his eight runs, which also included a pair of line breaks and three tackle busts.

It was the vision to set up Toua’s try which caught the eye, though, as the flying Fijian stopped on a dime, split the Bulls line from 60 out before finding Brandon Paenga-Amosa, an airborne Toua catching the final pass and scoring as a reward for his run in support.“It’s taken some time to build some combinations with the guys but we are progressing really well week to week and we’re getting better,” Toua said.

“We get glimpses of it in the game but the more time they spend out, the more ball they get, they’ll be able to showcase their talent over the next few weeks.”

Attention for Toua and the Reds now turns to the Jaguares before they fly to Cape Town to take on the Stormers – the toughest road trip in Super Rugby.

Rather than dwell on the difficulty the travel presents, Toua said the team will take it in their stride.

“Whatever obstacles we come across we enjoy it and we embrace the tough road, as Thorny likes to say.”

The Reds face the Jaguares in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning, kicking off at 8:40am AEDT, broadcast LIVE on FOX SPORTS.

The trans-Tasman Super Rugby drought wasn’t at the forefront of the Waratahs’ minds on Saturday night, but captain Michael Hooper is pleased the regular footnote is no more.

The Waratahs broke a near-two year streak on Saturday night, beating the Highlanders 41-12 and Hooper admitted it was a relief that the end of those questions might finally be here.

“To have that stuff put behind and speak about another great challenge next week in the Chiefs down there (is really good),” he said.

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“This team’s really enjoyable to be around at the moment.

“You’ve got guys all putting up their hands, wanting to get on the field, wanting to add.

“That was a real pleasing part for me tonight is guys wanting to contribute and wanting to take that moment into their own hands and doing something with it.”

The Waratahs had an extra man for 63 minutes of the match, after a red card for HIghlanders winger Tevita Nabura, and were against 13 when Aaron Smith was binned, a scenario that was not dissimilar to their own card woes in Christchurch last week.

Hooper said he was happy with the way the side took advantage of the Highlanders’ personnel deficiency, strategically.

“From last week, where we probably didn’t manage the game well, this week I thought the boys really started, particularly in that second half, to work where they were short, work where we could get one up on them and our set piece was able to give the platform for our game managers to pick them off and run in some really nice tries,” he said.

Coach Daryl Gibson said a mental shift in his team was a critical element against the Highlanders.

“We started last week, or probably started against the Blues and really took a good step towards being the team that we know this team can be,” he said.

“That’s half the battle what’s inside your head and tonight we played with some confidence, scored some excellent tries and I’m just really pleased for the boys.”

The result, which puts the Waratahs six points clear at the top of the Australian conference, will buoy the side, ahead of a trip to New Zealand to face the Chiefs.

“What this team will gain from this performance tonight is confidence,” Gibson said.

“They can go over there and they know if we play with our ability, it’s going to be a cracking game.”

The Waratahs take on the Chiefs on Saturday May 26, kicking off at 7:35pm local. 5:35pm AEST, LIVE on FOX SPORTS.

The Waratahs have a chance to prove their forwards can match it with the best, when they take on South African powerhouse, the Lions, on Friday night.

Early on in the season, the Waratahs’ set piece was seen as a target for oppositions, with the Stormers not afraid to point that out ahead of round one. 

Waratahs prop Tom Robertson said they hadn’t yet reached their potential, but the Lions clash was a crucial litmus test.

“I think this is a great test for us, because they’re the best South African team, they’re on top of the conference over there, they’ve got a big forward pack, got a lot of Springboks in the front row,” he said.

“It’ll definitely be a big test for us and I think if we can come out of this and dominate this, we’ll certainly stamp ourselves as the dominant forward pack to come after.”

Robertson said the scrum would be a vital area against the Lions, a team who have made scrum turnovers a trademark of their game.

“They’ve got 31 penalties from scrums so far this year, so that’s the most out of any team,” he said.

“I guess our mindset is don’t give them the ball for a start and make sure we keep the ball, and if we do have to play, we play down their end and use that territory there.

