Georgians 'can prop up Wallabies'

[Fushitsusha]

Georgians 'can prop up Wallabies'

By Bret Harris

July 11, 2008

FORMER World Cup-winning assistant coach Tim Lane has urged the Australian Rugby Union to consider recruiting powerful young Georgian frontrowers to improve Australia's scrum.

Lane, who will coach Georgia for the next four years, was amazed by the depth of talent in the front row in Georgia.

"I go to a lot of the club games over there and there are under-16 and -18 props who are huge, enormous kids ... very, very strong," said Lane, who assisted coach Rod McQueen when Australia won the 1999 World Cup.

"Props are not a problem for us in Georgia. We could probably go down to our 10th or 12th prop and play them in our Six Nations tournament and they'd be very strong.

"I said to (former ARU high performance manager) Pat Howard, you should come over and look at these kids because it's a great opportunity for a kid to come to a country like Australia and add value to where we have struggled a little bit in certain areas.

'It has had such a proud tradition of scrummagers. The only players who played in France 10 to 15 years ago were front-rowers. They wouldn't look at backs or backrowers."

Georgia's tradition of wrestling and weightlifting was largely responsible for the country's front-row strength.

"'Their national sport, apart from soccer and rugby, is wrestling," Lane said. "They have won many world championships, Olympic medals.

"And weightlifting is a sport that they get into as well. They are a big nation. The 16- and 18-year-old props are huge. It's incredible."

Lane plans to take Georgia on a tour of Australia next June.

"We are going to play Western Force. Hopefully, the Reds and Australia A," Lane said.

"They (the ARU) were very happy to bring us out and promote Georgian rugby and hopefully give the Australian teams a bit of knowledge in scrum play."

 

[sanzar]

Well it worked in the 80s with the Argentinians, so f*** it we might as well. It's not like we're producing any world class props ourselves at the moment.

 

[Fushitsusha]

Well it worked in the 80s with the Argentinians, so f*** it we might as well. It's not like we're producing any world class props ourselves at the moment.
[/b]

Plus it's hard to look past Dunning and Baxter with Foley still around... :wall:

 

[InsaneAsylum]

the georgian's probably wont accept dunning or baxter as trades, not even if we offer the a 2 for 1 deal

 

[BLR]

the georgian's probably wont accept dunning or baxter as trades, not even if we offer the a 2 for 1 deal
[/b]

We've got plenty of backs who'll never really make it but will drill it in Georgia, swapsies would be ideal there.

But personally I reckon we should pull a smooth one and get a whole front row and give them Two Dads, we don't need him anyway.

 

[Steve-o]

Just a quick question, kinda off topic. Are Australians big meat eaters?
I've noticed countries that enjoy their beef tend to have big front rows. Argentina, South Africa and Eastern European countries tend to have alot of meat, and specifically beef, in their diets. I mean, who in SA doesn't eat biltong or have braai's? Right, the pussy hockey players.
But it also applies to big fish eating countries like England and NZ.

 

[Klarkash-ton]

Just a quick question, kinda off topic. Are Australians big meat eaters?
I've noticed countries that enjoy their beef tend to have big front rows. Argentina, South Africa and Eastern European countries tend to have alot of meat, and specifically beef, in their diets. I mean, who in SA doesn't eat biltong or have braai's? Right, the pussy hockey players.
But it also applies to big fish eating countries like England and NZ.
[/b]

not sure what they eat in Oz, but my friend said Dunning and Baxter are pussies

 

[sanzar]

Just a quick question, kinda off topic. Are Australians big meat eaters?
I've noticed countries that enjoy their beef tend to have big front rows. Argentina, South Africa and Eastern European countries tend to have alot of meat, and specifically beef, in their diets. I mean, who in SA doesn't eat biltong or have braai's? Right, the pussy hockey players.
But it also applies to big fish eating countries like England and NZ. [/b]

I don't think there's much of a connection there... Aussies eat as much meat as anybody and we have a massive meat industry, so if it were just the amount of meat we were eating then we'd have a f***ing huge front row.

 

[BLR]

Just a quick question, kinda off topic. Are Australians big meat eaters?
I've noticed countries that enjoy their beef tend to have big front rows. Argentina, South Africa and Eastern European countries tend to have alot of meat, and specifically beef, in their diets. I mean, who in SA doesn't eat biltong or have braai's? Right, the pussy hockey players.
But it also applies to big fish eating countries like England and NZ.
[/b]

The BBQ is a staple of Australian life, the problem is that they all aspire to be AFL players....

 

[Steve-o]

Ok fair enough, I still think there's a little connection though. None of you mentioned what meat you mainly eat, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it's mainly mutton? The most protein rich meats are chicken, fish and beef. Very little people know that beef has creatine in it.
One of my mates a chef who works overseas so he deals with alot of imported meat and he says Argentina and South Africa produce some of the best quality beef, and Australia some of worst. He's not into rugby so there's no hidden agenda btw.
But it's most probably more to do with the popular sport codes like BLR said. Also because forward play isn't a traditional style of play in Oz it gets chopped out at grass root level.

I'm just trying to look at all the angles

 

[Gavin]

Surely the Georgian would have to have a relation who is from Australia.

 

[BLR]

Mutton is more of a kiwi thing, we have alot of lamb, heaps of fish, heaps of chicken, alot of the good stuff.

