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Thread: Western Force look to homegrown stars

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    Western Force look to homegrown stars

    WESTERN Force coach Dave Wessels says his team will play for its future in Super Rugby’s first month and hope success can convince the ARU to take them off the chopping block.

    While Wessels wants a win over the Waratahs on Saturday night in Sydney to help secure survival, a first big step toward salvation could be found on their teamsheet.

    In the team for the round one named on Thursday, the Force will field as many as eight homegrown Perth players — a record. The club has 12 players in its 38-man squad who grew up in WA or have risen through Perth premier rugby.


    Dane Haylett-Petty, his brother Ross, Curtis Rona, Kane Koteka, Richard Hardwick, Chance Peni, Luke Burton and Ryan Louwrens are all likely to play against the Waratahs.

    Throw in the fact the Perth Spirit are NRC champions and Wessels said it was evidence that cutting the Force would be counter-productive.

    “Our club now is 12 years old, so if you take a kid who is 22/23 now and is starting to play regular Super Rugby, he was 10 years old when the club was formed. So we are getting the first wave of players who started to play because there is Super Rugby in Perth. We now have more locally produced players than ever in the team and a huge number of those starting on the weekend,” Wessels told the Daily Telegraph.

    “It would be really silly to stop that, just as we are starting to see the fruits of that labour come through the system and benefit Australian rugby more widely.

    “Dane is a perfect example of that, and his younger brother Ross has the potential to be a Wallaby too. These are local boys who would probably never play for the Wallabies if there was no Super Rugby team in Perth.”

    The Force’s record percentage of homegrown talent comes in the same week ARU COO Rob Clarke said “you don’t axe or walk away from a successful product”.

    Clarke was referencing the Brumbies’ future but ARU chairman Cameron Clyne addressed player production last year when he said: “The real test of success will be, if you fast-forward to the future, are kids from Victoria and WA coming through the pathway and playing for the Force and the Rebels? That will be the true test of whether expansion is a success.”

    The Rebels have six homegrown players in their squad.

    Finances and on-field results are big considerations for the ARU though, and after many poor seasons Wessels said his team understood they need to present a compelling case on the field — and quickly.

    “We understand that certainly our performances in the next few games, there is the potential that could have some influence over what’s decided on March 7 (at a SANZAAR board meeting),” Wessels said.

    “We get those three games to show that we actually deserve a place in Super Rugby. And as much as we want to win, winning is important, more important than that is we play a way that West Australians are proud of. Up until this point, the Force’s performances have not been consistently good enough.”

    The Force won two games last year. Despite the gloom, Wessels recruited well over summer and is set to name a strong run-on team to meet the Waratahs. Matt Hodgson and Ben McCalman are injured but he’ll have four Wallabies in Haylett-Petty, Adam Coleman, Luke Morahan and new recruit Tatafu Polota-Nau.

    Throw in Jono Lance, Billy Meakes, Robbie Coleman, Angus Cotterel, Rona and Peni, and the Force have plenty of firepower.

    “We have spoken a fair bit as a group about playing to win, as opposed to the past where we may have been a bit conservative and played not to lose,” Wessels said.

    “That doesn’t always mean throwing the ball around. Sometimes it means being brutal and playing a battle of attrition but we do want to play with a lot more openness and take more risk than we probably have in the past.”

    http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/su...08fce645f54051

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    From The Roar.. http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/02/21...-rugby-season/
    Now wouldn't it be delicious if our team with all this home grown talent, gets the points against the tahs?

    "Head coach Daryl Gibson has mixed experience with future stars in his first selection of the Super Rugby season, with ten Wallabies selected in the starting XV."

    Waratahs team for Round 1 clash vs Western Force
    1. Tom Robertson
    2. Tolu Latu
    3. Sekope Kepu
    4. Dean Mumm
    5. Will Skelton
    6. Jack Dempsey
    7. Michael Hooper (C)
    8. Michael Wells
    9. Nick Phipps
    10. Bernard Foley
    11. Rob Horne
    12. Irae Simone
    13. Israel Folau
    14. Reece Robinson
    15. Andrew Kellaway

    Reserves:
    16. Hugh Roach
    17. Paddy Ryan
    18. David Lolohea
    19. Ned Hanigan
    20. Brad Wilkin
    21. Matt Lucas
    22. Bryce Hegarty
    23. Taqele Naiyaravoro
    24. David Horwitz
    *One to be omitted*

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