Force set to be axed

[volvo]

Hodgson issues passionate plea to keep Force alive

Matt Hodgson has issued a passionate plea to keep the Force in Super Rugby.

Force skipper Matt Hodgson has issued a passionate plea to keep the Western Force alive in the wake of the SANZAAR decision to cut an Australian Super Rugby team.

Speaking after his team's thrilling 46-41 win against the similarly vulnerable Kings, Hodgson spoke from the heart when asked for his thoughts on the decision to reduce the 18-team competition to 15.

"My life is here," Hodgson said.

"It (the Force) gave me my opportunity - I probably wouldn't have played Super Rugby if the Force didn't turn up.

"I'm lucky enough to have 130-odd caps here and that's allowed me to set up my life here.

"But more important than that, I go back to when I first came here and I was doing rugby clinics with young kids.

"Now, I'm playing alongside them - they don't have that opportunity if we're gone.

"We call rugby the global game and if we can't even get it throughout all of Australia, that's frustrating."

While the Force are yet to be confirmed as the Australian team that will not compete in 2018, Hodgson said the decision to cut any Australian team was a bad move for a code that is striving to grow at the grassroots level.

"Being a parent myself, I don't even know where to put my kid," he said.

"Do I put him into rugby or do I put him to stay here in Western Australia and play AFL?

"And the way it has been done is the most annoying thing.

"For kids to turn up here now is great but now they don't know whether the Western Force are going to be in their future."

Hodgson's coach Dave Wessels also condemned the SANZAAR decision to cut an Australian Super Rugby team, labelling the call a "sad day for Australian rugby".

"It's sad for Australian rugby that we have lost a team," he said.

"Whichever one of us goes now, I am never going to celebrate that decision, whether it's us or not, I just think it's a sad day."

On a positive note, the Force looked shot with 15 minutes to play against the Kings but stormed home to secure a stirring win.

"We are going to celebrate this win with our fans because that's the most important thing at the moment," Hodgson said.

"We are going to live each day like it is our last."

http://www.rugby.com.au/news/2017/04...o-sanzaar-news

[vulcan]

Matt sums it up it is their whole lives that are at risk here and to see something destroyed by some incompetent plonkers from the east who would not even know anything beyond the $$$$ i really feel for these players that have become West Aussies

[Leo86]

Hodgo... always a legend

[jargan83]

Saw a little bit of the press conference on Fox a sport when I got home.

Hodgo will always be a champion on and off of the field.

[wallabydarnd]

keep up the pressure team!!
email Bill Pulver- ----> Bill.Pulver@rugby.com.au
here's mine-after 2 pints of Theakstons
-Dear Mr Pulver

see Hodgo’s message on rugby.com
you see the passion , the love ,the support from the community, the possible community buyout
west coast timeslot
team on the rise
compare that to Melbourne

i could go on ,…but I know you are busy!

[beige]

Chucky faking happy face.

[terrycobner]

Theres mention of an announcement of a "process " tomorrow. Does this mean a bottom 2 play off?

[shasta]

Theres mention of an announcement of a "process " tomorrow. Does this mean a bottom 2 play off?

Supposed to be a presser in the morning. Wide World of Sport claiming between us and the Rabble.

http://wwos.nine.com.au/2017/04/09/10/16/sanzaar-to-reveal-super-changes

[GIGS20]

Matt sums it up it is their whole lives that are at risk here and to see something destroyed by some incompetent plonkers from the east who would not even know anything beyond the $$$$ i really feel for these players that have become West Aussies

Anybody who thinks this is about money and doesn't have the rabble at the top of the list to go isn't looking at the balance sheet. The rabble paid out and compensated would be cheaper than keeping them running. If the force go, it isn't money.

[jargan83]

15 team format agreed to in London 5 weeks ago according to SANZAR Chairperson Brent Impey

SANZAAR chairperson, Brent Impey said: “The decision to revert to a 15-team format reflects a consensus view of the mandated SANZAAR Executive Committee that met in London recently. It was not the determination of any one Union or stakeholder and follows a thorough assessment and review of the tournament over the last nine months.

http://m.sport24.co.za/sport24/Rugby...medium=twitter

The ARU agreed to this 5 WEEKS AGO!

Beyond angry

[Moono74]

Great day of rugby at Force Field. Cannot fault the fans, cannot fault the team. Fought back from adversity with an overwhealming weight on their shoulders. Fans at the ground had a sense of comradary like we were all being lined up for the firing squad, but despite that some great fellowship before the game over a beer.

The performance on field speaks for itself and after the game, with the SAANZAR announemnt due it was like we were watching an execution by lethal injection. Not a lethal blow delivered, still fighting for survival.

