Force to field team in third-tier competition

[GAFFA]

Western Force will have a development side in a new Australian Rugby Union third-tier competition next season.

The squad will double as a defacto Force academy and play eight games against similar sides from the four other Australian Super Rugby clubs.

The home-and-away competition will be held early in the Super season and give Force coaches an opportunity to assess local and interstate talent.

There has been a need to bridge the gap between club and Super rugby since the Australian Rugby Championship was scrapped by former ARU chief executive John O'Neill in 2007 after one season.

The Force also lost its academy in 2011 when O'Neill cut $200,000 funding in favour of centralised centres in Sydney and Brisbane.

The third tier is particularly important to the Force as the RugbyWA club competition is not as strong as those in NSW and Queensland.

Just a handful of local players have made a successful move into Super Rugby and only a few more look set to take the step.

Rockingham prop Kieran Longbottom and centre Kyle Godwin, from the Associates club, are in the Force squad.

Backs Zack Holmes and Dane Haylett-Petty return to WA next season.

Both were products of the defunct Force academy, but Holmes was picked up by the Brumbies without making the Super squad and Haylett-Petty went to French club Biarritz in 2010 after nine appearances.

Three other local products, backs Luke Burton and Brad Lacey along with prop Oliver Hoskins, are in the Australian under-20 squad at the Junior World Championship.

The ARU is under financial pressure, but chief executive Bill Pulver has committed to a new development competition.

Sydney and Brisbane rugby officials are angry because the ARU is stripping the $40,000 it gives each of their clubs to help fund the new $3 million competition. The same hierarchy will try to insist that players in the Force development team return to their Eastern States clubs when the competition is over.

�The Force confirmed the signing of South African second-rower and former emerging Springbok Wilhelm Steenkamp for the next three seasons.

Steenkamp, 28, played for the Bulls, Sharks and Cheetahs.

Force coach Michael Foley said Steenkamp would be a strong addition to the pack.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...r-competition/

[palitu]

YAY!

[Stone Cold]

Great news! Hopefully they are still called Perth Spirit.

[jargan83]

Hopefully they are still called Perth Spirit.

Indeed

Then I can dig out my Perth Spirit jersey again!

[Happy]

awesome news!

[beige]

Great news - good to see it's 8 games too instead of 4.
Posted via Mobile Device

[MI5_Dog]

It's a good start. Let's hope it goes somewhere and isn't shot down by the vested interests of the Qld and NSW clubs.

[AndyS]

So if I am reading that right, they have managed to create a new competition with lesser players than the old ARC, are going to play it during the Super rugby season rather than after, with less teams than the old ARC and at $3M it will cost more...what a bunch of rocket surgeons!

If they had just recovered the $40k premier rugby funding last time....

[James]

Pretty sure the ARC cost 5.5 million in its first season. I hear what you are saying about having fewer players though.

They could have easily made huge changes to the ARC to make it less expensive.

Lets hope this gives a bunch of our young guys a go and improves the performance of our U20s.

[PeterM]

Great news think things are starting to move forward on the rugby front which is good news for WA rugby and young aspiring rugby players

[GIGS20]

Pretty sure the ARC cost 5.5 million in its first season. I hear what you are saying about having fewer players though.

They could have easily made huge changes to the ARC to make it less expensive.

Lets hope this gives a bunch of our young guys a go and improves the performance of our U20s.

Pretty sure the majority of the cost was compensation paid to the Sydney and Qld clubs for losing their players. With (I think it was) 3 Million that ISNT being spent on that, plus 3 million being recouped by NOT propping up the green blazer brigade, the new concept should make a profit!

[beige]

People need to learn how to let go...

[jargan83]

People need to learn how to let go...

"Quiet. I need this"

[Cowboy]

Try to look forward to the future rather than backwards to the past.

[shasta]

The reason funding would not have been withdrawn from Sydney/Brisbane when the ARC was going was likely because they controlled the ARU absolutely. The game is in transition to a better model of governance. Perhaps this is the difference that has made the decision possible. There will still be plenty of bitching aimed at scuttling this competition as well. Fingers crossed it won't get traction this time around.