Chewing the Hay with Nick Scrivener
Brumbies Media Unit

The Navy Canberra Vikings were unveiled as the ACT side to compete in the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) beginning in August. The ARC is a competition designed to bridge the divide between club and Super 14 rugby, similar to New Zealand’s Air New Zealand Cup and the Currie Cup in South Africa. Brumby Jack caught up with Navy Canberra Vikings head coach Nick Scrivener to find out the latest on this new competition.


Brumby Jack: How important is a competition like this for Australian rugby?
Nick Scrivener: The advent of the Western Force into the Super 14 has spread the player pool a lot thinner. While we can probably just cope, a few injuries to key players has really shown up our depth and that was shown at Queensland this year and the Force last year. Then when you take key individuals like Vickerman and Kanaar out of New South Wales they suffer a little as well. So I think it’s enormously important that we build the base between club football and Super 14 if we’re going to have four strong provinces.

BJ: How competitive do you expect the Navy Canberra Vikings to be through this competition?
NS: While we’re not able to finalise the squad yet, on paper we should be very competitive. I haven’t seen any other squads at this stage but the Perth Spirit side wouldn’t be missing too many Wallabies and they’ll play a number of trial matches before the competition and this is a massive focus for them. The Melbourne side will be made up of a lot of contracted players from elsewhere, so I would expect them to be strong. And obviously Queensland and NSW have very strong club rugby competitions that they’ll be drawing from as well as their contracted players. So while it’s too early to say whether one team will be weak or we’re going to be strong, what I do know is that we’re going to prepare very well, we’ve got a full-time Brumbies staff looking after the preparation of the team. We’re going to recruit well, we’ve got a great program in place, we believe in our program so all the indicators are there but it’s just a matter of knuckling down and making sure we’re right to go for that first game.

BJ: Which sides do you see as the greatest obstacle for the Navy Canberra Vikings?
NS: As I said, it’s difficult to say at this point in time. While the Melbourne team is an unknown, they’ll be getting some good players from elsewhere as well as local players. For them it will be a matter of seeing if they can gel because they’ll certainly have the players. In the second week we’re up against Perth in Perth, so they’re two formidable opponents in the first two weeks of the competition. But at the moment I’m not looking any further ahead than that.

BJ: While the Navy Canberra Vikings will be largely dependent on the make-up of the Wallabies squad, what sort of players can we expect to see in the side?
NS: We’re expecting to feature a number of Wallabies, established Brumbies-contracted players and some of the best young talent in Australian rugby. Out of the forwards we’re likely to have players like Salesi Ma’afu and Saia Faingaa as well as some youngsters like Jack Kennedy and Anthony Hegarty. Backs-wise we’d be looking at Patrick Phibbs, Christian Lealiifano, Francis Fainifo, Matt Carraro, Gene Fairbanks – so there are a number of quality contracted players who we’re expecting to have in the side. There are a few guys who we’ve bracketed as ‘floaters’ who may go to the World Cup but should they miss out, we’d gladly accept into the side.

BJ: Are we likely to see any of the new CA Brumbies recruits for next season running out for the Navy Canberra Vikings?
NS: Mitchell Chapman is getting his should done and the rehabilitation involved with that will take him right up to the pre-season for Super 14. Josh Holmes will stay in Sydney and play with one of the teams up there. The reasoning behind that is we think it’s better for him to start up there rather than come down here and share a position with Patrick Phibbs with the Vikings. Peter Betham will be down here which will be of enormous benefit for him, allowing him to get a feel for the Brumbies program before the Super 14 starts. Huia Edmonds won’t be back from South Africa at that stage.

BJ: This will be a full-time program with CA Brumbies staff, but how will it differ to the CA Brumbies Super 14 program?
NS: What we’re trying to do, in terms of the structure of our weeks and our trainings, is to change things up from what players are used to in the Brumbies program. When they would usually do reviews or trainings in the mornings, they might be doing it in the afternoon and we’ll be changing recovery and massage programs. So while there won’t be any major differences, we’ll just have a few little changes to make sure it’s a bit of a freshen up so it doesn’t become Groundhog Day for the guys. Plus the coaching staff want to try out a few things as well in preparation for next year.

BJ: Are you looking forward to taking on the head coaching position for the Navy Canberra Vikings?
NS: Very much so. The Canberra Vikings have a proud history. I’ve been involved with them back to the Kookaburras years so I’m very honoured to be head coach of the Vikings. As I said, it’s a fairly similar structure to the Brumbies and we operate very collaboratively so there’s not a real hierarchical system. We [Laurie Fisher, Matt O’Connor and I] will all be working together, it’ll just be a change of roles. Obviously head coach brings a little more responsibility but it’s something that I’m really looking forward to.