Tuesday 30 June 2026

Good morning GAGRs and welcome to another news article, and yes, while the 30th June is the end of financial year, which is exciting for bean counters and tax agents alike, more importantly it is also the week before a fairly exciting rugby tournament kicks off. The Nations Championship kicks off this weekend with a full round of games between the northern and southern hemisphere nations, the U20 Junior World Cup is going on, the Super Rugby W has reached the last regular round before the finals, the Barbarians played Wales at Twickenham, and the Hospital Cup enters the final third of the season after a bye last weekend.

So as always, there has been plenty of rugby to watch and comment on over the weekend, so lets have a look at the Super Rugby W games, the Junior Wallabies performance in the under 20 World Cup, reflect on the Barbarians game, and then have a quick look at the first round of the Nations Championship

Super Rugby W

Reds vs Fijian Drua from Ballymore

The Reds hosted at Ballymore on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Brisbane, and the Reds were looking for for their first win of the season, but they had their work cut out for them against an in-form Drua side. It took less than 3 minutes for the Drua to get on the board with their very impressive inside centre Josivini Naihamu running onto a great ball from the lineout to go more than 50 metres untouched and put the Drua in the lead. It was the first of 7 tries in total for the Fijians, with 5 in the first half to take a very commanding 33 to 5 lead into the sheds. There were some positive moments in the first half for the Reds, and their attack for Eva Karpani’s try in the corner was excellent.

But if there is a story of the first half, it’s that the Fijians were near unstoppable, with a combination of pace, power, athleticism, and willingness to attack.

The Reds kept at it, and after Fiji got out to a 47-5 lead scored two tries to get it to back to 47-17, before Fiji Kicked an 81st minute penalty to make it 50-17.

Congrats to the Drua for a dominant win, while the loss leaves the Reds needing to get a win against the Tahs this weekend to avoid a winless season.

The Fijian flyhalf Varanisese Qoro was probably the best on ground. excellent in attack, either directing traffic, or beating runners for fun, in defence, denying Karpani a second try, and her goal kicking was on point with 6 conversions and a penalty.

Western Force vs NSW Waratahs from Perth

The Western Force went into this game looking to be the first Aussie side to beat the Waratahs in super rugby W. On a cool winter’s day in Perth, the Waratahs were the first on the board after a Force break lead to a turnover and the Tahs went wide right to their winger Amelia Whitaker who found space before getting hammered in a great front on tackle. The Tahs kept the ball though and game it back to Whitaker from the next ruck to run 50 metres and score untouched. The Tahs scored two more tries in the first half through Miller and Pohiva, while the Force swooped on a loose pass for Buleki to score. It was 21-7 to the Tahs at half time and history was against the Force turning it around. One thing to note is that goal kicking has improved over the last couple of seasons and the four successful conversion in the first half a tribute to that.

The Force had the benefit of vocal crowd support, a decent tailwind, and genuine belief in the second half. Their star winger Buleki got it started with a fantastic run down the right wing before feeding it to Celia Smith for a try and to get the margin back to 7 points. It was Celia Smith who scored another good try to get the Force back on terms at 21 all, before Malcolm Heke scored the all important go ahead try for a 28-21 lead to the Force with 20 minutes to play. The Tahs had their chances in the final 20, with a Force player seeing yellow for a knock down, giving the Tahs plenty of territory and the extra player. The Force though were having none of it, coming up with big plays including a scrum penalty and some great defence to see them through.

It was the Waratahs first loss to an Australian team in Super Rugby W, so congrats to the Force.

There is a round to go, and the top three sides are locked in with the Drua, Tahs, and Force all confirmed to be playing semis.

The final week of the regular sees the Force hosting the Brumbies, and the Tahs hosting the Reds. Unfortunately the Reds need to rely on winning against the Tahs, and having the Force beat the Brumbies to make the finals.

Junior Wallabies off to a flying start in Georgia

The Junior Wallabies got off to almost the best possible start in their opening match of the Junior World Cup against Spain. The start of the game was delayed due to lightning, and the Aussies were electric when they were able to take the field, with blindside flanker Luca Cleverley soring in the third minute after some very good play which set the scene for the game.

What is there to say, the Aussies racked up 90 points to 22, scoring 14 tries through 11 different players, with flyhalf Finn Mackay kicking an incredible 10 conversions for the night. He might have a technique issue though with one of his kicks being charged down by a Spanish player who kicked the ball from the tee before Mackay was through his run up. Great play by the Spanish winger and it something that other teams will no doubt be looking at.

The Spanish kept up the effort all night and scored 4 tries, unfortunately they didn’t start until the Junior Wallabies had scored 8 tries themselves.

For the Aussies, the forwards looked dominant in most elements of the game, the scrum was very good (and included two props that currently play for French sides), the lineout was good and the support play and forward interchanges wouldn’t look out of place in most professional teams.

In the backs, the stand out players were Finn Mackay who started at 10, Treyvon Pritchard who started at 12, and Angus Grover the starting halfback. Grover’s kicking was good when he chose that option, and his passing was very good, generally in front of the receiving player, allowing them to run onto it and make metres in the carries. Finn Mackay showed why the Reds wanted to keep him in the squad, he has size, pace, kicks well in play and from the tee, and is very good at putting players into space and staying in the play for the return pass. Treyvon Pritchard was excellent at 12, his pace and footwork allowed him to make metres seemingly with every run, and he has the awareness and skill to put other players into space.

It certainly was a good start for the Aussies and they will undoubtedly be looking to take that momentum into the remaining pool games against Fiji on Thursday 2 July, and France on Wednesday 8 July.

