Australian rugby’s newest team kicked off in humble surrounds here on Monday when players from the Western Force practised on a bumpy training paddock for the first time in preparation for next year’s Super 14 competition.
About a dozen players had their first hit-out under former All Blacks coach John Mitchell, who conceded his charges, nearly all drawn from teams on Australia’s eastern seaboard, were rusty.
”We are already behind the eight-ball [compared to] … other sides,” he said.
”Also physically we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
But Mitchell maintained the 40-member squad would be sharp before the February kick-off, with the bulk of the players arriving over the next five weeks.
”It’s good to get started,” he said.
”It’s 16 weeks to competition and 13 weeks to trial matches.
”But we’ll be ready. We’ve planned it in such a way that we’ll be ready to go and be competitive.”
Western Force, the new Australian franchise, will along with South Africa’s Bloemfontein-based Central Cheetahs, expand the current Super 12 competition to 14 teams in 2006.
Teams from New Zealand also compete in the provincial tournament. The team is training at Perth’s Perry Lakes stadium, a run-down facility that the state government has promised to upgrade.
”To me a rugby team has got to in some ways be like a building site,” Mitchell said.
”A sporting team is not a finite situation. We’re very practical. We’ve got a really good system here, we’ve slapped paint on the walls and organised a gym and locker rooms and we’ve got offices and everything’s close by.”
Despite the training facilities, the team will play at Subiaco Oval, a modern 40 000 capacity facility.
Membership applications are booming with 18 000 already received.
All Force players are eligible for Australian Test call-ups but about 10 are currently in contention with two — lock Nathan Sharpe and hooker Brendan Cannon — regular Wallaby starters.
But Mitchell said successful teams focused on their depth and he wouldn’t be relying on individuals.
”While they are important, like every individual within a team is important, what’s more important is having everyone versed in a role,” he said.
”Should somebody fall over we already have people with the ability and the knowledge and the confidence to play at this level.”
Mitchell refused to speculate on where the team could finish in their debut season.
”You have got to be realistic, it’s taken other teams that have probably been in a similar situation five or six seasons to win a premiership,” he said.
”But we are also realistic that we’ve got a lot of young guys who are going to learn a lot about themselves over the next 12 months.” – AFP
