When Brock James left the Western Force to head to France to play for Clermont in the Top 14, it caused barely a ripple in Australian rugby circles. In the pre-Gits era of the Force, James, Scott Daruda and James Hilgendorf, had all been used as fly-halves without much success.
Leaving Australia as a failed Super 14 player at the age of 24, it was not expected that anymore would be heard of the former Sydney Uni/GPS (Brisbane) fly-half - but how times have changed.
With a penalty goal in Clermont’s loss to Perpignon in the final of this year’s Top 14, Brock James racked up 1000 points in the Clermont jersey, not bad when you consider it only took him three seasons to complete.
In fact, so prolific has James’ scoring been in France, he has lead the Top 14 points scorers every season since he joined in 2006, not bad for a bloke who was ass-holed from Australia.
His name can be added to the ever increasing list of ex-pats who have had to go overseas to gain employment as professional rugby players and have flourished under different conditions and styles of play.
Given the Super 15 expansion is under way, and more than likely the new team to be based in Melbourne, what a perfect fit for Victorian born Brock James to come home and be a foundation member of the new franchise.
Although the ARU has mooted a raid on the mungo ranks to fill some of the 30-odd spots for the new team, and a dearth of local rugby talent running around, let’s hope the ARU throw their cash his way instead of some ageing-mungo.
Gagger /
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
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