The passion by WA fans was the same as the passoin that got us into the comp to begin with. Mixing with the players on the field after the game the uncertanty bound us together. Hodgo speaking after the game...well his passion was on display for all to see.

Enough of this death by a thousand cuts ARU. You have the abilty to deliver a just outcome for all rugby fans in Australia. Do you have the interests of the fans at heart??

[General]

Content removed by request.
Darren

[jono]

All,
Content removed by request.
Darren

Can you ask when the board is resigning for us please?
They're not the right group of people to lead Australian rugby through this transistion. Pulver just lost his contract extension anyway. So he may as well go now and let someone fresh take the reigns to lead through the clusterfuck they're left with

[shasta]

Super Rugby: ARU’s axe to fall on Force or Rebels

Wayne Smith - The Australian

Western Force or the Melbourne Rebels. Now it threatens to turn ugly, after the Australian Rugby Union voted yesterday to cut one of its two expansion teams as part of the plan to reduce the Super Rugby competition next season to 15 teams.

Even as the Force were winning their second match of the season to move into joint second place in the Australian conference with the Waratahs by beating the Southern Kings in a thriller in Perth, 46-41, the ARU was deciding the Brumbies were safe and an evaluation process will begin to decide if it is the Force or the Rebels who go.

Force captain Matt Hodgson fought back tears yesterday when asked what sport his sport would play if the Perth team was axed.

“Being a parent you don’t know where to put your kid now,” said Hodgson. “Do I put him in rugby or do I stay in WA and put him into the AFL. It’s the way it’s been done that is most worrying. I’ve had four press conferences this week and I’ve been asked one rugby question. I think this is bad for Australian rugby.”

Two South African teams will also be culled in the SANZAAR cutback of the 18-team comp*etition — but which teams also remains unclear. Reports from the republic indicate each of the six South African teams will be asked to tender for places .

The Cheetahs and the Southern Kings remain the teams most likely to be trimmed but the tender process introduces an element of uncertainty, particularly if the ruling African National Congress persuades the South African government to throw its financial support behind the predominantly black Kings side.

The extension of the evaluation process represents a victory of sorts for the Force, given that the assumption was that the ARU would vote yesterday to exclude them. The extension at least buys them a week or so to convince the ARU board that they deserve a place in Super Rugby.

It’s a vindication, too, of the Brumbies. But it is an unmitigated disaster for the Rebels, who had been led to believe they were no longer in any danger. “I’ve got nothing to say,” said Melbourne owner Andrew Cox, who was contacted on a holiday in New Zealand. “I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Certainly it places Cox in an invidious position. As a private owner, he will be pressured to sell the Melbourne licence to Perth, which is sure to turn up the heat on him. There is speculation he could lose up to $2 million of his own money to keep the Rebels afloat this year and certainly if any sort of deal is offered by the Force, he would at least be tempted to take the money and run. Reports circulating in Perth last night suggested Cox might be prepared to accept an offer of $4.75m.

Both the Rebels and the Force have been backed by their respective state governments and it may well be that Bledisloe Cup Tests in Melbourne and Perth could be put in jeopardy by the ARU decisions, not to mention the Victorian government’s budget plans to fund a rugby centre of excellence at La Trobe University.


There is no question that the whole improbable imbroglio of cutting teams has cost Cox any chance of selling his main jersey sponsorship this season, not to mention stopping his club membership drive stone dead. At what point, one wonders, is he likely to seek legal redress?

It also has played havoc with the Rebels’ preparations to play the Brumbies at home at AAMI Park on Saturday. Cox and Rebels coach Tony McGahan had worked hard to reassure players that the franchise would not be cut. Now the uncertainty has been doubled, with the Rebels as much in danger as the Force.

SANZAAR boss Andy Marinos confirmed yesterday that Australia had attended the crisis meeting of southern hemisphere rugby nations in London last month clear in the knowledge that it would have to reduce its number of sides from five to four.

A vote of no confidence in the ARU board and chief executive Bill Pulver is now a possibility.

The Rugby Union Players Association yesterday issued a statement condemning the ARU for supporting a competition model that sacrificed an Australian franchise to preserve the two new sides added last season, Japan’s Sunwolves and Argentina’s Jaguares.

“Having signed Australian rugby up to a competition which reduced local content, diluted tribalism and disrespected fans with its lack of integrity, (the) ARU has now agreed to a new model which has protected the expansion teams in Argentina and Japan at the cost of one of our own,” RUPA boss Ross Xenos said

[maelkann]

'joint second place'? Alright then buddy....