Quinn Tupaea still angry over cleanout is Tah week dead
With so much going on around the grounds each week in the rugby world, it's easy for some of the interesting, fun and crazy stories to slip through the cracks.
This week has of course been dominated by the Joseph Suaali'i news, which saw plenty of reaction in both rugby and rugby league.
But there has been much more happening in Australia and New Zealand; these are some of the stories you might have missed.
TUPAEA 'STILL PRETTY ANGRY' ABOUT SWAIN CLEANOUT
Seven months on from the nasty cleanout that saw him suffer an ACL tear, it appears All Blacks centre Quinn Tupaea is having a hard time forgiving Wallabies lock Darcy Swain.
While Tupaea's Chiefs are flying in Super Rugby Pacific with a perfect five from five record, Tupaea has been working away in the rehab team after Swain's ugly cleanout left him writhing in agony on the Marvel Stadium turf in the first half of the controversial Bledisloe I last year.
Swain was later suspended for six weeks - he had also spent two weeks on the sidelines for a head butt earlier in the year - but he was only eventually unavailable for just three Wallabies Tests after Australian officials managed to exercise the loophole of the Australia A tour of Japan.
Swain has been back in action with the Brumbies this year, too, but Tupaea is racing the clock in his bid to earn World Cup selection, with the Mitre 10 Cup later this year his best chance of impressing coach Ian Foster to earn a spot among a crowded midfield group.
While a significant stretch of time has passed since the incident, it still troubles Tupaea.
"I'm still pretty angry about it," he said.
"It's been tough to let it go - I wouldn't wish this injury on anyone," Tupaea told New Zealand's 1News earlier this week. "It's a terrible injury to go through.
"It's probably going to be a long time before I can let it go."
Tupaea said the early weeks of his recovery were particularly brutal.
"The start was pretty slow and painful... The first six weeks I struggled to leave the bed and the couch," Tupaea said.
"I was stuck at home, I didn't leave the house for six weeks."
Swain has replaced Quade Cooper as public rugby enemy No. 1 across the ditch as a result, the lock clearly a player who flies close to the sun when it comes to rugby's lawbook. He is likely to come in for some extra attention from All Blacks players when next he takes the field in a Bledisloe encounter.
However, it is interesting to find there was little reaction to Rieko Ioane's cleanout of Sevu Reece two weeks ago, which also resulted in a torn ACL for the Crusaders winger.
While Ioane was cleared by the SANZAAR review panel, and his cleanout wasn't of the same danger as Swain's, it still went well beyond the ball and left Crusaders coach Scott Robertson a little perturbed.
"There are clear protocols and follow-ups from the TMO, and they can look in retrospect from the match officer, and they found it was OK," Robertson said.
"It wasn't a nice incident, was it?"
MCLENNAN'S HUMBLE BRAG AMID WAR OF SUAALI'I WORDS
The verbal hand grenades have come thick and fast this week since Joseph Suaali'i's three-year deal to switch to rugby was made official.
While the secret had long been out that Suaali'i was entertaining a code switch, and James Tedesco's recent extension at the Roosters all but confirmed the move was on, it didn't stop several leading NRL figures from a stinging attack on the 19-year-old outside back.
At the top of the list was Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould, who demanded Suaali'i "go now" as his continued presence in the NRL over the next 18 months was only going to give rugby the exposure it needs.
But in an interview with Gould's Channel 9 colleague Danny Weidler, Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan fired back, slamming what he described as "thuggish behaviour" from some in the 13-player game.
But also amongst that interview was a humble boast, of sorts, as McLennan proclaimed RA would make a profit this year and, in the coming seasons, bank twin $100m windfalls from first the British & Irish Lions series in 2025 and then the Rugby World Cup in 2027.
"We'd take him this year, we made a good profit this year," McLennan told Weidler when asked if rugby would welcome Suaali'I immediately.
"We'll make 100 million out of the Lions, 100 million out of the World Cup, so we could afford to take him now and we'd be delighted to take him earlier if league didn't want him."
While Roosters coach Trent Robinson hosed down talk of an early release and took aim at Gould's "ridiculous" comments in the process, it's clear that Suaali'i's looming defection has rattled NRL cages.
It's true RA is moving out of the financial firestorm it found itself in only three years ago and will in the coming years have an opportunity to set the game up for the foreseeable future. But the responsibility is firmly on McLennan, RA chief executive Andy Marinos and everyone else at Moore Park, to ensure that money is spent wisely and that mistakes that were made after the 2003 tournament are not repeated.
Investment into grassroots, women's rugby, and the solidification of the game's future would be something truly worth bragging about. Right now, however, Suaali'i's defection has certainly pumped up the chests cutting around RA HQ, the teenager's switch already proving a marketing masterstroke.
HIGHLANDERS SHAVE HEADS IN SUPPORT OF DICKSON
Several Highlanders players and staff have come together to shave their heads in a show of support for teammate Josh Dickson, who's younger brother, Sam, was recently diagnosed with cancer.
The news rocked the Highlanders camp with the long-serving lock absent from Super Rugby Pacific action over recent weeks.
Posting a video to their Instagram on Thursday morning, the Highlanders stated "as a team we are feeling for Josh, we wanted to express our support for him and his brother during this time. Kia kaha, Brother."
