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Tevita Kuridrani commits to Australian Rugby for one more year

Wallabies centre Tevita Kuridrani has agreed an extension to his Brumbies contract that will keep him with the Australian Conference Champions for the 2020 season.

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Kuridrani, who has played 119 times for the club and has scored 28 tries, has been in superb form in 2019 crossing for seven tries in fifteen matches showcasing his explosive acceleration, physical carrying and brutal tackling.

“I am very pleased to have signed this extension to my current contract,” Kuridrani said ahead of the match against the Reds at GIO Stadium in Canberra.

“Canberra has been my home for a long time now and I love playing for the club in front of our fans who has always been very good to me. It’s a good group of players and staff here and we are like one big family.

“Canberra is a beautiful place to live and I and am looking forward to making some more happy memories with both the Brumbies and the Wallabies.”

Kuridrani, who currently has 58 caps for Australia and is aiming to be part of the Wallabies Rugby World Cup squad in Japan later this year, brings vital experience, as well as his rugby capabilities, to a young Brumbies squad.

“Tevita is a very important player in our team and it is great news that his career will continue at the Brumbies,” Head Coach Dan McKellar commented.

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“Off the back of a very good pre-season, Tevita is in the best shape of his career and it is not surprising that this year has been one of his best as a Brumby.

“What has been most pleasing with Tev is that he has continued to add new skills to his game and continue to look for improvement. His footwork and speed, the ability to offload and his effective short kicking game are all qualities that now make him a handful for any defensive line.

“At the same time, he continues to be one of the best defensive centres in the world.

“As we move into next season, knowing you have a genuine World class player in the centre’s like Tev, gives our group plenty of confidence.”

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika also heaped praised on the midfielder.

“Tevita has been in strong form so far this season and I’m pleased he’s staying in Canberra with the Brumbies after the World Cup,” Cheika said.

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“He got the chance to get a full preparation this year and it’s showing. I know he’s very hungry to earn a Test jersey again this season so I am looking forward to him being at his best in 2019.”

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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?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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