Thursday’s Rugby News has: RUPA not keen on distributing Force players; Smith, Simmons and Inman back; shorter Lions tours; and Cam Shepherd’s thoughts.
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RUPA Not Keen
When the Daily Telegraph reported the other day that the Force will be cut if Super goes to 15 teams, it said that the ARU will seek to move the Force players to other Super teams, picking and choosing where they end up.
Well, unsurprisingly, the player’s association isn’t so keen on that idea. RUPA boss Ross Xenos has raised the little-known concept of “legality” with regards to the idea.
“All Australian rugby contracts are signed by the club and the ARU and there are provisions within the contract to second players for the purposes of Wallaby duty, but it is our view that there is no capacity under the players contracts for the ARU to unilaterally direct them to relocate to another city and to play for another team,” Xenos said, according to the Daily Telegraph.
“The standard player contracts and the CBA were never drafted with these circumstances in mind but as with any employment contract with an employee and an employer, the context of that contract is that employer will not have the right to direct the employee to work for another employer.
“As we understand it there will be consultation between the ARU and any player contracted to a team that has been removed from the Super Rugby competition in order to determine where that player will continue to fulfil the obligations of his contract.
“We remain optimistic that we may not need to worry about all that eventuating, however.”
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Players Back
George Smith and Rob Simmons are back in the Reds side that will lose to the Hurricanes on Saturday night at Suncorp (provided Cyclone Debbie doesn’t ironically whisk all the Hurricanes players away to their doom).
Neither player played against the Jaguares. Smith comes in for Hendrik Tui (dropped to the bench), while Simmons comes in for Izack Rodda (injured ankle). Another change for the Hurricanes game is Chris Kuridrani taking Izaia Perese’s place on the wing.
“The Hurricanes will be a massive challenge. We have to look at that as an opportunity. We’ve had some really disappointing losses over the last few weeks, but you can sense within the team that we’re close to producing the right result on the field,” said coach Nick Stiles.
“Last week’s performance simply wasn’t good enough, but the players have been honest in their appraisal and committed to learning from it and getting better. It’s been a tough few weeks, but we couldn’t be happier to be back at home this weekend with an opportunity to make our fans proud.”
Meanwhile, Mitch Inman is coming in for Sefa Naivalu ahead of the Rebels’ daunting match against the Highlanders on Friday. Inman’s going to go in the centres while Tom English is bumped out to the wing.
Lopeti Timani, absent from last week’s loss against the Waratahs, has been named on the extended bench. Sean McMahon’s still injured.
“I’ve been pleased with the progress we have made over the last two weeks however our contribution at the backend of these games has resulted in losses so we need to make sure that we apply those lessons and playout the full 80 minutes – starting this weekend,” coach Tony “Dumper” McGahan said.
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Shorter Lions Tours
British & Irish Lions tours, from 2021, will only be 8 matches long. This will be part of the change of the global rugby calendar that will come into place after the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
With summer tours switching from June to July, this will means Lions tours will now interrupt the start to the European club season.
“The unions, who are meeting in Dublin on Tuesday, have settled on eight matches having decided that, while a reduction is not ideal for the coaches before the first Test, it will give the tourists more preparation time. The first match in New Zealand in the summer falls seven days after the league finals in the Premiership and Pro 12 and the day before the Top 14 final in Paris.
“The Lions’ head coach, Warren Gatland, asked for all the players to travel out together rather than send an advance guard to prepare for the first match and the squad will arrive in New Zealand only three days before the tour opener. An eight-match tour will give the Lions 10 days to acclimatise but would mean only four games before the first Test.
“The unions are in talks with New Zealand, South Africa and Australia about a new tour agreement with the current one ending after the summer trip. There will be no sharing of the profits generated by the Lions in the three countries, with the European unions throwing out a southern hemisphere proposal during the global calendar talks to pool tier-one Test match receipts.”
The article also mentions that there are talks concerning shortening the Six Nations from seven weeks to five consecutive weeks.
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Shepherd Says
There’s not much news doing that isn’t Force-related, or ARU/Super-is-shit-related. So here’s Cameron Shepherd’s relatively unique views on the whole shemozzle.
“I was there in 2006 when the Force got their Super Rugby start and know how many people have put in so much hard work over the 12 years,” said Shepherd, writing for Fox Sports.
“I know results on the field haven’t always been great but we have produced some amazing Walabies and we’re finally seeing some quality players come through the Western Australian system. They are the kids that were watching in 2006 and dreamt of playing for the Force and the Wallabies.”
Shepherd, who played 60 games for the Force between 2006-2012 has penned a rather lengthy column for the Fox Sports. So here’s just the gist of it.
“[WA is] a market dominated by the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers, that are selling out every single game. But there’s no reason why the Force can’t grow to be a team like that.
“That journey, from day one in 2006, has been very rocky. There’s been a lot of adversity for the club to overcome and a lot of individuals have had to band together and continue that momentum.
“For it to all be over in just a snap of a finger, would be really upsetting and shortsighted.
“…I’ve noticed since I left the club and come back to the east coast, there’s very little press. People are more interested in what Michael Hooper’s eating for lunch than they are with what’s going on in Western Australia.
“It’s been a tough journey for them and they’ve never felt they’ve had that support of the ARU and the east coast — that’s coming from someone who spent seven years at the club.”
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The Scots College (Sydney) is gearing up for their annual Rugby 7s tournament, set to take place THIS SATURDAY 1 April (10am – 4pm)
Schoolboy teams from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will duke it out for the Pillinger Cup, with King’s College Auckland, last year’s winners, coming back to defend their title.
The top Fijian rugby school side will also be making the trip over to compete alongside St Ignatius’ College Riverview and Canberra Grammar, along with Brisbane State High School and the NSW Waratahs U18 development squad. Kambala and SCEGGS will face on in the girls match, with a full preparatory school competition running alongside the older boys.
Yep, that’s right! Scots College’s Rugby 7s tourney will feature both Men’s and Women’s competitions. In fact, the Australian Men’s and Women’s 7s teams will be roaming about throughout the day, and will be presenting the winning schools with their awards.
More information can be found here, here and also here, and if you need even more information, you can contact the Director of Rugby at Scots College, the blessed Mr Brian Smith at b.smith@tsc.nsw.edu.au.