The video featured several members of the squad and team staff getting their heads shaved by halfback Aaron Smith on Wednesday ahead of their game against Moana Pasifika on Friday.
All Blacks prop Ethan de Groot fronted a press conference on Wednesday, expressing the team's solidarity and support of Dickson and his family.
"As a team, we're feeling for Josh at this time, and we just want to express our support for him and his brother in this tough time," de Groot said. "I just think shaving our heads is just a way to show them that we are support them and thinking of them, for Sam and his family.
"Cancer is a tough thing, if you ask anyone in New Zealand they'd know someone or someone in their families who have battled through cancer. I think it's a great thing we're doing."
Dickson has been an important cog in the Highlanders tight five since making his Super Rugby debut for the team in 2018 and has earned 54 caps, scoring five tries in his time with the club. He's also represented the New Zealand U-20s, the Maori All Blacks and the All Blacks XV touring side.
It's unclear if and when the 28-year-old will play again this season, but the Highlanders will continue to give him time and support until he chooses to make his return.
BEERS FOR TAHS FANS IF THEY END LOSING RUN
Tah Week is dead, according to the Brumbies, with the ACT's 10-game winning streak against the Waratahs turning the much-anticipated rivalry game into a fizzer.
The Waratahs head to Canberra on Saturday with all the odds against them after just one win from five rounds. It has Brumbies powerbrokers worried the clash will turn into a non-event after just 13 fans travelled from metropolitan Sydney to GIO stadium last year, according to ticketing data.
A once hostile environment for any brave fan willing to don their sky-blue jersey and scarves, the Brumbies have resorted to shouting travelling fans a beer if the Waratahs pull off an upset on Saturday night in the hope they can bring a few more fans back down the Hume highway.
"If they're good enough to beat us, I'll meet everyone in the bar at the Meninga stand and shout them all a beer," ACT chairman Matt Nobbs said. "We used to get thousands of them come down the highway and the fact we got 13 this time last year out of the Sydney metro area just showed you where things were at."
Even midweek banter between the coaches has lost it's heat with Darren Coleman and Stephen Larkham hardly firing a punch in the lead up to what's turned out to be a season defining game for the Waratahs.
Meanwhile, Brumbies halfback Nic White will still be sending his traditional text to Wallabies teammate Michael Hooper but even he admitted the heat had come out of the rivalry game.
"I guess there was a fair bit of hype around the boys up in Sydney," White said. "No doubt they're feeling the heat a bit. That cheekiness is still there. I'll still send Hoops a text message this week and make sure he's on his toes. But that comes with the nature of the beast.
"When you get six rounds in certain teams will be feeling that pressure a little bit. We know they'll come down swinging with everything they've got because they're probably feeling it a little bit."
With a dreams of a top four finish at the beginning of the season, Coleman and the Waratahs are no doubt beginning to feel the heat of failing to meet expectations, especially with NSW currently sitting second last on the table.
SEVENS SERIES SETS COURSE FOR SCINTILLATING FINISH
After a few weeks off, the World Sevens Series restarts at the prized stop on the global circuit: Hong Kong.
It will be the second time this season the series has visited Hong Kong, with Australia returning to the scene of their drought-breaking triumph as defending champions.
With just four events to go, and an incredibly tight ladder, automatic Olympic qualification is front of mind with New Zealand, Argentina, France and Fiji filling the top four spots, while Australia sit fifth and would get in if the season finished today by virtue of France's position as Olympic hosts.
But there is so much work still to be done over the coming months, and with upsets coming thick and fast over the past few tournaments Australia coach John Manenti knows just how tough it is going to be.
"It's unbelievable. In Vancouver, every pool was decided by the last match in that pool, which I can't remember ever happening before," Manenti told ESPN.
"We didn't just have to win, we had to win by nine points to make the semis. So it wasn't just the result, there were points that had to be scored, and every pool was decided by that last match and that's full credit to Uruguay and Spain and Canada, and all these teams that just keep improving and turning up and making the competition such a great competition.
"And we've still got all the usual favourites, the Fijians, the New Zealands, the South Africans and the Argentinians still doing their things, but this group at the bottom are working consistently hard and starting to knock off these top teams."
The circuit moves to Singapore next week, before another break and then the closing two events in Toulouse and London. If Australia can continue to reach the top four, as they did in Vancouver where they finished with the bronze, then Olympic qualification should look after itself.
But the Aussies have also failed to achieve automatic qualification for the two Olympics to have rugby sevens to date, and Manenti will be reminding his players of that right through to London.
"I'm really looking for consistency, because that's still been an issue for me," he told ESPN. "Like last tournament in Canada, we beat New Zealand who were the form team, and then we lose to the Frenchies; we've got to be consistent in our performance and we've got to be able to aim up every time we go on the field.
"So we're addressing it in the sense that we're getting better, but to win tournaments you've got to be able to put in six good performances and this will be no different [in Hong Kong]. I'm confident we're in the right head space and we've prepared well, now it's a matter of six good performances and getting in the fight for the last bit of the tournament. And if we can do that, it will be a great springboard going into the last three rounds."