The tournament has a compressed finals format with the winners of each pool advancing straight into the semi finals, so it feels like Australia will need to win their 3 pool games to progress to the Semis.

Barbarians Style

The weekend saw two Barbarians games against Wales, with the Men’s team getting away with a victory by 33-31, while the Women’s game saw a more comfortable 34-17 margin.

Barbarian Women’s squad who took on Wales in London.

There were some Aussies in action for the Baa-Baas, with Emily Chancelor getting a start and captaining the Women’s team, while Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Andrew Kellaway played for the Men’s team.

Barbarians Men’s Squad vs Wales. Source: Instagram

The men’s game was a cracking game to watch, and it was close throughout. LSL was very good for the Barbarians, playing the full 80 minutes, showing his power in attack and defence including a very solid and legal shot on the Welsh fly half in the dying minutes. Kellaway was also very good in his time on the field though seemed to leave with an injury in the middle of the game.

Given that England is in the midst of a heatwave, the players really put on a show and you can forgive the bigger units for some time spent moving more slowly into position.

What’s the summary, plenty of good play by both sides, the Baa-Baas were coached by Razor and Robbie Deans, and they more than earned parity at scrum and lineout. If some more of their passes had stuck, they would have won it. It is good to see Wales playing with some confidence and hopefully they can put up a good showing against Fiji this weekend as the Nations Championship gets underway.

The match highlight was seeing Welsh legend George North score a double playing in his first game for the Baa-Baas. What a way to end an amazing career, playing against your old team for the Barbarians, scoring a great try with your first, scoring a second try and then getting to take the final conversion from in front of the posts. Gee it’s been fun to watch him play.

George North finished his professional career in style for the Barbarians.

Nations Championship

The Nations Championship kicks off this weekend with 6 test matches being played, including New Zealand hosting France, Australia hosting the Irish, and South Africa hosting England as the obvious highlights, though any of the games could be expected to be crackers with Japan hosting Italy, Fiji hosting Wales (in the UK), and Argentina hosting Scotland. On second thoughts, Argentina vs Scotland could be an absolute belter if the Scots bring their A games.

Wallabies vs Ireland

It’s a test match week, and the Wallabies will take on Ireland in Sydney this Saturday evening looking to secure their first victory over Ireland since 9 June 2018 in Brisbane. Since then Ireland have won in:

Melbourne in 2018 by 26-21

Sydney in 2018 by 20-16

Dublin in 2022 by 13-10

Dublin in 2024 by 22-19

and finally in Dublin in 2025 by 46-19 at the end of a winless tour.

Overall, in 39 matches against Ireland, the Wallabies have 22 compared to Irelands 16, with one draw.

I think that with Super Rugby now in the rear view mirror for 2026, and with some experienced Wallabies retuning to bolster the squad in Ikitau, Hooper, Bell, and Tupou, the Wallabies won’t start as favourites, but we fans should believe that they are capable of winning this test match after going so very close in 2018, 2022, and 2024.

Follow the action here on GAGR

Greenandgoldrugby will be posting a live blog of each game to allow us tragics to post comments in real time, and there will be fantasy league for the whole tournament which will go live later in the week.

The action doesn’t ease up in week 2 either with the French heading to Lang Park (Suncorp Stadium) to take on the Wallabies, while South Africa vs Scotland should be entertaining, and it will be very interesting to see how the Italians go in New Zealand.

News published by Rugby Australia today indicates that French stars including Anton Dupont, and others will be heading to Australia to freshen up after their Top 14 success and join the team to take on the Wallabies in Brisbane. Should be a cracking match, and if you are going to the match, let us know as the GAGR team will be there and it would be good to meet some other rugby tragics.

Week three has some huge games as well with the Kiwis hosting Ireland, the Aussies hosting Italy, and Argentina hosting England, which could be the match of the round.

One thing that will be interesting in this southern hemisphere touring part of the Nations Championship is how well the teams adapt to the travel requirements. Take England for example, they play South Africa in week one, before flying back to Liverpool to play Fiji, then fly to Argentina to take on Los Pumas, that is a brutal travel schedule. It’s not much easier for Wales with games in England, Argentina and South Africa, which beg the question of how Ireland have managed to convince Japan to play a Japanese home game in Newcastle, New South Wales rather than flying from Sydney to Japan and back to Auckland. That must be a huge financial loss for Japan, as well as giving up home ground advantage and having the travel burden. There might be a proper explanation of why it’s happening, but it seems like Ireland were too precious to travel three weeks in a row and have gotten some very preferential treatment. Maybe I’m wrong.

The Waratahs

News out of New South Wales is that Waratahs coach Dan McKellar has resigned effective immediately, despite having a year left to run on his contract. There were some comments in the Monday news chat about this, but as a “not a waratahs supporter” you do have to wonder where to from here for the club, and who would want that coaching job. In his first year McKellar inherited a roster that he looked to change in his second year, before apparently losing the belief of some of the players, and the board.

Even as a “not a waratahs supporter” it is disappointing that another good coach has gone to the Tahs to not succeed and likely be lost to Australian rugby for the foreseeable future. It defies belief that the Tahs can produce so many of the Junior Wallabies, win most games at the junior levels, have access to the best resources of Rugby Australia, and still struggle to put together consistent results or perform at a level that their fans want to see. It can’t all be the coaches fault, can it, otherwise NSW Rugby would have solved th problem 2 or 3 times this decade.

I don’t know McKellar, but I hope the next opportunity for him comes around quickly and he has more success there than he did with the Tahs.

That’s a wrap

As always, thanks for making it this far, have a great Tuesday and look forward to the comments.