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'Gypsy football player' joins his fourth Super Rugby side

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Rugby nomad Robbie Abel wants to be a calming voice to the youngsters at the NSW Waratahs, the latest destination on his sporting journey.

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The 30-year-old hooker has been attached to three other Super Rugby franchises, Western Force, the Brumbies and last year with the Melbourne Rebels

He’s also plied his rugby trade in New Zealand for Northland and most recently Auckland, with who he won the Mitre 10 Cup premiership in 2018, when he also represented the Maori All Blacks.

“I’ve been to a few teams so I’ve kind of become a bit of a gypsy football player,” Abel said

“I’m always open to opportunities and exploring new things.

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“Being in this environment kind of suits me as well, to be able to bring something new to the team.

“I’ve learnt a lot along the way from different teams and franchises and I love to stay very open-minded so I look to continue to learn and grow.”

Abel, who will be vying with Waratahs stalwart Damien Fitzpatrick for the starting hooker role, also shapes as a mentor for their young emerging forwards.

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“It is a young pack, but for me that”s the exciting thing about it,” Abel said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7R2n1RgdLh/

“Being a little bit older, these young kids definitely give me a fair bit of energy and I love throwing a little bit of chat around with the young boys here

“I look to bring the things that I’ve learnt along the way, hopefully that maybe sometimes I can give a calming voice to some of those young boys, who are really good players and are going to be stars of the future.”

Adjusting to the demands of the Waratahs new kiwi coach Rob Penney shouldn’t be an issue for Abel, given his familiarity with rugby in New Zealand.

‘”The mindset there is great, the positive way they approach their rugby,” he said

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“I’ve found that Rob brings that same enthusiasm, that same positivity to the way we approach our stuff here.”

Abel is set to have his first run in Waratahs colours on Friday in a pre-season trial against New Zealand’s Highlanders at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval.

There should be some family banter in the lead-up to the Tahs games with the Brumbies, with Able’s father Tony, the operations manager at the Canberra-based franchise.

– AAP

The Crusaders have made a coaching signing straight out of left field ahead of the 2020 season:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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