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Wests-Subiaco and Rockingham will be two teams in search of redemption when they meet at Rosalie Park in Saturday's club rugby competition match of the round, sponsored by KWIK Transport and Crane Hire.
Wests are rebuilding under coach Wayne Gibson who has returned to Perth after a six year break in Queensland and Christchurch, and the club has a three year program to get back on top of the competition.
Gibson starts with a young back line, but a forward pack that has already impressed. Associates coach Steve McCulloch rated the Wests eight “as good as anything in the competition” following their round two match at Allen Park. But the year has not started well for Wests, losing heavily to Cottesloe 51-3 and Associates 41-7.
Wests are keen to head back to the glory days of 2003-06 when they won a record-equalling four consecutive premierships under Western Force skills coach Tom Fearn. The club fell on hard times in the following years, finishing sixth in 2007 and eighth last year but Gibson is determined to develop from within the club and build a winning combination.
“I want to change the culture and start developing young guys at the club,” Gibson said.
“If what we’re trying to do comes to fruition, we’ll hopefully climb our way back up.”
Gibson starts with a largely new team, retaining just three players from last season, including flanker and captain Chris Miles. Wests lost versatile flanker Kiti Fuluna and three other players to Palmyra over the summer but have gained provincial lock Jason Frost from New Zealand and have a raft of talented young locals waiting to prove themselves.
“The average age of my team is about 21 years of age,” Gibson said.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but if you don’t start setting goals you’re just wasting your time.
“First and foremost, we aim to be competitive. We’re being competitive in parts but now we have to do it for eighty minutes.
“It’s just simple handling errors and lapses of concentration letting the opposition score.”
Wests face their best opportunity this season on Saturday against Rockingham, and Gibson is optimistic of a good result if the forwards perform.
“It’s an old cliché, but you’ve got to win it up front,” Gibson said.
“We’ve got to do the hard yards and take control of the game before anything else can happen.
“From what I’ve heard the Rockingham forwards went pretty well against Wanneroo, and we’re just going to have to take it up front.”
The team could do with the little luck as well. In 2008 Wests may have set a record of another sort: the highest number of desperately close games lost in a competition year. In no fewer than nine games Wests finished within three points of the opposition’s score, and only once were they the team in front. They did manage to account for Nedlands along the way but it was scant reward for a season that could so easily have been so different.
However last year is history, and if Wests are doing it tough in 2009, Rockingham are facing dire disappointment after a promising year in 2008.
The southern club rejoined the senior competition in 2006 after a number of years in the wilderness and worked hard to climb the ladder, from ninth in 2006 to seventh in 2007. Last year the club rocketed up the ratings to sit in the top four for much of the season, missing out on a finals spot in the last game of the season.
With standout players such as Western Force prop Kieran Longbottom and talented loose forward Ryan Tyrrell, Rockingham were expected to remain a major contender in 2009. However the club has struck serious problems with depth and player numbers, slumping to two big defeats in its opening games, 38-6 to Associates at Allen Park and 55-13 to Wanneroo at Lark Hill.
The match against Wests-Subiaco is also Rockingham's best opportunity this season and for one of the clubs it may be the stepping stone to better things in the 2009 competition.
In other games on Saturday, unbeaten Wanneroo play University at McGillivray Oval, an improved Cottesloe face their toughest test yet against Perth Bayswater at Harvey Field, an unusually hesitant Nedlands host their bogey team, Associates, at Sir Charles Court Reserve and premiers Kalamunda take on a resurgent Palmyra at Hartfield.
http://rugbywa.com.au/news/article,55582.html
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