Payto & Panda: Fighting fund keeps rising star in rugby, plea to Wallabies fans
RUGBY beats NRL clubs to star rookie Apenisa Driti, Stirling Mortlock’s disappointment with Aussie fans and kicking a goal in the numbers game. Check out all the gossip right here!
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HE is the 18-year-old boy mountain ​who could play Aussie schoolboys in league and union this year, plays club footy in Canberra on the weekend and was hunted by six NRL clubs.
And he is staying in rugby.
Meet Apenisa Driti — the first future star locked down by Rugby Australia’s new “Fighting Fund”; a pool of money to finally get rugby in the fight for the best teenage talent.
Driti is a 117kg loosehead prop from Griffith who plays rugby and league for Gunghalin College in Canberra. He also plays for the Gungahlin Eagles.
Driti played for NSW and Australian Schoolboys last year in Year 11.
The giant youngster was pursued heavily by the Raiders, and other NRL clubs, but Rugby Australia used their new Fighting Fund to sign Driti until the end of 2019. He will be seconded to the Brumbies and be a part of their academy after school.
Rugby has been losing schoolboy talent to league, and even AFL, for years; mostly because the states aren’t willing to spend money in the 15-18-year-old zone, and can’t compete with NRL clubs who are.
In Sunday’s State of Origin you will find numerous former schoolboy rugby players: Tyson Frizell, Angus Crichton, Dane Gagai, Kalyn Ponga and Damien Cook among them.
But RA are finally getting in the fight. Though yet to announce anything formally, it is believed RA have budgeted a couple of hundred thousand to spend on retaining the best schoolboys with small contracts, and a clear pathway to Super Rugby based on under 19s, under 20s and academy programs.
Wallabies fans urged to make themselves heard
AUSSIE rugby fans are being “drowned out” by a few Irish supporters in this series and former Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock has issued an urgent call to arms.
Mortlock has been left disappointed by the lack of voice among Wallabies supporters in the opening two Tests in Brisbane and Melbourne, and wants Sydney to shout down the Irish supporters at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
“Whenever you play offshore you just feel you’re playing in an environment that is not your home, and I don’t think we create that as much in Australia,” Mortlock told us.
“There have been only small groups of Irish supporters in the stands but they’ve been far louder than Australian fans.
“A lot of the time the Irish are just singing ‘Ole, ole’. It’s not necessarily what they’re singing, it’s just that they’re owning it.
“I was lucky enough to play in an amazing era when John Williamson had the whole crowd singing before kick-off, that was pretty powerful.
“Whether we have Waltzing Matilda, or just the chorus of Land Down Under, I would love to hear the Australian crowd get behind our crew. We’re playing the second-best team in the world and doing well.
“Hopefully we can drown out the Irish this weekend, that is the challenge for our supporters.”
Rugby on the front foot in numbers game
OK, OK. There was a World Cup football game on soaking up a few eyeballs but just take these numbers in: the Second Test between Wallabies v Ireland drew a crowd of 29,018 at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Across the road at the MCG? A heavyweight Hawthorn side playing the Crows drew just 26,693.
There were 46,273 at Suncorp and there will be a 40,000-plus sellout figure this Saturday at Allianz Stadium.
But please, tell us again how rugby is dying.
Prop pops up unexpectedly
IRELAND’S rugby scribes are used to coach Joe Schmidt being paranoid about word of his team selections leaking.
So there were comical scenes at Ireland training this week when prop Dave Kilcoyne turned up in full kit for a session. The Munster prop isn’t even in the Ireland tour party. Is he playing? No, just happened to be holidaying nearby and we needed a prop, came the answer. Err, right. Just shows it always pays to pack a spare pair of boots.
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