“There’s a few things technically in the scrum time that we’ve got to get right as a front row but as a team perspective, hopefully we just don’t get rid of the ball, to be honest.”

It will be an especially significant match for Robertson, in ANZAC Round, with his grandfathers and great-grandfather all ANZAC veterans.

The Waratahs will wear a specially-designed ANZAC jersey for the match.

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“Every ANZAC Day, my mum and dad and my grandfathers, they always do the ANZAC march and both my grandfathers and my great-grandfather were ANZACs, so there’s definitely a lot of history there,” he said.

“A lot of boys in the team actually have a lot of ancestry going back that way, so a lot of the boys still have the medals from their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, so it’s going to be a special day and hopefully we can do them justice.

“There’s definitely a lot of family pride in that sort of stuff and it’d be a great privilege to wear this jersey.”

The Waratahs are expected to name their team on Wednesday morning, with Will Miller, Rob Simmons and Michael Wells all needing to make it through Tuesday’s session unscathed to play on Friday night.

NSW hosts the Lions at Allianz Stadium on Friday night, kicking off at 7:45pm AEST, LIVE on FOX SPORTS and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO. Buy tickets here.

There’s a sense of deja vu in Melbourne for Will Genia.

When he arrived at Ballymore as an 18-year-old fresh out of Brisbane Boys College, Eddie Jones was calling the shots.

Known for his intensity and meticulous planning in every facet of his team’s preparation, Jones is an idiosyncratic coach if there has ever been one.

Genia has notched 88 Test caps, 114 Super Rugby caps and spent three seasons overseas in the 12 years that have followed and he has finally come across a coach that reminds him of Jones barking orders in his formative years – Rebels coach Dave Wessels.

“He’s very enthusiastic and he’s quite an intense character as well,” Genia said of Wessels.“The one thing that I do enjoy is that he pushes you – he pushes you to want to be the best that you can be and I think the biggest thing that I have noticed so far is just the intensity.

“The intensity that he brings to the session, the intensity that he brings to the group.

“(Wessels) is a little bit like him but I don’t think anyone is as intense as Eddie Jones.”

On a personal front, Genia holds no regrets about his move to Melbourne despite publicly stating his desire to return to the Reds throughout 2017.

“I was pretty adamant that I wanted to go back to Queensland but once I sat down and had a think about things, I think I was ready for a fresh start coming back here to Australia,” he said.

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“I realised that I did actually leave the Reds in 2015 for a reason.

“That was to search for something new and I knew I wasn’t going to find that going back there, as well.“I had done everything that I wanted to do with the Reds and I think, honestly, I have firmly closed that chapter in my life.

“I’m really looking forward to working with a new coaching staff – a young coaching staff – and a new playing group that is very hungry for success.”

Genia will have a mortgage on Melbourne’s halfback jersey in 2018 but who will start alongside him at flyhalf remains somewhat of a mystery.

Reece Hodge has been predominantly training at inside centre and with Jono Lance nursing a broken hand suffered during his time with Worcester at the end of last year, Genia has been training alongside a few different playmakers.

“Hodgey has been training a little bit more at 12 but you have Tayler Adams at 10, Jack McGregor and even Jack Maddocks as well,” Genia said.

“We have a number of options there and because a lot of them are quite young other than Hodgey it will come down to training performance and the training paddock and how they go in trial games.”On the topic of playmakers, Genia said he hoped Quade Cooper would find a new home, having been discarded by new Reds coach Brad Thorn.

“He’s one of my good mates and more than that, he’s one of my favourite players that I’ve ever played with and to ever watch,” Genia said.

“I find myself watching him on YouTube every now and then because he is just a great player.

“I just hope we see him playing again at that top level soon.

“Either against him or with him because as I said, he is a great player and he has so much to offer, still.”

Junior Wallabies halfback Harrison Goddard could be on the plane to South Africa with the Rebels this week, as they await news on Will Genia’s hamstring injury.

Genia pulled up sore in the 50th minute of their loss to the Jaguares, with the halfback set to undergo scans to determine the severity of the injury.

