Payto & Panda: Future of the Sunwolves up in the air and why the ‘Honey Bachelor’ needs all those dates

COULD Super Rugby be about to tipped on its head yet again?That’s the question after whispers emerged the Sunwolves could exit the competition after 2020, leaving the door ajar for a potential Force return.

COULD Super Rugby be about to tipped on its head yet again?

That’s the question flying around after whispers emerged from Tokyo that Japan and the Sunwolves could exit the competition after 2020.

Our snouts say the Top League clubs are ready to pull their support for the Sunwolves at the end of the current broadcast agreement. The influential clubs, who release players to play Super Rugby in their off-season, have never been hugely happy with the demands on their stars and would prefer to go back to the good old days after the Rugby World Cup in Japan next year is run and done.

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If the Sunwolves go, what then? We hear SANZAAR told the Pacific Island nations last year they need to be ready to step up, but opinions differ on how a combined Pacific Nations team would work or if Fiji should go it alone.

What about a Western Force reawakening? That, too, would have to be on the table but given the ARU’s reasoning for cutting the Force last year was that Australia couldn’t afford five Super Rugby teams, will that position have changed? Time will tell.

WALSH CRIES WOLF

Before the Rio Olympics, Aussie women’s coach Tim Walsh pulled stunts to make sure his team was able to handle any unforeseen disruptions.

He didn’t turn up for one practice game, and later had star Charlotte Caslick fake an injury midway through another practice game (which she did with such theatric gusto her teammates were on the verge of tears — but still won).

The Australian women’s sevens team.

So little wonder his players thought Walsh was up to his old tricks in their recent warm-up series against the USA in Las Vegas.

One game was cancelled on the main oval, and later moved to a back oval.

“They had to warm up again, switch on again and so on,” Walsh said.

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“And the game was cancelled after three minutes due to an incident. They thought it was me, and I was like ‘I didn’t do it’.”

Walsh couldn’t have faked the ‘incident’, anyway. We hear young Page McGregor suffered a very nasty gash after getting cut on an exposed plastic pipe on the field.

CHUNKY PUTS LEASH ON MUZZLED WOLVES

James “Chucky” Stannard has followed in the footsteps of some star names like Drew Mitchell, Ryan Cross and Sebastian Chabal by signing on with the Balmain Muzzled Wolves in Sydney’s subbies competition.

Stannard will help coach the team this year, as an entry point to his post-retirement coaching career.

“I will jump in there this year and help out a bit, with some skills coaching and some attack coaching,” Stannard told us.

“Just pass on some knowledge and have some fun — it’s a good bunch of blokes down there apparently. Good subbies footy.”

Big shoes to fill after some of the Balmain celeb signings?

“I am nowhere near the calibre of those big dogs but hopefully I am a bit more fun. I am definitely funnier than a couple of them.”

‘HE BATTLES A BIT, THE BADGE’

Here’s the best part for Nick Cummins becoming “the Honey Bachelor”: he struggles with the ladies.

Or at least that’s the word from his old Force and Aussie sevens teammate James Stannard, who was shocked when he heard the news.

Nick Cummins isn’t the biggest ladies’ man.

“I thought it was just a joke when we were in Vancouver last weekend and I got off the plane yesterday and I saw the messages come up,” Stannard said.

“I just thought ‘Oh geez’. He’s clutching if he is using the Bachelor to pick up girls now. He battles a bit old Badge.”

Stannard spoke for thousands when he added: “I have never watched a minute of the Bachelor but I think I will have to watch it now.”

FUTURE CROSS-CODE SUPERSTARS

Rising teenage Super W stars Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea and Courtney Hodder are not only in the sights of the Australian sevens program. The 17-year-olds were signed up some time ago, and were on tour with an Aussie development team in Japan as recently as last month.

But far from there being a tug of war between XVs and 7s for the talented duo, Walsh believes there could be a good opportunity for more cross-fertilisation between the formats in the future that would see the likes Lefau-Fakaosilea and Hodder get paid to play both.

“At certain times, one might have to take priority but it’s not a fight for signatures at all,” Walsh said.

Alysia lefau-Fakaosilea is a wanted woman.

“They can be mutually beneficial. There will be stages, like now with the Super W and also the Commonwealth Games, where you’d have to make a strategic plan or path around that.

“That might mean having individual plans for players and when they’re released to play (XVs) and when to play sevens. But if everyone is around what’s best for performance and what’s best for the player, it’s a great opportunity to really pave the way, using XVs and sevens to be mutually beneficial.”

Hodder scored six tries for the Force in round one of the Super W, and Lefau-Fakaosilea starred for Queensland at the Brisbane Tens.

EGG’S ON EDDIE

Eddie Jones has had to apologise to angry Celts after he was captured in a speech saying England had lost to the “scummy Irish” and Wales was a “little shit place”.

Going by Eddie’s own not-letting-go-of-a-Stephen-Hoiles-joke scale, he’ll be allowed to forget about those comments in about a year.

WALLABY BACK FOR RATS

There will be a familiar face, and long right boot, on the bench for the Warringah Rats in the Australian Club Championship game against University of Queensland on Saturday at Rat Park.

Wallaby Mark Gerrard is back for the Rats at the spritely age of 35, after returning in a second grade trial last weekend against Easts.

“I said to my wife Larisa that when I retire from professional rugby I will still choose to play if I am capable of doing that,” Gerrard ​told the Mayor of the Manly Daily, Jon Geddes.

“And guess what? I can still play and I still feel very comfortable and fit enough to do that.

“And I want to give back to where started which is the Narrabeen Sharks and the Warringah Rats and help with junior development here on the beaches.”

​Respect. ​

ALWAYS BE THE OLD ENEMY

Lewis Holland fired some shots at the English sevens team at the Commonwealth Games squad launch in Sydney by saying England were the “No.1 team I don’t like” and he was looking forward to playing them in the pool rounds.

Pressed as to why he felt so strongly about England, Holland later explained he always enjoyed beating the Poms given the nations’ sporting rivalry and that his dad is Welsh, so it is probably in his DNA.

Originally published as Payto & Panda: Future of the Sunwolves up in the air and why the ‘Honey Bachelor’ needs all those dates