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Our promising team IS destroyed Jules, and promising coaching crew gone as well
Unless you want to enjoy watching the Rebels play Tahrds etc, we only have IPRC with a WA professional team involved. So that's what I will support, Super Rugby can get fucked, although I will miss a weekly giggle at how inept are the Tahrds
I'm thinking it will evolve into a better comp than we are whinging about 1 hour after first presser....maybe there ARE a lot of expat poms in Perth![]()
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor
I think Twiggy's statement is also easing the way for Wessels to announce he's sign with the Rebels, and putting a positive spin on it.
I have two main concerns with the IPRC;
The first is that one of the stated aims is to attract current Wallabies standard players currently overseas back to play in Australia with the aim of improving the Wallabies standings. These returning players will need somewhere to play February to August, which is widely accepted as being with one of the East Coast base SR teams. With the influx of overseas based players and, now the certain distribution of our players to the East Coast teams, the East Coast teams must surely improve, even to the extent that they might get some wins on the board and even manage to record a win against a Kiwi team. With the stronger East Coast SR teams potentially improving the SR competition the SARU teams might not want to look North but stay in an improved SR competition and SR will not die come the end of this current broadcasting contract. If the Wallabies standings are improved and the East Coast SR teams do improve, it will be high fives and back slapping all around at ARU headquarters, with them stating “the axing of the Force had to happen, it was the best thing that ever happened to Australian rugby and we were right to get rid of them all along”
My Second concern is that a Western Force playing in the IPRC with all the players contracted to the IPRC will not be the Western Force that we know/knew. It will effectively be a team based in Perth with a fly-in-fly-out work force. The players will be based with their SR teams on the East Coast for the majority of the year and only travel to Perth for 3 months to top up their wages. The players will not form part of the rugby and larger community in Perth and in all probability their families will be based on the East coast and the players will only be here for the length of the IPRC season. The players will not be showing up at junior games and carnivals as they currently do, as they will be playing for their SR teams in the East when the rugby season is underway here in the West. The Western Force in the IPRC will not be a community club but will just be a means for players to top up their SR wages. One of the strong points of the Western Force over the last few years has been their involvement in the community, offering an aspirational goal for our juniors and helping to improve and grow the game at a junior level, I just can’t see this happening with the IPRC Western Force.
Great post Wickerman. I share your concerns.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
My thoughts exactly. Where will be that loyalty that we feel for our Western Force or their loyalty to the Sea of Blue? The chances of having someone play for the club for two seasons will be remote the chances of someone being with the club for 12 years zilch!
I have a feeling that's what the FUARU want. They don't want us to have anything to strong because they know that if they end up in the crap we (Twiggy) will take them over.
May the FORCE be with you!
If it stays like you said Wickerman we are screwed either way. I can only hope with the amount of rugby men on board they realise what is needed is that community engagement.
My ideal would be keeping the team together even during Super Rugby season by organising high profile tours. Have Toulon coming over on a big pre-season tour, playing Nedlands mid week with Wests the week after Lions style with the big hit outs on the weekend against the Force. It is rugby not how we know it but more how it used to be and I don't think that is a bad thing at all. Keeps it fresh.
I agree. I'll add another concern to yours, Wickerman:
We spend 300k bringing Liam Gill over. Cheika then decides he wants him for the RC. Any player must be released during the official window- where does that leave us?
If, and only if, WA locals make up half the IPRC AND this was a short term option to carry on until a major change in 2020 would I be happy with the current format.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Sometimes you get fired or retrenched unfairly. You are out on the street without a job. Not many other job options out there. Then somebody offers you a job, which does not look quite as good as your old job in the short term , but you have to grab it and make it work for you in the long term.
Wickerman's and the concerns of others are obviously valid from our current perspective, no one here wants the mongrel ERU to benefit from their betrayal of WA rugby, however, that deed is done and we now need to get positioned as well as we can for when Super Rugby dies in 2020 - that's our best chance of reforming the Force into something like is was in 2017. This seems like our best chance to me.
I know Twiggy is working cooperatively with the ERU at the moment but I assume he and Rgby WA have their eyes on the Force reforming to our previous status in the future, not just staying in a tier below Super Rugby, shit I hope so anyway.
The way I view it is the Force are currently dead there is no way for them to come back into Super rugby as we know it.
