JUNE 2005
MISSING IN ACTION

Yes my apologies missing in action I am afraid been flat out coaching my team and generally getting amongst it. There has been plenty of things happening so I will try and mention most of them. Great build up to the recent interstate match won by NSW, can’t believe how parochial Sydney Morning Herald reporter Greg Growden has got. Imagine branding Queenslanders as "Hillbillies” absolutely disgraceful, if Joh was around he would lock him up or not allow him over the border. In Knuckles Connolly’s time we would have accidentally involved him in rucking practice and really put the slipper in.

Fabs Fenton did a great article on the history of interstate rivalry, extract below;
“Matt ‘ Bubba’ Ryan went North to play for the Reds in the early nineties and loved coming back to Sydney to play against his old team mates. “ Look you’ve gotta love playing the silvertails. We’d be straining at our leashes for a week, waiting to get at them. We’d put Sam Scott Young in a blue jumper at training and ruck him all night. He loved it. Knuckles Connolly would get an article by a NSW journalist predicting a big win to the Blues (they weren’t hard to find) blow it up and pin it on the notice board at Ballymore. We had a team lunch before flying South and the hard heads like Stan Pilecki and Tony Shaw would talk about how we’d smashed them in the past. In our worst year we’d be forgiven if we beat NSW. I played them seven times for six wins. They’re calling them the Tahs now, we called them tarts.”
Professional Rugby, new anti- rucking laws and “ choir boy” touch judges have changed the game as Matt ruefully admits. He doubts the intensity of Queensland’s new boys.”

Yes I knew there was little chance of the Reds beating the Tarts, the Reds are so soft these days it is a joke. QRU really has to look at their club competition, forget the fixation with a National Club Competition and fix the local club comp. It is a lot easier said then done I know; the Brisbane sporting public are really spoiled with Broncos, Reds, Bullets and Bears all competing in a tough small market. It is no wonder there is very little sponsorship dollar left over for club rugby. In saying this, the club competition was strong and thriving when I arrived in 1990, why was it left to deteriorate? When I went back to Brisbane in 2001 to watch 3 club games, the standard was a joke and honestly the forward packs could not knock the skin off rice custard they were that small and timid. If the QRU once again gets a thriving club comp hopefully this will flow onto the Reds with better players and higher standards. At the moment Reds officials are looking for recruits everywhere except Brisbane.

Congratulations to the Waratahs for making the Super 12 final, the 35-25 score line was respectful. Very hard for anyone to beat the Crusaders at home they are simply awesome. Their defence from phase play is a real lesson to any coach; they get off the line with such speed and then compete for the ball on the ground so well. Their set pieces are also excellent for Southern Hemisphere teams. You will see the same personnel not do so well against the British Lions, who are bigger men and more technically proficient in the set pieces.

We had the Singapore 7’s here on April 16th and 17th; it was a great weekend of Rugby with New Zealand beating England in the final 26-5. I felt sorry for the Fijian 7’s team who were captained/coached by Serevi. They were knocked out in the semi-final by England 14-12, I thought Ratuvou was unfairly sin binned with 2 minutes to go and this allowed England to get a late try and win the match. Serevi did a great job coaching the team, I was at most of their training sessions and they were certainly switched on and focused. They even played a practice match against our Singapore lads which was most appreciated.

Singapore started the competition with a 38-7 loss to Australia. We were simply blown away by the pace of New Zealand 68-0. Last game on Day 1 was against Chinese Taipei where we went down 17-0. Coach Tom Browne had the tough task of getting the boys up for the second day, the team was positive as there had been some good play in all the matches on Day 1. Day 2 was a tough day at the office, Kenya were ordinary on Day 1 and spectacular on Day 2 beating Singapore 57-0. The last match was against China where Singapore went down 26-0.

We are currently preparing for the National 15’s season our first Test Match is against Thailand on June 11th in Singapore. They are a very good side but if we perform to expectation we should win.
15’s Results so far this season:

Wed. 20th April Singapore Barbarians 31 defeated NTRU 19
Fri. 22nd April NTRU 49 defeated Singapore 5
Tues. 3rd May NZ Universities 107 defeated Singapore Select 0
Sat. 7th May Singapore 19 defeated Southern Hemisphere 17
Sat. 14th May Northern Hemisphere 39 defeated Singapore 7
Sat. 21st May Singapore 17 defeated Singapore Barbarians 10
Sat. 28th May NS Wanderers Malaysia 37 defeated Singapore 29

It has been a good build up to the June Test Matches; yes you did read the score right NZ Universities put a big margin on our Singapore Select Team. The Singapore Barbarians had a good win against the Northern Territory Rugby Union Team. The Singapore Team just got back from a match against NS Wanderers in Sembewan Malaysia. We lost the match but it was great preparation for our first Test against Thailand. Unfortunately we lost our smiling assassin Kai Hock with a broken arm, he managed to tackle the big Fijian centre of Wanderers but broke his arm in the process. He is certainly a tough character travelling all the way back to Singapore with a broken arm and then driving himself to hospital. He will be hard to replace he is a hard working hooker with a good throw.

I have certainly got no news or gossip from around the traps, certainly seems if Stormin Norman has got religion or is quietening down in his old age. Usually the Coff’s Harbour informants have a few good stories, but no it has been very quite. In Singapore the only news is that National Captain Rong Jing Xiang has become an avid netball fan, he may be looking at changing codes. Word is that his brother prop Rong Jing Xing has also stopped going to lunch with National Manager Lincoln Tan. They usually demolish 10 plates at least between them but the sad state of Big Rong’s fitness with his early matches resembling a Walk-a-Thon has seen him start a serious fitness campaign..

Email Matt Ryan at bubbaemu@hotmail.com