I remember when my folks went to South Africa and commented on how the props in South Africa were treated like gods eg. Os Du Randt was something of a hero. Now that mentality isn't as prevalent here, our backs have always been the ones getting all the attention, even if they are all show and no real substance. Now I grew up as a prop and from what I've been told before I got too tall/skinny to play prop I was pretty decent but I remember playing and thinking that I was the shittest player around because I wasn't scoring tries like all the rest of the team, and I was never told that success was rated by anything different. There is rarely a pat on a back to the front rows in Australia at all, which sucks as it's a destructive cycle, and these kind of stories **** me off as all it takes is to tell the prop he's doing a good job and tell him that him putting a good push in every scrum wins the game, despite the lack of tries scored.

Anyway, it's an Australian thing, not a diet thing. The Union media is too focused on the glitz and glamour of the backs so kids don't aspire to be props plus the huge drain of the tough blokes into League and AFL that would otherwise go into Union in other countries greatly takes out of the game.

 

[sanzar]

Ok fair enough, I still think there's a little connection though. None of you mentioned what meat you mainly eat, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it's mainly mutton? The most protein rich meats are chicken, fish and beef. Very little people know that beef has creatine in it.
One of my mates a chef who works overseas so he deals with alot of imported meat and he says Argentina and South Africa produce some of the best quality beef, and Australia some of worst. [/b]

What country does he work as a chef in? Because Australia has a rather sizable meat industry that is known to be one of the best regulated and safest in the world. So our meat is in fairly solid demand... but because of that the good quality stuff only goes to certain places. I'm pretty sure for example that we basically send just crappy hamburger mince to the US.

 

[Prestwick]

<div class='quotemain'>
Just a quick question, kinda off topic. Are Australians big meat eaters?
I've noticed countries that enjoy their beef tend to have big front rows. Argentina, South Africa and Eastern European countries tend to have alot of meat, and specifically beef, in their diets. I mean, who in SA doesn't eat biltong or have braai's? Right, the pussy hockey players.
But it also applies to big fish eating countries like England and NZ.
[/b]

The BBQ is a staple of Australian life, the problem is that they all aspire to be AFL players.... [/b][/quote]

I dunno, what about all that "shrimp" that goes on those barbies...cobbler? :lol:

 

[sanzar]

Anyway, it's an Australian thing, not a diet thing. The Union media is too focused on the glitz and glamour of the backs so kids don't aspire to be props plus the huge drain of the tough blokes into League and AFL that would otherwise go into Union in other countries greatly takes out of the game.

[/b]

Yeah, spot on. If you had blokes like Webke growing up playing Union we wouldn't have the problems we have in the front row. In fact if we had all the massive freaks spread throughout League and AFL in generall playing Union the whole time, then that big rivalry between the All Blacks and SA that has lasted 100 years would have been more like "the big rivalry between SA and NZ" to try make 2nd place behind Australia .

 

[Steve-o]

I remember when my folks went to South Africa and commented on how the props in South Africa were treated like gods eg. Os Du Randt was something of a hero.
[/b]

Yeah I never really thought about it but we do treat our best props and, our best forwards in general, like superstars. Just like a star winger like Habana. Guys like Os, Matfield and Burger whether never left out of the hype of the Bok team of 2007. Everybody loves Os, I even read that Roger Federer was a bit disappointed he didn't get to meet Os when the Boks received the Laureus World Team of the Year award earlier this year . Os has done a few TV adverts this year as well lol.

Now you know why I'm so ****** off we didn't pick our best prop for the Tri-Nations!

What country does he work as a chef in? Because Australia has a rather sizable meat industry that is known to be one of the best regulated and safest in the world. So our meat is in fairly solid demand... but because of that the good quality stuff only goes to certain places. I'm pretty sure for example that we basically send just crappy hamburger mince to the US.

[/b]

Mauritius, in a 4 star hotel. I'm talking about beef more specifically, as good quality beef will have good quality creatine. I'm pretty sure constant small amounts of creatine has affect, it must. Again I'm not saying it's the reason, it probably only contrubutes like 5% (5 grams of creatine in about 1kg beef) just looking at the possiblities, and small things like this interest me. For example the Spanish couldn't settle in some parts of the Andes mountains because the lack of air completely killed off their sperm count, while the natives were ok because they had adapted to the conditions.

OK I've hi-jacked this thread and taken it way off topic now! Carry on about Georgians.

 

[sanzar]

Yeah, look if it's to do with beef, then we're not short on that at all... My old man started out as a meat worker and most guys eat at least a few solid steaks each week. As we said, it's the competition for other sports here. You need to watch a bit of the AFL and Rugby League to see what I'm talking about I think.

 

[Steve-o]

Yeah, look if it's to do with beef, then we're not short on that at all... My old man started out as a meat worker and most guys eat at least a few solid steaks each week. As we said, it's the competition for other sports here. You need to watch a bit of the AFL and Rugby League to see what I'm talking about I think.
[/b]

Yes I acknowledged that, and that Oz doesn't have a traditionally forward based style of play.
I've watched AFL (possibly the funniest sport in the world) and League before.

 

[sanzar]

<div class='quotemain'>
Yeah, look if it's to do with beef, then we're not short on that at all... My old man started out as a meat worker and most guys eat at least a few solid steaks each week. As we said, it's the competition for other sports here. You need to watch a bit of the AFL and Rugby League to see what I'm talking about I think.
[/b]

Yes I acknowledged that, and that Oz doesn't have a traditionally forward based style of play.
I've watched AFL (possibly the funniest sport in the world) and League before. [/b][/quote]
Yeah, not much of a fan of AFL myself, but there's some great athletes amongst their ranks... Australia would have bloody good locks with the tall timber in there. And league, though you may think of it as not being forward focussed has some bloody big guys there. You just need to check out the likes of Willie Mason (though he'd be bloody useless in Union I'd bet).

 

[Ripper]

Surely the Georgian would have to have a relation who is from Australia. [/b]

If you make one up, no one will notice!

Signed,
Shane Howarth.