2014 Squad so far

[Tazzmania]

I see no issue with taking a talented young player from a big market like that

Agree 100%, look at most Australian Super teams and the Wallabies themselves I am not sure how many players are either first or second generation Australians I would not think too many.

Hats off to the Force this could be the best for the future of rugby in this state as some of these players will drift into the local club competitions and can only strengthen them.

Please also bear in mind that with Sydney fielding possibly three teams in the national comp and Brisbane two, there will not be much for us to pick from if we need to draw from over East.

[sandgroperrugby]

IMHO what was the status quo in the club was not working. At least there is a change of direction, good or bad we will see in the coming years. Another point a lot of the wa boys that are now coming through and please correct me if I am wrong are first generation or wa schooled not so much born and bred second or third generation west Aussies.

Godwin Zimbabwe
Longbottom English parents first gen aus(please correct me if I am wrong)
Turner South African
Hoskins English parents first gen aus (please correct me if I am wrong)
Haylett-Petty South African
Burton South African parents first gen aus

I went to a very junior rugby training session yesterday with my boy and I believe my son was the only west Aussie there the rest 1 kiwi Eastern stater, 1 Eastern stater and 2 Irish lads.

[DinkyDi]

I for one believe there has to be players available in club rugby academies private schools and playing other sports who are aussie born and bred who would be good enough if given the chance.

These kids should be given the first refusal to play in these competitions.

I for one am getting disheartened with the influx of South African nationals into our development sides who are being flown over from the RSA

Michael Foley and the rest of the coaching and scouting network get out and network with kids parents and schools rugby clubs and other sports get kids who have the discipline for other sports but won't make the grade let teach them how to play rugby.

Pete - I thought that the majority of players in the Junior academy are local kids - this also applies to the state teams at age levels right up to schoolboys - all of these kids seem to have the chance to step up. Where does it go wrong then? Not quite good enough to take the next step? Loose focus after School? I do not know, but I would be interested in your opinion on where the issues are for the local talent making it to the senior academy and then onto the Force squad.

[GIGS20]

Having some involvement with schools rugby I can add one piece of my collected ignorance. Boys leave school and gain a whole bunch of independence, only a very small percentage of those will try to make a go of professional sport regardless of their talent.

It looks to me that if you don't have their minds locked into being a professional sportsman early they are unlikely to take the gamble (especially since many of the things you do to prepare yourself for that get in the way of performing well at school, early morning training, be at the club all day on game day and at recovery on Sunday rather than study .....)

In my experience, the ones who are looking at professional sport as an option are the ones who have already decided that the academic life is not for them, sadly many of those make that decision due to laziness, rather than actual ability!

[PeterM]

Dinky Di you are more than likely right mate that in the development pathways the kids are Australian or Kiwi kids

I was thinking more of the EPS spots and the Force first team squad getting Saffers over to fill spots that should be going to Aussies in the first place if they are good enough. I find it hard to believe that there aren't players out there better than Sias Ebersohn for example.

Having a look on the whole of this junior season that I finished with my two boys it was very sad to see the lack of Australian kids born and bred playing the game. I know in Perth AFL is the number one winter sport and if rugby hopes to make some head way it needs to be more inviting to Australian kids and make them feel more inclusive. If we want the code in this state to grow we need more aussie kids playing it and more aussie players playing for the force getting out into the schools people the can admire emulate and whose surname they can pronounce!

[sandgroperrugby]

Dinky Di you are more than likely right mate that in the development pathways the kids are Australian or Kiwi kids

I was thinking more of the EPS spots and the Force first team squad getting Saffers over to fill spots that should be going to Aussies in the first place if they are good enough. I find it hard to believe that there aren't players out there better than Sias Ebersohn for example.

Having a look on the whole of this junior season that I finished with my two boys it was very sad to see the lack of Australian kids born and bred playing the game. I know in Perth AFL is the number one winter sport and if rugby hopes to make some head way it needs to be more inviting to Australian kids and make them feel more inclusive. If we want the code in this state to grow we need more aussie kids playing it and more aussie players playing for the force getting out into the schools people the can admire emulate and whose surname they can pronounce!

What like Israel Folau? Or maybe Nic Naitanui?

By the way apart from the last bit I agree with you.

[G_Beard]

Dinky Di you are more than likely right mate that in the development pathways the kids are Australian or Kiwi kids

I was thinking more of the EPS spots and the Force first team squad getting Saffers over to fill spots that should be going to Aussies in the first place if they are good enough. I find it hard to believe that there aren't players out there better than Sias Ebersohn for example.

Having a look on the whole of this junior season that I finished with my two boys it was very sad to see the lack of Australian kids born and bred playing the game. I know in Perth AFL is the number one winter sport and if rugby hopes to make some head way it needs to be more inviting to Australian kids and make them feel more inclusive. If we want the code in this state to grow we need more aussie kids playing it and more aussie players playing for the force getting out into the schools people the can admire emulate and whose surname they can pronounce!

