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Waratahs 'to be better players' as a result of Highlanders thrashing
By Online Editors
Departing halfback Nick Phipps has managed to unearth a positive from the Waratahs' wretched 49-12 loss to the Highlanders in Invercargill.
However, disillusioned supporters will need to wait until next year to see it.
A forgettable campaign ended in the deep south of New Zealand on Friday as a rampant Highlanders dominated the final-round fixture to keep their quarter-final hopes alive.
The Waratahs slumped to a 10th loss of the season and their heftiest defeat since the 96-19 embarrassment against the Crusaders in Christchurch 17 years ago.
That sort of final scoreline loomed into view when the visitors trailed 42-7 at halftime, the raw nature of their line-up exposed by the hosts' physicality and rapid tempo.
Captain for the day Phipps was among the Waratahs' few experienced Wallabies on show, with five others rested as part of their Rugby Australia requirements.
Coach Daryl Gibson's fielding of several rookies and fringe candidates in such a gruelling game would bear fruit eventually, Phipps believed.
"Out there tonight there were a lot of players who are going to be taking this team forward," he said.
"If anything, they're going to be better players for that. They've been blooded out there in one of the toughest cauldrons around.
"They stood up (in the second half) so hopefully they hold onto that through the pre-season and get ready for next year."
Phipps is leaving next season for London Irish, along with prop Sekope Kepu and winger Curtis Rona.
Gibson has another season to run on his contract and hopes his team can improve their record in close games, something that ultimately cost them dearly.
"We were very competitive during the year. Just losing those critical moments, that's really telling," he said.
"Obviously I'm pretty disappointed with where we finished and so forth.
"What we do have is an excellent crop of young New South Wales men coming through.
"You'll see over the next couple of years those names starting to really feature for us."
AAP
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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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