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Wayne Smith | June 13, 2009
Article from: The Australian
WARATAHS and Wallabies Test prop Matt Dunning will play for the Western Force next season.
Sources told The Weekend Australian the 43-Test veteran agreed yesterday to make the move to Perth, although the decision apparently swung in the balance until the last moment.
Dunning's great love outside rugby is golf, not cricket, but the 30-year-old frontrower at least will share one thing in common with Shane Warne -- getting stranded on 99, Warne's highest Test score.
That's how many matches Dunning has played for the Waratahs since making his state debut in 2000 against Queensland, and, like Warne, who holed out in the deep against New Zealand in Perth in 2001 when one run short of three figures, the thought of bringing up his century for NSW has loomed large in his thinking.
But ultimately, the realisation he could be caught in a traffic jam of leading props -- with the Waratahs having Al Baxter, Benn Robinson, Sekope Kepu and Dan Palmer also on their books -- caused him to resume his career next year on the other side of the country.
The timing of his decision could not be better for the Western Force which has just lost one of its front-row mainstays, with tighthead AJ Whalley signing this week with French club Dax. Whalley's departure could have left the Force relying too heavily on new Wallabies loosehead Pek Cowan and Hurricanes tighthead Tim Fairbrother.
But the prize signing of Dunning, who played through two World Cup campaigns as a loosehead, but switched to tighthead last season, and has played six of his seven Tests in that position, gives the Perth club real strength on both sides of the scrum.
Indeed, given that it will have an all-Wallabies backrow in Richard Brown, David Pocock and Matt Hodgson, Test veteran Nathan Sharpe in the second row, and two Australian representatives in Cowan and Dunning in the front row, the Force now boasts a pack that is at least equal of any in the country.
Its one vulnerable spot, however, is in arguably the most critical position of all, hooker, where the loss of Tai McIsaac to a coaching career in Japan leaves the Force precariously exposed.
Luke Holmes has served four years as McIsaac's understudy but it is unclear whether he will be offered a contract for a fifth season, while Ben Whitaker is barely out of the Force Academy -- even though he turned in some impressive performances off the bench towards the end of the Super 14.
It could be the recruitment of Dunning will help solve the problem for the Force, not because he intends making another front-row positional switch but because his presence in Perth might act as a lure to Eastwood and Waratahs teammate, hooker Damien Fitzpatrick.
Although he turned 20 only five days ago while on duty with the Australian side at the Junior World Cup in Japan, Fitzpatrick is regarded as one of the rising stars of Australian rugby. And with two Wallabies hookers in Tatafu Polota-Nau and Adam Freier blocking his path at the Waratahs, Fitzpatrick could well follow Dunning's lead and accept the Force's offer of a contract and its assurance of regular game time.
Meanwhile, the swine flu could rob the best young players from WA and the other southern states of the chance to follow in the footsteps of Fitzpatrick, whose selection in the Australian Schoolboys side three seasons ago put him on the path to a professional rugby career.
The Australian Rugby Football Schools Union has decided that because of the worsening swine flu situation in Victoria, the Combined (Southern) States team that will be selected from the Division II carnival in Geelong from June 27-July 2 will not be permitted to compete in the Division I championships in Sydney the following week.
Any players coming to NSW from the carnival in Victoria would need to be isolated for a period of seven days, making it difficult for them to compete in the Division I tournament, especially since visiting players tend to be billeted with local families.
The ARFSU executive has ruled that the national selectors consider players named in the Combined States team when naming the Australian Schoolboy teams to play Tonga later this year. But given the significantly weaker standard of competition in the Division II carnival, it is going to be difficult for the selectors to fairly judge Combined States players against their Division I counterparts from the major rugby provinces, NSW, Queensland and the ACT.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...1-2722,00.html
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