Former All Black Thrush returns to retirement after Super Rugby SOS
Western Force lock Jeremy Thrush is happily back in retirement with the former All Blacks star cutting short his Super Rugby Pacific return due to a heel injury.
Thrush retired at the end of last season, but he made a shock return to the field in round one after answering an SOS call from Force coach Simon Cron.
The 38-year-old’s return has been etched into Force folklore with Thrush scoring the winning try in a 34-27 win over the Melbourne Rebels.
Such was his impact Thrush was even elevated to the stand-in captaincy role for the round-three win over Moana.
But it proved to be his final appearance with a painful heel injury ending his chances of adding more matches to his tally.
“I’d love to pull Thrushy back but I think I may have used up every resource that he had in terms of body,” Cron said ahead of Saturday night’s crunch clash with the Highlanders in Perth.
“After those games, his heel was really bad and he needed a cortisone injection.
“He was like, ‘Cronno, I think I’ve done my service’, which he had as he was filling a spot for us when we were really light on in those lock positions.
“I’d love to have him playing but unfortunately his body has probably had it.”
The Force welcome back captain Michael Wells (Achilles), flyhalf Bryce Hegarty (back) and winger Toni Pulu (knee) this week, but hooker Folau Fainga’a is still battling an Achilles tendon injury that has sidelined him for several weeks.
“It’s hard because it’s an ongoing Achilles,” Cron said.
“I know he ran well (on Wednesday), so there’s light at the end of that tunnel for him.”
Scrumhalf Gareth Simpson is expected to miss another two weeks with a quad strain while star Wallabies lock Izack Rodda is yet to return from the foot injury that grounded him on the eve of the season.
Flyhalf Jake Strachan will miss at least four weeks with concussion.
The Force sit in 11th spot with a 2-5 record at the halfway point of the season.
Cron said the Force learnt valuable lessons from their 43-35 loss to the Highlanders in NZ on March 19 and are hoping to turn the tables in Saturday’s rematch.
“Gain line was our message in that game,” Cron said.
“We only made three dominant tackles against the Highlanders last time and then the next week against the Blues we made 19 or 20.
“So all we did there was change the speed off the line, putting pressure on them and making contact. Against the Highlanders, we sat on our heels.”
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments