Barely four years after the inaugural match, the Indigenous All Stars Vs the NRL All Stars has received a massive blow.
In 2014 there will be no All Stars match, instead there will be a Nines series held in Auckland. According to the NRL it is due to the World Cup which will have the NRL’s best players finish their actual season in late November.
Eight weeks after the World Cup is when the All Stars was scheduled to be played but it was deemed not practical to ask the NRL’s best players to back up during pre-season after a World Cup campaign.
The Nines series will have every NRL club represented with each guaranteed a minimum $90,000 in prize money. The winner will take home $450,000.
There used to be a Sevens pre-season tournament which was last held in 2004 after it came under fire for exposing players to a higher chance of injury.
The NRL have refused to rule out the All Stars concept returning in 2015 but it would be safe to assume that the Nines tournament next year will be the litmus test.
If the crowds are up and it is well supported then expect the Nines tournament to be the annual pre-season event.
I actually think this is something that we may have a chance at. Can we retain Sandow just for the Nines tournament? Given in these types of tournaments defence isn't really an issue I can see us threatening here. Ahhhh a trophy in our cabinet. One can dream.
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semi radradra, being a former rugby 7s player would probably be quite good at the 9s version
Let's have a look at Parramatta's possible Nines squad. Under a rumoured blue print there would be 5 players on the bench.
1. Hayne
2. Sio
3. Morgan
4. Hoppa
5. Semi
6. Norman/Roberts (With less defence around him we may see some good play from Roberts.)
7. Sandow (Sandow loves room and this may really open it up for him but a kicking game is important in Nines.)
8. Peni (Strong, powerful runner of the ball.)
9. Pritchard (Kaysa's speed out of dummy-half will be useful but he will battle against Peats for a starting position.)
10. Kelepi
11. Kenny Edwards
12. Kelly
13. Fuifui (Some massive size on the bench in these games can often mean the difference between winning and losing.)
14. Peats
The above team has plenty of size, skill and power. Semi's experience of Sevens Union will be invaluable and given how well we can play when the switch is flicked I'd say the team above would be pretty good.
I don't see how Melbourne could play their grinding style given committing numbers to tackles would mean almost half their team would be involved in the tackle. I'd say the other teams that could put together some pretty good Nines teams would be the Roosters, Souths, Manly, Warriors and Dogs.
surely we would have pissed Ben Roberts off by then.
2 Sevens Titles and 2 Runners Up. Our last win was in 2003 against the Tigers from memory.
Parra beat England in 2003. In 1997, Parra beat North Sydney.
Forgot, Tigers beat us in 2004?
Not sure. I can only remember the victories. I do recall in 1991, it was the 7's, not World 7's and Manly beat Parra in the Final at Parramatta Stadium. I think it was 1991.