Speedy Roigard
New Zealand scrum-half Cam Roigard impressed against Namibia on Friday night, scoring two tries and controlling the game well in the All Blacks' 71-3 win. Defence coach Scott McLeod says Roigard's accuracy and awareness in high-intensity moments could be credited to his former career as a speedway driver.
Roigard started at Huntly International Speedway at the age of 10 and pursued speedway and rugby simultaneously until 2021 when the Hurricanes offered him an injury replacement contract.
He took it and then was offered a full-time contract in 2022. McLeod said of Roigard: "What stuck out for me was he seems to have so much time on the ball. It almost goes in slow motion for him and he's not rushed and he makes really good decisions, he executes in those moments.
"For Damian McKenzie's try, he made the line break, assessed what was happening and just changed an angle and left the ball in the space. I don't know whether that is due to his speedway experience and going fast with everything in danger moments. He looks quite comfortable."
Ear-ry tales for Frost inside the Wallaby camp
Spare a thought for Nick Frost, or his mother at least. On Sunday the second row - long heralded as Wallaby legend and Rugby World Cup winner John Eales' natural heir - will take to the field against Fiji hoping, among other things, that his right ear stays in place.
Back in late July, the 23-year-old ripped the webbing while playing against New Zealand and he has been having some wince-inducing trouble ever since - as he explains with admirable nonchalance: "At the moment I am trying to protect it, I've re-opened it a few times. Every time you do contact, in a contact sport, against the side of your head, it opens back up."
Three bouts of stitches and 24 hours in hospital following an infection later, Frost has been spotted sporting a natty water polo cap in training. But with rules preventing him wearing such fashionable gear on the pitch, the 10-cap man is having to make do with a scrum cap, padding, tape... and a few prayers.
"We did cook a lovo for the team," assistant coach Graham Dewes confirmed. "Management jumped in and prepared it with some of our non-players."
Touch of class
Namibia head coach Allister Coetzee revealed that the New Zealand team showed their class with a post-match gift for Le Roux Malan, who left the field on a stretcher early in the first half of their Pool A match in Toulouse on Friday night.
Malan had successful surgery on his ankle after the game, but has been ruled out of the rest of Rugby World Cup 2023.
"What was actually very good, and I hope it will help in a way, is the gesture from the All Blacks to hand him a signed jersey, a number 12 jersey signed by the whole team,"Coetzee told journalists on Saturday morning.
"It says a lot about the sportsmanship of this World Cup, it’s a good gesture from the All Blacks.
"That is not just saying the ethos and the culture and the values of rugby, but actually living and feeling it. That to me is unbelievable of the All Blacks to do something like that."
French roots
Romania prop Thomas Cretu has been sharing his knowledge of French culture with his team-mates after growing up in the country.
Cretu said of his heritage: "My mother is from Guadeloupe, so that's my link with France, and my father is Romanian who came to France when he was 17, and that's where he met my mother. So I grew up in France but I would spend all my summers in Romania, with my grandparents. I don't speak a lot of Romanian but I'm learning more and more. My brothers speak a bit better."
And on helping his team-mates with French food and culture: "Yes of course, the food, and the wine, whether it's the culture or language, they like to learn. We've discovered a lot of French dishes so far."
Cretu added his mum will be in the stadium to watch her son take on South Africa on Sunday.
