Saturday Round-Up

Beale welcomed by Wallabies: According to reports emanating out of Australia, controversial back line member Kurtley Beale will link up with his international colleagues for the remainder of the European tour, as they look to build towards next year’s Rugby World Cup. In an attempt to bolster his squad ahead of the clashes with both England and Ireland, new head coach Michael Cheika has sent for both Beale and Queensland Red Jake Schatz. The inclusion of Schatz comes as a direct result of Scott Higginbotham returning to Australia in order to mend a hamstring injury suffered against the Barbarians in the first tour match at Twickenham. Having been involved in much controversy off the field, culminating in the dismissal of Wallaby business manager Di Patston, Beale has not played for the Wallabies since Spetember 27th when they lost to South Africa in Cape Town. Having been sanctioned and fined for a total of $41,700, Beale has supposedly learnt his lesson and will meet up with the rest of his team mates ahead of next weekend’s clash with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.

French Baa-Baas win: Invitational outfit the French Barbarians comfortable overcame African outfit Namibia last night, 35-14 at Toulon’s home ground, the Stade Felix Mayol. Having crossed the whitewash as early on as the fifth minute, the invitational side put their foot on the accelerator and continued to run in try after try in what ended up a comprehensive victory. Tries in the opening minutes from the likes of Rodrigo Capo Ortega, PJ Van Vill and Theuna Kotze, helped the hosts to a significant advantage early on, as they opened up a 21 point lead. Despite their best efforts, Namibia consistently came up short and struggled to compete with a strong representative side. Having lost to Canada last weekend, Namibia’s search for a win goes on.

Ryan Sheady