The Vultures Start Circling

[Garry Owen]

As sad as it is for the rebels and all their families this could be the decision that finally turns the Force into a powerhouse team and I hope twiggy is involved with “convincing” the best players to come here.

It won’t be good enough for us to just get the likes of Jooste, Louwrens, Strachan etc back, we need to be getting Leota, Talakai/Tupou, daugunu, Lancaster

[Burgs]

There has been quoted there is 17 players signed to Rugby Australia for 2025, that RA have said they will honour their contracts if the player chooses.
Will continue digging, but these are 16 that I have found said to be contracted-

Wallaby Eligible-

Ethan Dobbins Hooker
Jordan Uelese Hooker
Pone Fa'amausili Prop
Matt Gibbon Prop
Taniela Tupou Prop
Josh Canham Lock
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto Lock
Rob Leota Back row
David Feliuai Centre
Lachie Anderson Winger
Filipo Daugunu Winger
Darby Lancaster Winger
Joe Pincus Winger

International-

Angelo Smith Lock (Has played Fiji U20)
Vaiolini Ekuasi Back row (May gain residency, so far Uncapped)
Matt Proctor Centre (1 Test All Black 2019)

Going on a needs basis, of the currently Wallaby eligible this is the pecking order I think the Force should be "drafting" for-

Filipo Daugunu Winger
Darby Lancaster Winger
Rob Leota Back row
Pone Fa'amausili Prop
Josh Canham Lock
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto Lock
Matt Gibbon Prop
Lachie Anderson Winger
Joe Pincus Winger
David Feliuai Centre
Taniela Tupou Prop
Ethan Dobbins Hooker
Jordan Uelese Hooker

If you could get those first six it would make a massive difference to our Squad.
I reckon Tupou will sign for a season with the Tahs to ensure playing the Lions and then move overseas, I don't believe he suits our Squad or style of higher tempo play.
I'll try and find number 16 tomorrow, it may be Luke Callan as can't find his signing.

[GIGS20]

I'd like to see talakai come here to reduce our reliance on medrano and give us a few years to build our young props into players who are prepared for big minutes.

Pone and gibbon for the same reason.

Their speedy backs won't go astray.

Daugunu would push kuenzle to the bench at 13, wonder if he'd go back to the wing?

[Garry Owen]

I'd like to see talakai come here to reduce our reliance on medrano and give us a few years to build our young props into players who are prepared for big minutes.

Pone and gibbon for the same reason.

Their speedy backs won't go astray.

Daugunu would push kuenzle to the bench at 13, wonder if he'd go back to the wing?

I believe we have Guy Porter coming next year already who could be our starting 13.

Depends what happens with Beale as well as we may need Harry Potter to play wing

I think Leota would be a massive signing and then 2 of the props. If Rodda leaves then we need LSL. For some reason I have a feeling medrano will leave, can’t remember if I read something.

With Swain, Robertson, BPA, Dolly already coming definitely looking like we are building a strong squad

[todd4]

According to this article on The Roar Tupou to the Tahs, LSL & Daugunu to the Reds, we may get a sniff with Rob Leota but he may also go to the Tahs. This is just someones opinion though.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/05/3...ent_id=9729879

I hope we are very selective in our recruitment, like Gary Owens said I wouldnt be happy filling our roster with players like Jooste, Louwrens, Strachan etc.

[Tazzmania]

According to this article on The Roar Tupou to the Tahs, LSL & Daugunu to the Reds, we may get a sniff with Rob Leota but he may also go to the Tahs. This is just someones opinion though.

It is Christie Doran, who appears to be the source for most RA "leaks", and regretably he is on the money more often than not.

It is not surprising the destinations mentioned as most seem to be heading home or their home away from home.

We sadly have little connection to the players mentoned in the article and would understandably not be their first option.

That said others within those franchises that have not yet been signed may become avaialable to make space for the ex-Rebels going to their franchise, and I suspect thats where our pick ups will come from.

[Burgs]

like Gary Owens said I wouldnt be happy filling our roster with players like Jooste, Louwrens, Strachan etc.

That said, what I have seen of Jooste these last few matches he seems to have turned a corner, particularly in defence!
We are covered for #9's and Louwerens is probably already moving into his end of career, so would suggest he will be looking overseas.
I always thought Strachan was under appreciated here (WA), would often think "How about Strachan?" during post match wrap ups on the telecast etc.
In a world where Beale does leave then he would be getting picked in the 23 I think.

[Burgs]

It is Christie Doran, who appears to be the source for most RA "leaks", and regretably he is on the money more often than not.

It is not surprising the destinations mentioned as most seem to be heading home or their home away from home.

We sadly have little connection to the players mentoned in the article and would understandably not be their first option.

That said others within those franchises that have not yet been signed may become avaialable to make space for the ex-Rebels going to their franchise, and I suspect thats where our pick ups will come from.

