So yeah that the EXACT reason rugby is fucked in the country … it based on purely on hype at the schoolboy level .. and not merit .. which is why so many schoolboy “prodigies” in rugby become busts, and then u have no depth …cause your “depth” has been ignored playing club rugby for last 5 years or quit…. So you just wait for the next “golden child” of schoolboy rugby to come and solve all your problems.
What's your plan with the guy who has been pretty good in Club Rugby for the last five years? Offer him a contract to be a depth piece at Super Rugby level instead of a player who has excelled for the Australian under 20s where there is no plan to play him unless there are a ton of injuries and you can only offer a wage that isn't really high enough to survive in Sydney?
In a perfect world we would have far more professional players earning a living from rugby in Australia but we don't. We have 5 professional teams (and who knows how long that might last).
What's your plan exactly? Who should be on the $65k a year or whatever it is that Jack Barrett is being paid as the 8th best prop in the team?
The reality is that it is a very rare situation where a player becomes very good in their 20s who wasn't previously on the radar. They might not have played Australian Schoolboys or Australian under 20s but it is very unusual where a player reaches a significant point professionally and weren't part of age grade state sides etc. along the way.
Who to offer contracts to is a challenge. We probably offer half the Australian under 20s side professional contracts each year. Within a year or two those players will fall away and not have a contract if they aren't improving substantially. If they don't advance through the ranks they are replaced by the next crop.
The reality is that the best players coming out of high school are being offered professional contracts by the Australian Super Rugby teams, overseas teams or NRL teams. There's no option of waiting a few years to see if they make it and then decide to sign them. They'll already be playing elsewhere.
This reality exists in every professional sport everywhere. The best young players are known and overwhelmingly become the best players once they reach maturity.