Genia’s back-up, Michael Ruru, would be the first in line to replace Genia, with Goddard the third halfback in the squad.

His availability is complicated somewhat by his inclusion in the Australia U20s squad for the Oceania Championship in a fortnight’s time. 

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Rebels coach Dave Wessels said though they wouldn’t want to take Goddard away from his junior national duties, he would be on the plane if Genia wasn’t.

“We’re fortunate that we have “Godsy’ and ‘Godsy’ has Super Rugby experience and he’s trained really well over the last little while” Wessels said post-match.

“The challenge we have is we want him to play for Australia, because  he’s got the opportunity to play with the U20s.

“That’s something we’ve got to wrestle between is giving the players who’ve been selected for the Australia 20s the right to play there and also if we need them for Rebels

“There’s a bit of a balancing act there (but) if Will is ruled out, we will take Harrison with us.”

While Genia’s fitness is a major concern, Wessels was more frustrated by his backline’s lack of intensity across the park against the Jaguares

“I thought the forwards were really good, (but) I put a bit of pressure on the backs when we were in the changing rooms because I just thought there were moments where the backs didn’t play with the intensity the forwards did at times and that’s the challenge of Super Rugby,” he said.

A 14-9 penalty count put the Rebels on the back foot as well, with ‘lazy’ errors costing them, Wessels said.

“One of the things that is letting us down is penalties,” he said.

“The penalties are lazy, they’re not skill errors.

“The backs just getting lazy, not retreating half a metre offside.

“When the penalty count is 14-9 in those conditions, that’s the difference.

“What do you think’s going to happen? It’s frustrating that so many of those moments are just lazy moments.”

Rebels skipper Adam Coleman eschewed a chance to try and draw the game in the final moments, instead opting for a scrum after a penalty advantage, but said he had no regrets about the decision.

“I don’t feel it was like that last play that lost us the game,” he said.

“There were periods of the game lacking intensity, effort errors that really let us down and ill-discipline.

“Two areas we were pretty poor in and in turn we fell short.”

The Rebels will travel to South Africa next week ahead of a clash with the Bulls.

They’ve seen badly needed rain in Cape Town and now the Melbourne Rebels are trying to end their own South African Super Rugby drought against the Stormers.

Both sides have lost their past three games but the Rebels have never won in 14 matches in the republic.

Their prospects for Friday’s clash were boosted when lock and captain Adam Coleman was cleared to play after suffering a head knock in last week’s loss to the Bulls.

“To have Adsy back is great for the team,” Rebels coach Dave Wessels said.

“He’s actually trained very well this week.”Wallabies forwards Lopeti Timani and Jermaine Ainsley return to the Rebels’ starting side.

In the backs, the absence of Dane Haylett-Petty has caused a reshuffle, with Tom English shifted to the wing and Jack Maddocks to fullback and Bill Meakes recalled to the centres.

Dane and Ross Haylett-Petty could be right for next week’s clash with the Crusaders in Melbourne but hooker Jordan Uelese is expected to be sidelined for four weeks with an arm injury and backrower Richard Hardwick out for about eight weeks with a knee problem.

Wessels remains optimistic the Rebels can finally win in his country of birth.

“I think if we can play with similar intensity to the way that we did in Pretoria (against the Bulls) and hopefully get a bit more luck… then I think we give ourselves a good chance,” he said.“The Stormers have got the second-most line breaks in the comp and we’ve scored the third-most tries so both the teams like to attack.

“The Stormers tend to grow another leg when they are at Newlands as well.

“They played the last three games away from home so for them playing at home will be a big boost.”

Wessels said the Cape Town water crisis was very real, noting lawns he remembered as green were now a dust bowl.

“But fortunately we’ve brought a bit of luck to the city. There’s been two or three days of rain since we’ve got here,” Wessels said.

The Rebels tackle the Stormers in Cape Town on Friday night, kicking off at 11pm AEST, broadcast LIVE on FOX SPORTS.

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