ARU tackling Deans on strong local comp will be playing own man

[travelling_gerry]

Wayne Smith, Rugby union editor | October 19, 2009

Article from: The Australian

IS Wallabies coach Robbie Deans to become the latest victim of that great Australian rugby tradition of censuring people who tell the truth?

Certainly Deans would have induced apoplexy in the halls of power of the Australian Rugby Union with his observation in Sunday newspapers that the lack of a strong domestic competition is hurting Australia's international results.

No offence intended, but it was hardly an original insight. Even his plea for the creation of a competition that might do for Australian rugby what the Sheffield Shield does for cricket had a familiar ring to it. The past two Wallabies coaches have been saying much the same thing for some time but where the current ARU administration never has any qualms about ridiculing the ideas of John Connolly or Eddie Jones, this time the proposal comes from their own man, Deans.

Presumably that will completely change the dynamic. True, the ARU could once again respond with its customary heavyhandedness by playing the man but hopefully Deans' stature and respected standing in the game will afford him some measure of protection. Confronted with a situation when it can't play the man, the ARU for once might be forced to play the ball.

The ARU never wearies of pointing out that Australian rugby is operating in the most fiercely competitive sporting marketplace in the world. True enough. But that begs the question: If the marketplace is so fiercely competitive, why isn't Australian rugby competing fiercely?
On a weekend when just about every
Springbok of note was involved in one of the two epic Currie Cup semi-final thrillers, the same weekend 27-year-old Bay of Plenty five-eighth Mike Delaney was forcing his way into his first All Blacks touring side on the strength of being the leading points scorer in the NPC -- aka the Air New Zealand Cup -- Australia's Wallabies were enjoying a leisurely weekend at home.

Admittedly, it was the last weekend they will have off until December because they are just a week away from embarking on their annual tour but the same applies to the All Blacks and Boks and yet there were all their stars giving their all in the respective NZ and SA domestic competitions.

Except for those Wallabies involved in the September 27 Shute Shield final, the most recent game any of them would have played was the September 19 Bledisloe Cup Test in Wellington. Unless of course you're taking about Quade Cooper or Peter Hynes, who were on the reserves bench in the NZ capital but weren't used.

And how their fellow reserves Dean Mumm and Luke Burgess must be thankful Sydney Uni made the club grand final and they were given a run off the bench, otherwise they wouldn't have played any rugby whatever since the end of August.

Digby Ioane too is crying out for match practice, not having played for five months because of injury. Heaven knows the Wallabies desperately need his firepower out wide but can Deans seriously select him for the October 31 Tokyo Test against the NPC-hardened All Blacks on the strength of his run in a charity sevens game at Ballymore on Saturday?

Does the ARU have a plan for developing the depth of Australian rugby, other than the one that basically involves crossing fingers and sending up prayers that Deans and his Wallabies win their next Test match?

Two seasons, two wasted seasons, have now gone by since the ARU killed off the Australian Rugby Championship. Its rationale then was that the game couldn't afford a third-tier competition yet the mounting evidence is that the game can't afford not to have it -- or at least something like it.

Admittedly, the expanded Super rugby format to be introduced in 2011 will take up some of the slack but that still leaves a gaping hole next season.

Each year the gap between Australia and its Tri-Nations partners/rivals grows wider. While the young Wallabies had their feet up watching the Caulfield Cup on Saturday, current and next generation Springboks were playing in front of 47,982 spectators at Newlands where the Blue Bulls scraped home 21-19 against Western Province. Meanwhile, on the Indian Ocean side of the republic, the Cheetahs were springing the upset of the Currie Cup season by toppling the Sharks at Durban's Absa Stadium, the winning margin again a nail-biting two points.

It's not just the Currie Cup final between the Bulls and Cheetahs that will be shown live on South African television but also the under-19 and -21 finals. And to think that the Shute Shield final wasn't even televised in Brisbane, Australia's second-biggest rugby market!

Australian rugby is being left behind, internationally and domestically, as the ARU's own market research attests. So where are all its dazzling initiatives to reverse this trend?

