Payto & Panda: Wallabies coach Michael Cheika’s World Cup carrot for Crusaders gun Pete Samu
HE’S starring for the Crusaders, but the Wallabies are now interested in the Melbourne-born backrower for the World Cup, plus the latest on Sonny Bill Williams, Israel Folau and more.
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AUSTRALIAN-raised Crusaders flanker Peter Samu is being heavily pursued by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika for a return to Australian rugby and a crack at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Samu, who was born and raised in Melbourne, has been in the Crusaders’ squad for the last three seasons and featured as an impact player off the bench for the powerhouse Kiwi team’s win in the Super Rugby final last year.
The 26-year-old played club rugby in Brisbane (Sunnybank) and Sydney (Randwick) - and did an off-season with the Waratahs in 2013 - but a lack of Super Rugby opportunity saw him move to New Zealand to play for Tasman in the ITM Cup in 2014.
Samu impressed enough to be named the Crusaders Knights’ player of the year in 2015, and was promoted from the development team to the powerhouse Super Rugby side in 2016.
Samu has played 23 Super Rugby games for the Crusaders - nine in the starting team - and has won 22 of them. He has won his last 19 straight games in Super Rugby.
That amazing stat is a testament to the Crusaders’ strength obviously but by being in that team, it also points to Samu’s high calibre - which has clearly skyrocketed playing alongside Kieran Read.
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The Melbourne Rebels unsuccessfully chased Samu last year before he re-signed in Christchurch.
The Rebels and the Brumbies - who Samu will play against in Canberra - are believed to be the clubs chasing the flanker for Super Rugby duties.
Cheika is pushing hard to get Samu home to bolster an already strong stable of Aussie backrowers, albeit with uncertainty still swirling around Sean McMahon’s presence in Australia next year.
RECORD BREAKER
IF Samu’s 19 straights wins sounds like a lot to you, apply for a sporting stats job. It is almost a record.
FoxSports stats tells us if the Crusaders beat the Brumbies, Samu will equal the Super Rugby record for most consecutive wins (20) held by Crusaders flanker Johnny Leo (2004-06).
SONNY BILL’S BACK AT BROOKIE
SONNY Bill Williams has made strong sides in his recovery from a broken wrist and is now set to return to the field for the Auckland Blues’ crunch match against NSW Waratahs on Saturday week.
The match will also see the return from injury of Israel Folau, pitting the two former NRL stars against each other in the suburban league ground of Brookvale Oval.
The Tahs had to move the fixture from Allianz Stadium due to a clash with the A-League grand final, and with two of the biggest names in rugby making returns to the field it should ensure a big crowd in Manly.
BRAVO, HENRY SPEIGHT
HERE is a story that needs to be known more widely.
After two Jaguares players - Pablo Matera and Ramiro Moyano - left the field with injury in Canberra last weekend, Brumbies winger Henry Speight went to the airport the next day to check on how the Argentines were doing.
Matera was hurt trying to tackle Speight, and Moyano was his rival winger who Speight had helped stretcher off.
Jaguares halfback Gonzalo Bertranou revealed Speight’s good deed on Twitter, and said: “An attitude to imitate. Tremendous.”
FOLAU DAMAGES HIS BRAND
INSIDERS in the global rugby market were highly dubious of reports that Sale Sharks had offered Israel Folau $1.4m a season, so they weren’t surprised when Sale coach Steve Diamond shot down the news soon after.
Diamond has a habit of denying things that later come true but his comments about Folau’s views on homosexuality to the Sun newspaper left little wriggle room.
“We don’t want to be associated with that,” he told the Sun.
“I don’t think we would look at him. There are certain things where everyone is worth a second chance. But if you carry on saying it, then it doesn’t read right.
“Israel Folau is a fantastic player, but what he said has not gone down well in the rugby world. He would also be too much money for us anyway.”
And herein lies the problem for Folau, now. We have been told several clubs in England have gone cold on recruiting Folau because of the potential to become embroiled in a diversity controversy.
COINCIDENCE???
IT’S been written up as a “none-too-subtle dig at Israel Folau” but the release of the NZRU’s and AIG’s anti-discrimination ad released this week was, we’re told, a matter of coincidence.
The ad was filmed late last year in Japan and was scheduled several months ago for a release in late April. The Folau controversy gave it a nice kick along as far as recognition goes but it wasn’t deliberately designed to counter the Wallabies fullback’s statements.
DEMPSEY STILL FIGHTING HAMMY
IT appears increasingly unlikely Jack Dempsey will return for the Waratahs this Super Rugby season. After tearing his hamstring tendon in the dying moments of the Wallabies-Barbarians clash late last year, Dempsey has been rehabbing steadily but we’re told the rate of progress is slow.
Coach Daryl Gibson said last week about the abrasive flanker: “He is still a fair way off. If we could get him back this season, that’d be great.”
KEEP IT IN-HOUSE
THERE have been calls for the Super W to incorporate teams from New Zealand but some Australian rugby powerbrokers reckon there should be no hurry on that front, given the clear benefits to the growth of Australia’s best women’s players.
The brilliant Super W final last week was not only a passionate, tense affair - won by NSW in double-extra time - it also showed marked improvement by all the players on the field since their round one clash only six weeks earlier.
Playing and training in a professional manner for six weeks has not only lifted the standard of Australia’s female XVs players, it has unearthed excellent new talent and given them an arena to develop.
There is a school of thought held by some around the Super W that while it’d be good to eventually take on the strong Kiwis, there is no rush.
Kiwi women’s teams currently play a provincial comp in the second half of the year.
WALLAROOS WAIT ON TALENT
IF you were reading the Wallaroos train-on squad and wondering why the super talented Queensland teenager Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea is not on the list, it’s because she is not eligible for Australia yet. Her family only moved to Australia from New Zealand two years ago. She’ll be eligible next year.
RATINGS WINNER
TELEVISION ratings showed 630,000 watched the Aussie women’s sevens team go down in the thrilling Commonwealth Games final against New Zealand on Channel Seven. It was great exposure for the game, and a figure RA would kill for in Super Rugby. The average on FoxSports is 62,000 a game.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
HOW about the Lucas family? After Ben Lucas (Queensland), Matt Lucas (NSW/Brumbies) and Tom Lucas (Aussie sevens), now comes littlest brother Isaac Lucas.
The youngest brother of the Brisbane clan has been named at inside centre for the Junior Wallabies against Fiji in the first round of the Oceania under 20s championship on the Gold Coast.
Impressive Rebels lock Trevor Hosea, Queenslander lock Angus Blyth and Aussie sevens speedster Matt McTaggert are also in the team, which is captained by Brumbies’ contracted halfback Ryan Lonergan.
Originally published as Payto & Panda: Wallabies coach Michael Cheika’s World Cup carrot for Crusaders gun Pete Samu
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