PeterM, relax!!!! To round out the entire multicultural experience you sound a bit like the whinging British media.
Sias, had some brilliant moments at fly half this season, he would also be the first to admit, not consistently as he would have liked. Any worse than Danny Cipriani, no!!
Nor any off field incidences. What if the first up game plan was to limit damage and stabilise the on field play with a season of predefined targets in different areas, working towards achieving a platform of defence, to enter next season being able to back a solid defensive effort from the backline while executing attacking try scoring rugby? There were a fair few instance of players put into space by Sias from deft passes, and tries scored because of it. Hope to see more of it next season.
The Force has got a couple of front rowers and a couple of centres from SA...it's not as if Australia has got deep coffers in those departments.Is it that you have an issue with South Africans?
Would be odd, as half the juniors in the lower age groups at your club are South African. Which brings us to juniors pronouncing names of players, shouldn't now be problem.
We have some fantastic rugby players and future rugby players here in WA, but I don't feel there are enough that would qualify under your rules to field a squad with enough depth to be competitive for an entire season, and then everyone in rugby in WA would come off second best, an some eastern states rugby fan would whine about West Australian rugby players ruining his kids chance of playing for the 'tahs.
This is where the Force should have been when the powers that be bought in Gits, Mitchell and crew. It didn't. The franchise brick walled for 2 seasons, and awesome players didn't get the recognision at higher levels as they should've. All this begins to change now, and the additional stocks could have come from anywhere, they came from SA. It's done. Let's watch and enjoy.
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[Tazzmania]

I think to sum it all up, there is a very important consideration.

Yes it would be great to have only WA school,club, ect pathway men playing in our Super 15 team, or at least as many as possible, however we need to remember that Super 15 rugby is a far cry from club rugby level.

It requires dedication, commitment, physical stregnth, and everything else assocaited with being a professional sporrtsman in a physical contact sport.

Bearing this in mind to keep rugby at this high level in WA, in my mind Rugby WA have done what is needed and hats off to them.

A strong Super franchise irrespective of where the players have come from will spur juniors and club men to at least play to the levels that they are comfortable with and able to cope with, without a high profile team lots of fringe players may be lost to club and junior school level.

An elite team is there to generate the interest and needs to be elite otherwise it will just fade away.

[Pitythefool]

Hi All

Just checking the latest on this thread. Do the Force, as yet have a full squad, including the EPS and WTS? anything missing for next year?

[jono]

As far as I'm aware we still only have 29 players in the squad?
And I think the EPS is full now
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[Pitythefool]

30th being saved for a JOC return? What about the WTS - who of note is in this group? No mention of this lot on the Force website.

[GAFFA]

i dont think they are holding it for him. I think need another backrower and if JOC comes back it would be on a short term contract to cover injury.

I think now that the NRC has been comfirmed we will here more about the WTS as that is who will be in the squad aong with the other main squad guys.

[travelling_gerry]

McGrath enjoying Leinster life but Western force awaits
Friday, January 03, 2014

RABODIRECT PRO12:
Connacht v Leinster
Sometimes you are better standing still if you want to go places.
Jack McGrath: Made three appearances for Ireland in November. Picture: SPORTSFILEJack McGrath: Made three appearances for Ireland in November. Picture: SPORTSFILE
By Brendan O’Brien
Jack McGrath is proof of that.

Now aged 24 and with 50 Leinster appearances and three Irish caps to his credit, there was a time when the St Mary’s prop looked at the queue for places ahead of him in Dublin and thought that a new environment might well be in order.

Others had harboured the same thoughts and then acted on them.

When McGrath and Leinster pull into the Sportsground for their meeting with Connacht tomorrow night, they will make for the away dressing room knowing that they are about to meet a raft of familiar faces from across the hall.

Among them will be the UCD centre Dave McSharry and Jason Harris-Wright, the hooker who passed through Bray and Blackrock. Both were in the Leinster Academy at the same time as McGrath before seeking advancement elsewhere.

Such westward journeys are far from unusual amongst the Connacht squad with Paul O’Donoghue, Fionn Carr (twice) and Nathan White all having followed the same route and it makes for an interesting subplot in an always interesting fixture.

“Yeah, they’re always a tough side,” said McGrath. “With the players that have left here and gone to there, they have a point to prove to their old teammates, they really want to get one over on them. The likes of Nathan White, if he’s playing I could be up against him. Even then with the new guys coming in, Craig Clarke for example. He was captain of the Chiefs. To have someone who won the Super 15 two years in a row is great experience to have.”

That McGrath wasn’t another of those to sever his ties with Leinster and try his hand elsewhere was down to nothing more than a handful of appearances offered at the onset of his professional career by Joe Schmidt.

The progression since has been obvious. This is his fifth season in or around the first-team squad and his appearance figures to date are 1-6-13-18. With a dozen banked already this term, that graph will only continue to go one way. McGrath’s form should see to that. Three appearances for Ireland in November, including a start against Samoa, suggest signs of bigger and better to come and Cian Healy’s absence with injury could fast-track matters.

Leinster’s squad is undergoing something of a metamorphosis as many of those intrinsic to three Heineken Cup successes move on but the new wave gives reason for optimism.

McGrath’s increased visibility at loosehead has, for instance, been matched by that of Martin Moore who has proved there may be life at tight head for Irish rugby after Mike Ross finally joins John Hayes in retirement.

“It’s brilliant, it’s great for competition on both sides,” says McGrath.

All hands will again be required on deck tomorrow at a venue where Leinster have lost on three of their last five visits, and McGrath knows that only too well, though he has only played there once with the seniors.

That was this time two years ago when a gust of wind saw Miah Nikora’s late drop goal attempt fall just short under the Leinster crossbar and allowed the visitors cling on to a somewhat undeserved 15-13 win.

“It was one of my first starts two years ago, in Connacht,” said McGrath. “It was tough, one you’ll never forget. It’s a game Connacht get up for. It’s a tough spot to go. They’ve improved so much over the last two seasons and it’s going to be a tough one again.”
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/r...ts-254171.html

[GAFFA]

I think the article is referring more to Connacht as a force from the west no that McGrath is going to the Western force
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[travelling_gerry]

Don't let facts get in the way of a good story!