Wednesday should deliver some good news but that will depend on how convincingly the ARU sells Melbourne's bid for the Super 15 expansion licence to SANZAR. Notice, at this point, how well I restrained myself from making a snide, ironic comment about Melbourne's fate being in the hands of the ARU. OK, maybe I didn't.

However Deans' call for a Sheffield Shield-style domestic rugby competition is received at ARU headquarters, the undeniable fact is that he has only spoken the truth. As inconvenient as that truth might be, it cannot be ignored.

If the ARU refuses to act on it, the states must. After all, it's their problem too.
* The funeral service for former ARU chairman Leo Williams will begin at Brisbane's St Stephen's Cathedral at 2pm on Wednesday, not 2.30pm as previously published.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html

[pieter blackie]

Very true

[Burgs]

Can't fault it from where I'm sitting.

[Sheikh]

My only quibble with what Wayne said was: "...the expanded Super rugby format to be introduced in 2011 will take up some of the slack..."

No, the lengthened Super 14 competition will reduce the down-time of players slightly (a couple of weeks?) but it requires more Super 14 standard players, 90% of whom at the moment come from the same limited pool of Shute Shield players.

The main requirement of this Sheffield Shield/ARC competition is to find more quality players overlooked by the Super 14 academies and give them game time at a higher level.

[beige]

Depends what "slack" he's talking about. In the past a national comp also had the added responsibility of keeping interest in the game (outside of the Wallabies) going after the Super 14 finished. With Super Rugby expanding, the national comp can now concentrate on developing players and creating pathways.

[Thequeerone]

Isn't this part of the problem we have a reasonable Shute Shield comp which is being managed by certain clubs at no cost to the ARU and what we need is a national competition sanctioned by the same clubs who will lose the Shute Shield competition and thus their power and the transition will cost the ARU money.

[TOCC]

well he is right to say the S15 will take up some of the slack, by having a longer season there will be the opportunity to blood more players and give more players experience at a higher level.

Obviously its not enough, but it does take up some of the slack.

[shasta]

I'm not saying that an ANZ Cup or Sheffield Shield style competition is a bad idea. But I have concerns about the viability. The ANZ Cup is itself struggling to pay it's way (See http://www.scrum.com/newzealandclub/...ry/103617.html)

Rugby in NZ has a well established sub-structure, even if it's riddled with inter-union politicking. But it is still having major problems adjusting to the professional era.

The article points out the conflict between those who want to preserve the prominent place of provincial Rugby in NZ and those who want to enhance the S15. The issues are probably as much about preserving power bases as they are about streamlining provincial Rugby.

None of this is new.The issues have been hashed out around here plenty. We don't have such a strong national structure to begin with and Rugby is now maybe equal 3rd or possibly outright 4th in the football pecking order in Australia. Like it or not, the only way a second tier might be viable is for those who scuttled the ARC in the first place to have input on how to re-invent it.

[GIGS20]

Isn't this part of the problem we have a reasonable Shute Shield comp which is being managed by certain clubs at no cost to the ARU

That's the first time I've heard anybody say the Shute Shield doesn't cost the ARU. Isn't the player development of the NSW and Qld club competitions the reason used to justify the extra funding that those two unions recieve? Surely you'd have to say that is a cost?

I'm not saying that an ANZ Cup or Sheffield Shield style competition is a bad idea. But I have concerns about the viability. The ANZ Cup is itself struggling to pay it's way (See http://www.scrum.com/newzealandclub/...ry/103617.html)

Is that not more because of the three tiers of national rugby competition rather than the ANZ Cup per se?

I'm not suggesting that a national competition will EVER actually turn a profit in and of itself.....IMHO it doesn't need to, the profit comes from other sources. Increased interest in the game, wider advertising appeal, the improvement in the quality of our product, improved performance in International Competition. Each of the intangibles will net profit for the code, it would justify the cost as long as you don't have an excessively microeconomic view of the finances.

I guess that's one of the reasons why such an initiative has to be led by the ARU. They are the only group who would have an interest in the type of wide-ranging hidden advantages that a third-tier competition would bring. They need to fund something like this with part of their development budget, part of their advertising budget creative applications like that.