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Rebels, Force remain in limbo as Super Rugby saga drags on

ARU chairman Cameron Clyne

A decision on which Australian team will be cut from Super Rugby is no closer to being reached following an Australian Rugby Union (ARU) extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday.

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Seventy one days have passed since the ARU said it would announce within “48 to 72 hours” whether the Western Force or Melbourne Rebels would lose their place in the competition.

However, while the majority of ARU members on Tuesday voted in favour of condensing from five Australian Super Rugby teams to four, there is still no clarity on which franchise will be cut.

“We’ve got teams obviously that are looking to stay in the competition so we can’t really control that time frame,” said ARU chairman Cameron Clyne.

“People were saying [in April], if you make a decision, make it quickly and move on. We were very happy to do that and that’s why we put out a time frame of 48-72 hours.

“When you’re making a difficult change, I accept there is criticism that it’s taken time.

“Had I come out on April 10 and said we’re going to exit a team and it’s going to take four months, there’d be equal criticism coming back.”

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Bill Pulver, the CEO of the ARU, had said he would resign with immediate effect if everyone in Tuesday’s meeting felt he was no longer the right man for the job.

However, Clyne said Pulver’s position was not discussed during a “civil” gathering.

“The meeting was actually conducted in a very respectful and civil way,” Clyne added.

“It was actually a very constructive and civil discussion, there were no discussions of leadership changes or anything like that.

“He [Pulver] was just making the obvious point that these are difficult changes to drive through and that to drive them through you need support ideally of all the stakeholders.”

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Nickers 34 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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