Should the Force Play a Match Versus The Rebels?

[SPaRTAN]

What an absolutely rubbish article on The Roa today:

Five things we learned from Brumbies vs Rebels
By Tom Atkinson Roar Rookie, 10 Mar 2018

2) Despite the Force axing, four teams is the right amount for Australian Rugby
Before anyone kicks off here, I’m not praising the decision to cut the Force as a good call.

Australia can only handle four teams with our current depth, and the move back to four teams has been completely necessary.

Some competitiveness is a nice change from previous years. The Rebels are fielding a decent team now and could well top the conference.

Any other professional teams and the field is thinned too far.

I hope the Rebels continue their good form on the field because it’s good for rugby in Australia.

While the other teams have underperformed so far, they too have benefitted from the sprinkling of Force players to join their ranks. It’s much more sustainable for professional rugby in this country.

So the Rebels have a win against a poorly performing Brumbies and suddenly this justifies the axing of the Force as "being completely necessary".

Gob-smackingly stupid!

What a complete bunch of fucking morons. Let them believe whatever bullshit they like whilst we watch rugby's profile disintegrate to that of Rugby League and become an east coast centric sport. Let them. Their loss.

[brokendown gunfighter]

maybe the editor made him write that dribble?

[andrewM]

fuckwittery knows no bounds!

Mark Ella was not much better in the weekend Australian,criticising the new Force for having imported players!

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...1976196c60de0f

The Western Force and Andrew Forrest have to be taken seriously now following this week’s *announcement of a playing schedule which includes a series of matches starting in May.

Furthermore, it’s just an entree to the professional competition Forrest intends taking into Asia next year.

Obviously there remains considerable unease between the *rebranded organisation and Rugby Australia over last year’s decision to remove the Force as Super Rugby was cut back to 15 teams, but RA CEO Raelene Castle has promised to listen and engage with the west, which must be a step towards healing the wounds.

Interestingly, my former teammate and Australian captain Michael Lynagh, Forrest’s adviser and chief conduit to both World Rugby and Rugby Australia, said starting a new competition in Asia in the year of a Rugby World Cup would have its challenges but also its advantages.

“With the World Cup being staged in Japan, the profile of rugby in Asia will be on a high,” Lynagh told The Australian this week.

The relaunched Force will kick off their World Series Rugby *schedule this year on May 4, playing a Fiji side that recently went down narrowly to Queensland in the Reds’ final pre-Super Rugby trials.

Then will follow a May 13 encounter with Tonga, who don’t sound too Asian to me, before a scheduled clash in Perth with the Melbourne Rebels on June 9, the same day the Wallabies play their first Test of 2018 on the other side of the country, against Ireland in Brisbane.

“We feel it’s a whole new day in the sporting history of Australia,” Forrest said. “What happened last year has just made us stronger, emboldened us and allowed us to put together a really fantastic team, a fantastic schedule and one we’re calling World Series Rugby.

“We have serious ambitions for this great team and for rugby in our region and intend to see these ambitions through, starting today.”

The Force have put together a 26-man squad featuring the likes of former Springbok Jaque Fourie, one-Test Wallaby winger Rod *Davies, Brumbies second-rower Leon Power and well travelled flanker Chris Alcock, as well as Force representatives Ian Prior, Peter Grant and Marcel Brache.

RA is rightly trying to keep the Force and Forrest in the tent, rather than viewing WSR as a rebel competition. The governing body should embrace what Forrest can deliver.

Last year I said there was room for only four Super Rugby teams in Australia because the share of quality players did not spread to five and I still have this view.

The Force were meant to produce a quality generation of Australian players from Western Australia.

The fact there still appears a need to strengthen their ranks with imported players is to me counter-productive.

But what caught my eye was the proposal put forward for WSR to loosen some up some the rules currently weighing our sport down. Their preparedness to be a guinea pig, which could have far-reaching effects on the game, is to be applauded.

The two biggest roadblocks to ball-in-play, scrums and lineouts, could both be turbocharged.

Referees could give immediate penalties rather than order a scrum reset, while lineouts will be put on the clock and if the team that is supposed to be throwing in dithers, it will be play-on if they don’t form up in time.

There could, as well, be greater incentive to launch attacking raids from inside a team’s territory, as any tries that originate from inside the 22 could earn 10 points, not the customary five.

Likewise, there could be a disincentive for short-range field goals. Those taken from point blank range will earn just one point but there will be a three-point line drawn for longer attempts.

This may be the last opportunity RA will have to promote our great game of rugby to Western Australia so I can understand Castle’s position and her tentative support of Forrest, because he is also taking a huge risk.

But he is also one of Australia’s pre-eminent businessman and he doesn’t waste his money on half-baked scenarios, so it will be interesting to watch it grow and to see what impact it will have on Super Rugby and interestingly on Rugby Australia.

[chibi]

"Tonga, who don’t sound too Asian to me,"

Fuck Mark Ella. That sort of supercilious drivel is more apropos for a Pommy establishment-shilling hack like Stephen Jones or Nick Cain; not an Australian writer.

[Kalahard]

Yeah but it sounds Pacific as in Indo-Pacific.

[sloppy]

If you go on last year results the depth of aussy rugby doesnt deserve one team in super rugby.

[GIGS20]

You can't go on this year's results until about round 12 which is the first time the tahs meet anybody of note outside the Aussie conference. They'll be using a loaded draw to justify the axing of the force until the test window and then blaming unforeseen factors for the fact that no Aussie team will win a single game in the last 6 rounds

[James]

My favourite bit is the imports whinge- what about the handful of WA players who prop up the eastern states teams?

Hardwick, the HPs, Jermaine Ainsley, Godwin, Peni, Rona, last year the Brumbies pinching Nick Jooste.

Jeez- most of the Waratahs are either imports from league, Fiji, WA, Queensland, the Brumbies or NZ.

[chibi]

Somebody needs to put together the full WA-developed State XV and send it in to that ignoramus.

[UAUdiver1959]

The more successful the Frebels are, especially against the Tah's, Reds and Brumbies the more these remaining 'heartland' clubs will start to hold resentment against the ARU for allowing the 'merging of the Rebels and Force' into a powerhouse club that they have limited or no control over.

Need NSW and QLD to get pissed, really pissed and with their votes, push for change at RA.

Come on ASIC......
Have not seen the last MRRU (Cox) tax return yet either.....surely that is overdue?

[AndyS]

Really? And in that scenario, what change would they be pushing for exactly? SR, RA and the structure of Australian rugby is a great big bag of turds, but don't imagine there aren't a whole lot of people who wouldn't cheerfully double down on it given half a chance. Many of them got the game where it is, have a colossal blind spot as to why it isn't working, and would honestly believe more might be the way to go. They may be enemy to your enemy, but are even further from your friend.