Other rugby stories in brief

McKenzie axing causing concern

It appears the axing of Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie - yes, the one who appears on the long list of candidates for the Ireland job - has caused a serious divide in NSW Rugby. The Sydney Morning Herald reported several NSWRU board members were upset they had not been formally advised the coach was to have his contract terminated.

Many other officials are concerned at how the issue has been handled, and the unease reaches as far as the players, the newspaper suggesting some are seriously considering their future with the franchise.

McKenzie, it is reported, has already been linked to a job coaching the French club Stade Français, while Blues coach David Nucifora - who, we think, has not yet been mentioned in connection with the Ireland but probably will be soon - continues to be linked with every vacant Australian coaching post, including that at the Waratahs.

It's all getting too complex.

 Sumo hope for Japan team

The Japan head coach, John Kirwan, has begun to send his side to brutal sparring sessions with giants of the sumo world in a bid to toughen them up.

The former All Black winger watched from a distance as his players took a pounding from the beefy wrestlers.

"There are techniques you can use in the scrum," said a convincing Kirwan to Japanese media. "The speed at the face-off can help with the hit in the scrum," he added.

His players were not quite bearing up so well against the cuddly carbohydrate kings.

"It's a totally different ball game," winced the lock Hitoshi Ono, sporting the traditional buttock-bearing "mawashi" loincloth worn by sumo wrestlers. We think we know what he means.

 Young pulls no punches

It was refreshing to hear Cardiff Blues coach Dai Young's honest appraisal following his side's 41-17 defeat to Toulouse yesterday.

Young said: "I don't think the result reflected the game but it did show that we were second best.

"We were in the game for more than an hour but to be honest, the physical intensity and tempo they brought to the game really told in the final 20 minutes. We started to tire when they stepped up and we can have few complaints about the result. I think we could have lost to the eventual champions.

"For anyone doubting Toulouse, they proved they are still a force in Europe with that performance. They had control, they were clinical and kept the scoreboard ticking over. They have a great balance between their forwards and backs."

It was a welcome tonic for Toulouse coach Guy Noves who is not short of a word or two either: "I'm very proud of the players and it's great to come off the pitch at the end of a game, feeling that we played a game we can be proud of."

 Weekend of good news, bad news

Declan Kidney and his Munster staff were not the only Irish coaching team involved in European action over the weekend.

They were, however, the only successful crew to come through the weekend. Although the French side Castres pushed the Newcastle Falcons hard in their European Challenge Cup quarter-final, it was the English side that emerged as 40-13 winners. Bads news then for the Ulster pairing of Jeremy Davidson and Mark McCall.

Having resigned as head coach with Ulster, the 40-year-old former Ireland centre joined the former Ireland lock Davidson as Castres backs coach last December, replacing Ugo Mola.

Incidently, Mark McHugh's Montpelier were also playing in the quarter-final series but the former Connacht player was not named in the weekend squad.

Players in need of good schooling

At the under-18 Festival, Ireland were roundly hammered by Wales and Scotland but managed to beat Italy.

Thank goodness for the Italians, we say, and thank goodness there was no England and France (different section) this year or a right spanking could have been the end result. What was interesting was that the English, Welsh and French players were all attached to clubs, not schools.

In Ireland the schools system, however badly flawed in its ring-fencing of players (who are prohibited from playing for clubs when on junior and senior cup squads), remains intact.

The Ireland coach complained his team was "inexperienced".

Maybe they would not have been had they played a season with a club, which would have provided good structures and good coaching.

Just a thought.

Shocking crime is out of this Planet

Of the list of egregious crimes committed in Planet Rugby, few come close to last weeks outrage that put the former Ireland prop Reggie Corrigan in the frame as the 'good-food guide' in the well-appointed St Gerard's.

There were knitted brows on the other side of the Co Wicklow town, most of them in Presentation College Bray, where Corrigan was once a pupil. Pres Bray are, of course, the actual beneficiaries of his fabulous food choices.