Latham’s golden touch of comedy
13 Feb 2006
Chris Latham has likened a Commonwealth Games gold medal to World Cup glory after being picked for the Aussie Sevens squad. It gets the stand-up comedian award.
Latham, along with Lote Tuquri, Matt Giteau and Scott Fava will strengthen an Aussie side that has been as dismal in Sevens as the test side were under Eddie Moans.
A delighted Latham told the Aus media: “If you win that gold medal it stacks up pretty high. You’ve obviously got the World Cup and that’s the pinnacle of rugby in general but, like I said, there’s not too many professional rugby players that get that opportunity; one, to play in a Commonwealth Games and then two, to win a gold medal. It’s certainly going to sit up very highly if not with a World Cup.”
Latham, whose Reds don’t play the weekend of March 16 and 17, when the Commonwealth Sevens is contested in Melbourne, added: “I expressed a lot of interest in wanting to play and it was pretty much just a matter of the formalities of everything getting done and the Super 14 franchises in Australia releasing their players. I think it’s a credit to the franchises to be able to release the guys in which (coach) Glen (Ella) and the selectors had wanted to play in the team.”
Tuqiri has not missed a Vodacom Super 12 (now Super 14) match since switching from league to union, but this will change when he goes for Sevens gold.
New Zealand has also strengthened their squad by picking five Super 14 franchise players, among them All Blacks winger Doug Howlett.
South Africa, currently third on the IRB World Series Sevens table, have not finalised their squad.
19 Comments
13 Feb 2006, 22:26 pm
Sheesh, the franchises have got to be pissed about losing quality players like Gits and Lotto to Sevens……
13 Feb 2006, 22:29 pm
heh heh, could just weaken the aussie super 14 sides when we need it most. add a coupla injuries and they could be there for the taking.
let em suffer.
13 Feb 2006, 22:37 pm
****, we arent playing any aussie teams that weekend.
13 Feb 2006, 22:58 pm
Imagine if we include a player like Habana in our sevens squad. For the Bulls sake I hope it will not happen but he would make a great sevens player.
13 Feb 2006, 23:22 pm
Aus (and NZ) are only strengthening their teams because the games are being held in Melbourne. If the games were in Karachi or Durban, they wouldn’t make the effort.
14 Feb 2006, 00:17 am
The Aussies really do need to beef up their pap 7′s side at the mo. Why does it not suprise me that once again SA are the last bunch to sort out the 7′s squad!?!?! Why cant we move like the other nations, or is it because we have to fax, email, call and text the government asking what “IT’s” recomendations are??!!!
Im not having a stab at transformation, quotas or what ever the hell you want to call it, but simply our process. Restore faith and assure the up and coming talent that SARugby is the bees knees and not a bunch of idiots waiting for the next fool to make a descision.
14 Feb 2006, 00:24 am
Latham, Tuquiri and Giteau are class players but can they make a difference at this level of 7′s? Guys like our Stef Basson are dynamite playing the 7′s game but are unheard of when it comes to the 15 man game. Surely players can’t just swop between 2 very different games and still perform at the level required at the Commonwealth games? Don’t agree on Habana – he would be loitering around missing tackles while waiting for the inevitable intercept try. Might work in 15′s where your mates cover for you but won’t work in 7′s wher it is far more man for man stuff.
14 Feb 2006, 02:54 am
Latho and Lote were great when they last played for the Aus sevens team. The ARU uses the team for giving development players an opportunity plus guys who can’t make the super 14 squads (Luke Inman)
14 Feb 2006, 05:05 am
Australia’s sports authorities make no bones about identifying “soft gold medals” at Commonwealth and Olympic Games levels. A soft gold medal is one in a minor sport where the level of competition is unlikely to be all that super-expert (e.g. womens’ luge and skeleton in winter olympiads), or where one expert can collect several gold medals (e.g. swimming, weightlifting).
Obviously, they reckon that rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games is a soft gold medal. Especially if other top sevens teams are focussing instead on the Sevens World Circuit or the Super 14.
All that matters is getting another medal and therefore to shift higher up the medals table at these games. Who cares what other sides choose to do? That’s entirely their worry. And who cares if these medals come in insignificant events? A gold is a gold, no matter what.
That’s just the Aussie way.
14 Feb 2006, 06:08 am
It’s a big pisstake.
Latham and Gitea will be injured long before then anyway.
14 Feb 2006, 08:11 am
ha ha
The SA side fielded should be given specific instructions to target Git,Lote and Latham.Play ‘em off the ball.So what ? Its only an insignificant 7 ‘s comp that means squat!
Heard Douggie Howlett is also playing.
What if all these fellows were injured and sidelined for a a weeks ? Yummy!,we would be able to scalp a few overseases wins as a bonus!
14 Feb 2006, 08:14 am
Paul Treu requested Brent Russel, Jean de Villiers and Joe van Niekerk. The request was denied.
Cheers
14 Feb 2006, 08:42 am
out wide
and your comment about habana missing tackles? Where on earth odes that come from? When has he done that before? He has come in for intercept tries, but generally when he has a two- or three-on-one situation against him and if he hangs back they will get past him. He plays smart rugby – even too smart for you to realise apparently…
14 Feb 2006, 09:56 am
While it no doubt IS only an insignificant comepetition, it IS a fully-fledged Commonwealth Games gold medal, no different from any other gold medal and the winner goes a step or so higher on the medals table as a result of winning it. And to the Aussies, it doesn’t matter what the medal is won for, just as long as it is won.
That’s the hard-nosed winner attitude that makes Australia’s 20 million population one of the successful sporting nations in the whole world, per capita or overall.
Losers may pooh-pooh this sort of attitude, but it’s really just same as the legendary fox who could not reach high enough to feed off the grapes on the vine and who then, miffed by his own failure, declared that they were sour grapes anyway.
14 Feb 2006, 10:06 am
people here are forgetting that players like Giteau and Gregan for that matter were first noticed playing for Aus Sevens. Same goes for NZ (Cullen, Mils, Lomu, etc)
14 Feb 2006, 14:55 pm
Its fine Fava will more than likely be on the piss before hand anyway…
14 Feb 2006, 22:04 pm
unfortunately there is no chance of our sevens team getting s14 players for commonwealth games. this is a relegation year remember?
14 Feb 2006, 22:27 pm
Sevens uits those selected for Australia, but sevens has a bad effect on players when they return to the Xv’s game, they tend to hold on to the ball alot longer than usual.
14 Feb 2006, 22:29 pm
Aussies win Gold and come no-where in IRB World series, will make Aussie sevens year. The only success they will have this year I guess, but England, Fiji, NZ, Samoa and SA will all have a say.
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