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Waratahs sign Wallabies bad boy Latu
By AAP
Tolu Latu has been thrown a rugby career lifeline by his former club the NSW Waratahs, who have signed the hooker for the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season.
The former Wallabies rake, who has played 21 Tests, signed a one-year deal to push his case for national selection ahead of the 2024 Rugby World Cup in France.
Latu had been linked to a return with the Waratahs after being let go by Stade Francais after three seasons.
The French giants were unhappy with his on-field discipline - given red cards with one resulting in an 11-week ban for a reckless tackle.
The 29-year-old has also been caught drink-driving twice - once in France and once in Australia during his six years with NSW.
Latu played under Darren Coleman with NSW Country Eagles in the National Rugby Championship, with the Waratahs coach describing him as one of the most damaging hookers in world rugby.
"I've coached Tolu twice before in NRC and he was always a positive team member," Coleman said.
"We will be working hard to iron out some of his weaknesses and I believe he'll not only get swept up in our positive team culture but add to it over time.
"He's a proud Waratah champion who is very motivated to play a part in getting the organisation back to its winning ways."
Latu said he was excited to return home.
"I'm so fortunate to be given the opportunity to represent the Waratahs once again - I can't wait to get started," he said.
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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