Friday Rugby News has trouble brewing in the west, positive development towards a national coaching panel, Higgers working up an appetite and bad news for Beale.
News From the West
Starting over in sunny Western Australia, the Western Force have been struggling to avoid the Super Rugby axe, but now could potentially find themselves even more up-creek without a paddle, following news in the Sydney Morning Herald that the club is reportedly battling to keep the $1.5 million major sponsorship deal with the Road Safety Commission.
The Force received the sponsorship in January this year. As part of the deal Force players were required to do 1200 hours work promoting the RSC. While the players have been reportedly fulfilling their end of the bargain, there have been many mixed feelings around such a sizeable sponsorship.
The Force are talking down any fears of a cutback, and are aiming to start fresh talks towards extending the deal. If they lost the deal, it could be a significant blow in taking steps towards buying back their license from the ARU.
“Things are travelling very well on the road safety sponsorship and payments have been made on time as per our agreement and we will start to look at extending that agreement in the future,” Force chief executive Mark Sinderberry said.
However, the deal not sitting well with the WA Police Union, who reportedly want the sponsorship deal to be scrapped completely, seeing it as being a waste of money.
“WAPU seriously hopes the sponsorship arrangement in its current format is not continued next year,” WA Police Union president George Tilbury said.
“Any sponsorship deal to target road safety would need to be done in conjunction with police and involve extensive community engagement. WAPU may consider its position if these conditions were met.
“We strongly believe that 1200 hours of highly visible police patrols on our roads, particularly in regional WA, will have a much greater impact than names on a guernsey or videos on social media.”
An RSC spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that the Road Trauma Trust Account would evaluate the deal before deciding whether to continue.
“As with all major projects and partnerships which are funded through the Road Trauma Trust Account, the Road Safety Commission will undertake a robust evaluation of the 12-month partnership to gauge the impact of the program on road safety outcomes prior to making a decision going forward.”
In other Force news, the team will be bolstered by the return of Wallabies Matt Hodgson, Tatafu Polotu-Nau and Pek Cowan against the Reds this weekend, with the latter two being named on the bench. Heath Tessman and Marcel Brache will also be back in the starting lineup.
Coaching the Coaches
Finally, some kinda positive news on the coaching front! A summit in Sydney has made a commitment to establish a national coaching panel, which will be focused on developing coaches from elite to juniors levels.
Wallabies Coach Michael Cheika, Former coach Bob Dwyer and former head of national coaching Dick Marks were among the people in attendance. There was a unanimous concern that the consistently shithouse performances below par performances of the Aussie Super Rugby teams, combined with the lack of emerging coaches to succeed Cheika, has led to questions around the structure of coaching nationwide.
“We’re committing to setting up a national coaching panel,” Cheika said, when he chatted to SBS about the announcement.
“That’s a coaching panel that’s going to help support the development of coaches throughout the whole game – from elite level down to the very junior level there – having the support mechanisms for our coaches to be better.”
“We certainly don’t want to play one style of footy all round. We want the diversity of game going on and just to support the whole coaching structure so we are getting better coaches from the very junior level – having a feedback process where our coaches can get improved.”
The next step, accord to Cheiks, will be formalising the main points from the meeting and presenting them to the Super Rugby clubs and state unions for feedback. Following that, the summit members will reconvene after the June tests to discuss establishing a more permanent panel within the next three months.
Cheika admitted that there is a huge amount of negative feelings towards Australian rugby right now, but that he hopes that the formation of the panel can be the start of some more upfront, positive action.
“There’s been a lot of negativity about the game. We can’t escape that and we can’t do much about those other things as coaches.”
“But we can make a difference by getting something going for the game.”
Hungry Hungry Higgers!
In a meandering but fascinating article by Sam Phillips at Rugby.com.au, Scotty Higginbotham opened up and talked about his desire to come back and play for the Reds in the lead up to the match against the Force this weekend.
“Being in Japan and signing in Australia again, I was well aware that the opportunity (to play for the Wallabies) might not come.
“So I am fine with that – I signed for Queensland and came back to play for Queensland.
“They (the coaches) seem happy with the way I’m going and that’s what matters most to me – doing my best for the club that wants me here.”
Higgers talked about his time at the Reds leading up the title in 2011, his time at the Rebels, Japan and then back home again. While it highlighted how Higgers matured and has grown as a player, it was clear that he had an agenda as the Reds start to make a push for the top of the Australian conference. A win against the Force this weekend would go a long way to helping their cause.
For him now, the time for talking is over.
“I think there is definitely foundations but I feel like most teams would tell you that there is foundations there for being a premiership team – I think any team can say that.
“I think as a group you’ve got to focus on the now and not talk about next year being our year or we’ll get them next game.
“It’s got to be right now. Whether you’re ready or not or whether everything is clicking, you can’t really let that come into it too much because not everything is going to be clicking at the one time.
“There were definitely times where things didn’t click in 2011 but we got through that.
“I definitely see the foundations of a finals team but you actually have to make it happen – you can’t just keep saying that.”
Beale out, Genia in
Bad news for Beales fans. Kurtley has been ruled out of the June series against Fiji, Scotland and Italy after suffering a hamstring injury while playing on the weekend for Wasps. Wallabies coach Michael Cheika confirmed this after speaking to Tom Decent at the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Kurtley won’t be coming back, I’ve spoken with him,” Cheika said.
“I’ve spoken to the medicos and considering the injury status he had before he left and now a couple of niggles towards the end of the season, it’s not the first one he’s had. I’d rather he has a month off … and he gets back here and has a good pre-season before the Rugby Championship.”
The loss of such a handy utility back that can slot into any position is a substantial loss, especially considering how bone dry Australia is right now when it comes to the fly-half position.
However, Cheika did include Will Genia in his 33-man squad as the premier halfback choice. However, he also noticed that none of Australia’s Super Rugby franchises seemed keen to pick up Genia for a contract, even through Genia has signalled he’d like to return to Australia for good.
“I think his training will be all right,” said Cheika of Genia. “Will has been working with our guys back here around keeping fit and so has Kurtley, I know that for a fact.”
“Obviously it’s pretty clear if I pick him for the first Test, that’s where I see him in the pecking order. I would be crazy not to be saying: ‘Is someone going to pick this chap up?’
