Plans to expand Australia’s rugby player pool and make the Wallabies more internationally competitive have been having an unintended divisive effect with the formation of the Western Force.
The Perth-based franchise will become Australia’s fourth team in next season’s expanded Super 14 competition, but their player recruitment drive has upset the established order on the country’s eastern seaboard.
Australia has been at a numerical disadvantage since the start of the Super 12 series in 1996, with its three teams up against five New Zealand provinces and four from South Africa.
The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has long championed the need for an extra Australian outfit to broaden the player catchment, so the Wallabies can continue to be competitive at future World Cups.
Perth was chosen ahead of Australia’s sporting capital, Melbourne, to form a new Super 14 team with the ARU impressed by the community backing and its location on Australia’s Indian Ocean coast as an ideal stopping-off point to and from South Africa.
But the Western Force’s efforts to build from scratch with raids on players coming off contract at the New South Wales Waratahs, ACT Brumbies and Queensland Reds have prompted resentment.
The three existing Super 12 organisations have been up in arms over key players defecting, enticed by the lures of Perth’s more relaxed lifestyle and the enhanced first-team opportunities for fringe players.
The Force signalled its intention to be competitive next year with the appointment of John Mitchell, who coached the All Blacks at the 2003 World Cup.
Mitchell has criss-crossed the continent searching for the players he needs.
His key initial signings were Wallabies’ hooker Brendan Cannon from the Waratahs and Queensland Reds line-out jumper Nathan Sharpe, who resisted an emotional campaign to keep him in Brisbane.
The signing of flyhalf Lachlan MacKay rocked the Super 12 front-running Waratahs, who believed they had finally found the answer to their number-10 problems.
”It was a chance for me to have a bit of a lifestyle change to get out of Sydney and go over to Perth,” MacKay said, explaining his decision, which stunned his New South Wales teammates.
”A big part was being part of a brand-new franchise, and having the opportunity to be a foundation member and have a huge involvement in the way the team plays and builds over the next few years.”
Coach Ewen McKenzie has arguably been hardest hit by the Force’s player recruitment so far as he attempts to seek the Waratahs’ first-ever Super 12 title in the final weeks of the season.
”This is unprecedented,” McKenzie said. ”These announcements usually happen out of season, but now we find ourselves having to host a press conference for another side while preparing for critical games.”
McKenzie said he was also angered by the Force’s attempt to ”discredit” the Waratahs when they signed MacKay with Force chief executive Peter O’Meara, saying New South Wales ”assassinated” their flyhalves and that was part of the reason MacKay was moving on.
Mitchell said the Force are well within their rights to seek out players.
”Every state was aware that this recruitment process would take place mid-season and, in fact, late last year all teams agreed to allowing it to happen,” Mitchell said.
”The Western Force cannot afford to sit back until the end of the Super 12 season [in late May] and watch the three teams sew up each others’ players.
”We had to enter the recruitment market to ensure we had the strongest possible team for our inaugural season next year. That’s exactly what we have done.”
Even Wallabies coach Eddie Jones bought into the argument, telling Australia’s warring rugby provinces to ”pull their heads in” after a series of tit-for-tat criticisms and claims of underhand tactics.
Jones said the three existing teams endorsed an ”open season” for player negotiations during the pre-season and need to accept off-contract players will be targeted mid-competition.
”I think we’ve got a fairly unique situation and we’ve never had it before,” Jones said. ”Players are being signed mid-season by a new club and that’s certainly caused a lot of tension, and we probably haven’t responded as well as we should.
”I think we need to pull our heads in a little bit and get on with business.”
There are more player announcements in the pipeline and more heartaches for the existing teams, but it’s surgery Australian rugby must endure to meet future needs. — Sapa-AFP