Yes the Force if the ARU release the IP in the IPRC will be a bit mercenary looking (however I have hopes that a lot of the young players would come back with that team given the chance). And we will have no super level rugby for months ( better then none) to watch and support which sucks however I for one will be going to the local club matches.
IMHO Twiggy is playing a long game. Super rugby is going through its death throes especially in Australia. Twiggy tried administering palliative care in the form of $50M but the patient refused treatment. So it's time to plan for what happens next. From an outside perspective the ARU has no plans for what happens post 2020. South Africa seem to be planning for all teams in the Europe and NZ seem to believe that because they are top of the woz they are sorted. If the Force are a going concern in the new comp in 2020 and Super Rugby goes belly up for the ARU then what are they going to do? Twiggy is getting into bed with them now so that in the end he gets OUR way and the Force are setup long term and master of OUR own destiny to compete at the highest level competition possible.
I don’t believe that axing a team is the magic panacea that the ARU believe it to be from a player depth point of view. Remember back to the start of this season, look at the team sheets. The Tahs and Reds should have romped it in, they have money, great stadiums, player depth etc… they failed miserably WHY? I for one hope the Force players do go to the Rebels as the Tahs and Reds will continue to dither and get beaten by everyone else. Those two areas are the puppet masters of the ARU and the willing participants in our demise. Super Rugby will continue to dwindle in the heart lands. When that happens the ARU will be left with no other option.
Bringing back players from overseas is the best option to get the ARU on side to rubber stamp eligibility and release the Force IP. It will also help them in being able to select the best possible players from Australia to represent our nation. It will also enable the rest of the country to get behind the competition or at least be interested as some of their players are kicking around.
Two years seems like a long time especially when you are emotionally invested in something as everyone is on this site. But it really isn’t that long, yes it will be hard slog but I look forward to making it work personally and supporting the IPRC as hard as I can. Our juniors deserve something better to aspire to than heading across to Sydney/Brisbane trying to break into a professional team. For a 16-18 year old now playing two years will wiz by and then hopefully we can be proud to say that our team is made up of more than 15 local players.
Bring on the IPRC.
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
THE Australian Rugby Union has established a working group to assist in the development of the Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship.
The group will be headed by former Wallabies flanker and current ARU vice-chairman Brett Robinson and includes key high performance, commercial and legal representatives from the ARU management team.
ARU chairman Cameron Clyne said: “The ARU is making a serious commitment to work in collaboration with Andrew Forrest’s team to develop the IPRC concept and will assign a small management team led by Brett Robinson to assist with the core elements of establishing the competition.
“There is a significant amount of detail to work through and it is critical for ARU to be able to fully understand how it can support the IPRC and ensure it plays a constructive role in building the game across the country and producing successful Wallabies and national teams.
“We understand the urgency on getting alignment on the key issues of calendar alignment, player contracting and player eligibility, which is why we have committed ARU resources to work through these elements as soon as possible.
“Ultimately the most important outcome is to find a solution that creates a stronger Australian rugby.
“We will also consult with others outside the management team, including coaches, to ensure that we are working towards the best outcomes from a high performance perspective.”
Billionaire mining magnate Forrest announced plans this week to establish a six-team “tier two” competition, kicking off in next year.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/a...7ad0547b961c1d
Don't forget that once these players find somewhere to play in SR they will have pushed players that are currently super rugby standard out of the squad. Where do they then go? well they cant go to the 5th Australian super team, they will look OS and once again we have a drain on playing stocks and depth. The IPRC will bring some of these players back to achieve wallabies qualification (assuming the ARU play ball) the wallabies will have more depth but i can not see how super rugby will benefit.
This however I feel is a good thing long term as super rugby will die and hopefully the IPRC should fill the void
THE Australian Rugby Union has established a working group to assist in the development of the Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship.
The group will be headed by former Wallabies flanker and current ARU vice-chairman Brett Robinson and includes key high performance, commercial and legal representatives from the ARU management team.
Whole article here
NOT liking the sound of the ARU's involvement. Knowing what we know about how that cabal works I don't trust them for a second. They probably only want to be inside the tent so they know exactly where to stick the knife in again.
Nope, sorry, this is still looking to me like a bloody good win for the ARU. Bet there will be lots of funny handshakes and much quaffing of fine French champagne in the eastern suburbs of Sydney this weekend. And that really makes me pissed off!
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby