ARU to consider Wallabies eligibility for Twiggy Forrest’s IPC players
The Australian
12:00AM September 12, 2017
Wayne Smith
Senior sport writer
Brisbane
@WayneKeithSmith
The Australian Rugby Union has another weighty decision to make: whether to allow players who sign with Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Indo-Pacific Championship to be eligible for Wallabies selection.
Only those footballers playing Super Rugby, who have signed with a Super Rugby club for the following season or those overseas-based Wallabies who have played a minimum of 60 Tests can be selected for Australia.
This was one of the items discussed when Forrest met Michael Cheika last week and while it is understood the Wallabies coach was generally supportive of the idea, he made it clear he wanted to see a definitive competition model before considering it.
And as much as the ARU defers to Cheika in matters relating to the national side, player eligibility status almost certainly would need to be discussed and approved at board level.
Giving eligibility to Forrest’s players could potentially undermine the competitiveness of the four remaining Australian teams in Super Rugby.
One of the main reasons for removing the Western Force was to improve the on-field performances of the Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies and Rebels. But if Forrest broadens his approach to attract players beyond the current Force squad — which may not happen this year because virtually all players are signed for 2018 — then it could start undermining the ARU’s position.
The ARU remained upbeat about the prospects of working with Forrest and his IPC concept, though at this stage it regards the talks as preliminary.
“Everyone is positive but at this stage we don’t know precisely what sort of competition we’re talking about,” an ARU spokesman said yesterday.
The ARU is pushing for Forrest to take the National Rugby Championship and dramatically expand it, pushing its boundaries out into the Pacific islands and Asia, as outlined in T he Australian yesterday. But, yet again, there may have been some miscommunication between the two camps.
It may well be that the IPC expands over time into that space, particularly if the NRC becomes the mainstay of any post-Super Rugby solution, but according to former ARU board member Geoff Stooke, now a key voice in structuring the IPC, Forrest is planning a credible six-team competition from the get-go.
“The quality of the competition has to be such that viewers would rate it as the equivalent of the English Premiership or the French Top 14,” said Stooke. “It can’t be a lower echelon than that.”
Clearly, the NRC is not yet up to that standard and while Stooke could see the IPC augmenting the NRC at some point, all the indications are that the IPC is aiming higher at a quality product.
Forrest is scheduled to unveil more details about the IPC at a press conference tomorrow.
Yet even if he can persuade the Force players to stick together (he met their Wallabies representatives over the weekend) the issue then will be whether he can populate the five other Asia-based teams with players of comparable ability.
The other contentious issue is whether World Rugby gives approval for the IPC to go international. By happy coincidence, Forrest’s concept melds almost ideally with World Rugby’s plans to push into Asia — World Rugby’s chief executive Brett Gosper acknowledges that the Chinese Rugby Football Association expects to have one million players within five years — so there may well be some synergy in the coming years.
For the moment, however, a World Rugby spokesman said the organisation would be guided by the ARU’s assessment of the viability and credibility of the new concept.
Meanwhile, Cheika has responded to the Wallabies lineout winning only 64 per cent of their own ball against the Springboks by bringing Reds lock Lukhan Tui into the squad for Saturday’s Canberra Test against Argentina at the expense of fellow Kane Douglas.
Tui was a standout performer in Brisbane City’s opening NRC match against the Fijian Drua but the consensus was that he was overshadowed by fellow Wallabies squad member Izack Rodda in the clash with Queensland Country on Saturday.
It would not surprise to see one of the two Reds youngsters brought into the matchday 23 on the weekend, and maybe even into the starting XV. Certainly it is fair to say they have captured the attention of current starting lock Rory Arnold.
“Absolutely, I’m looking over my shoulder at these young bucks coming through, pushing me for selection,” said Arnold yesterday.
