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Brodie Retallick continues try-scoring spree as All Blacks and Wallabies star in Top League
By AAP
Aussie young guns Dylan Riley and Jack Cornelsen were to the fore as Panasonic Wild Knights ended the unbeaten run of NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes to stay top of Japan's Top League standings.
The Robbie Deans-coached Wild Knights pushed on from a 10-7 halftime advantage to win 26-13 in Osaka on Sunday.
Forward Cornelsen's tireless work rate helped to stem the tide of the Red Hurricanes' early dominance of possession and territory, while Riley's power in the midfield helped to create the opportunity for Panasonic's three tries.
Former Australian under-20s international Riley proved a real handful for the defence, allowing midfield partner Hadleigh Parkes to also play a key role as he scored one try and set up another.
The Wild Knights are one of two unbeaten teams in the white conference of the tournament.
Defending champions Kobe are the other, but only just, after surviving a stern challenge from the Damien Hill-coached Ricoh Black Rams.
With Aussie Isaac Lucas calling the shots from flyhalf, the Black Rams overturned a 17-7 halftime deficit to lead 19-17 before All Black-laden Kobe scrambled out of jail with a late penalty goal to win 20-19.
Kobe lock Brodie Retallick scored his third try in four matches and he has more so far this season than each of his All Black teammates at the club, winger Ben Smith and flyhalf Aaron Cruden.
The other game from the conference saw former Queensland flanker Ed Quirk part of a turnaround by the Canon Eagles, as they rebounded from a 47-0 drubbing by Panasonic last week to upset Yamaha Jubilo 40-32.
In the red section, former Wallabies flyhalf Bernard Foley's Kubota Spears continue to head the standings after a routine 38-7 win over Honda Heat.
The other game from that side of the draw played on Sunday saw former Wallabies flanker Liam Gill's NTT Communications Shining Arcs held to a 26-26 draw by the Mitsubishi Dynaboars.
Bad weather that hit the main Japanese island of Honshu on Saturday saw a number of other players with Australian connections denied an opportunity.
Harry Hockings, Samu Kerevi and Sean McMahon all missed out as their Suntory Sungoliath's match with Toshiba Brave Lupus in Tokyo was called off after only 15 minutes due to nearby lightning strikes.
Former NSW Waratahs and Melbourne Rebels outside back Andrew Kellaway (NEC Green Rockets) was also left idyll with his match at Kashiwa was postponed.
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Latest Comments
I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).
Number Of Clubs:
1526
Registered+Unregistered Players:
651146
Number of Referees:
3460
Pre-teen Male Players:
320842
Pre-teen Female Player:
4522
Teen Male Player:
199213
Teen Female Player:
4906
Senior Male Player:
113174
Senior Female Player:
8489
Total Male Player:
633229
Total Female Player:
17917
So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.
So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).
https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.
The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.
In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.
Go to commentsOk I understand. Give them my number please Nick.
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