It appears we do have in our favour now a core group of "connected" players through previous U20 engagement and earlier development pathways that want to play together.
Would explore through the Force XV leadership where those connections may lay with the potentially available recruits.
I think we have showed enough this year, when combined with the recognised lifestyle, Coaching and facilities, to be able to present Perth as a positive option that may not have been the case for the last decade.

[Sheikh]

I always thought Strachan was under appreciated here (WA), would often think "How about Strachan?" during post match wrap ups on the telecast etc.
In a world where Beale does leave then he would be getting picked in the 23 I think.

Strachan was appreciated by the coaching staff here, but his history of concussion meant that it was considered too risky giving him a contract. I don't know enough about head trauma to know whether that risk is diminished if he's played a year in Melbourne without getting a concussion.

[Burgs]

Strachan was appreciated by the coaching staff here, but his history of concussion meant that it was considered too risky giving him a contract. I don't know enough about head trauma to know whether that risk is diminished if he's played a year in Melbourne without getting a concussion.

Will resist making any narky comment re being in Melbourne and brains...

[Burgs]

Redistribution of extinct Rebels’ roster will be key to Rugby Australia’s revival

Story by Angus Fontaine, The Guardian

In 1972, 16 members of a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the freezing Andes Mountains and were forced to eat their teammates to survive 72 days. One of them, 19-year-old medical student Robert Canessa, later said that he owed his life to a successful “metamorphosis from being a rugby player to becoming a survivor”.

For Melbourne Rebels players, the journey to safety isn’t life and death. Yet their survival, and the wider prosperity of Australian rugby, depends on their being swallowed up by Australia’s other Super Rugby teams for the greater good.

Having lost their quarter-final on Saturday – a 47-20 defeat to the ladder-leading Hurricanes – the Rebels’ 14-year life as a franchise is now officially over. Players from the debt-laden club, which went into administration in January owing almost $23m, are now working with Rugby Australia to find new clubs for the 2025 season.
It’s a reality that left Rebels players in tears after Saturday’s game. Their season had begun – a small miracle in itself given the debuts announced the month prior – with a 30-3 loss to the ACT Brumbies, a demolition that could have killed them there and then. Instead, having been branded “soft” by former Wallaby Tim Horan, they ran out the next week and launched one of the greatest comebacks in the team’s history, coming from 34-19 down against the Western Force to win 48-34.

It was the first of five rousing victories in 2024 that showed the team’s talent and character. Even on Saturday, with the club facing oblivion and life on the open market looming, they did what no other Super Rugby franchise has done this season and kept the Hurricanes scoreless for the first 25 minutes. “We were under no illusion that the challenge was going to come from the Rebels this week,” said Hurricanes captain Jordie Barrett. “They’re an emotional side, they had a lot to play for.”

They still do. Like Canessa, who focused on the “generosity” of his fallen teammates, the Rebels must now set their jaw and focus on the bigger picture: strengthening the misfiring NSW Waratahs and Western Force, and forging the successful combinations new coach Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies desperately need at international level this year.

The wooden-spoon Waratahs can be the biggest winners from the Melbourne exodus. The luckless Tahs lost 10 contracted front-rowers to injury this season. Slotting the Rebels’ Wallabies powerhouse Taniela Tupou into the sky blue jersey is a must. Melbourne captain Rob Leota should follow. With firebrand flanker Ned Hanigan heading offshore, he’d turbocharge a Tahs’ backrow already boasting Langi Gleeson and Charlie Gamble.

The Waratahs have two promising young fly-halves on their books in Tane Edmed, 23, and Jack Bowen, 20. They should chase a third in Rebels’ No 10 Carter Gordon, also 23. Gordon is a Queenslander who drove south for his shot and got it, his electric 2023 form winning him a shock Wallabies jersey. Gordon lost his spot to Force fly-half Ben Donaldson at the World Cup but at NSW he could reclaim his spark and come of age.

If so, Gordon will have Australian rugby’s shiny new toy, Joseph Sua’ali’i, outside him. With 26-cap fullback Andrew Kellaway already confirmed as coming home to NSW, the Tahs have the makings of a backline that could, with centres Lalakai Foketi and Izaia Perese, produce an alchemy at state level that may replicate on the Test scene.

The Force are still building under coach Simon Cron, the nephew of new Wallabies scrum coach Mike Cron, and could go to the next level with Rebels reinforcement. Up front, Rebel Jordan Uelese is growing fast as a hooker and, with Dave Porecki the No 1 rake at the Waratahs, should head west for development under the Crons. Rebels locks Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Josh Canham can add handy starch to the Force flanks.

The Westerners already have the Wallabies 9 and 10 in Nic White and Ben Donaldson and should try and lure electrifying seven-Test Rebel Filipo Daugunu and former-Sevens flier Darby Lancaster to bolster their firepower in the outside backs. Both would learn plenty outside a reborn Wallabies veteran Kurtley Beale at fullback should he re-sign.

However RA shuffles its cards at state level, they cannot afford a bust hand like the Wallabies’ winless home programme and disastrous World Cup in 2023. It’s sad the Rebels are no more and that a barely-solvent RA is forced to distil talent rather than expand its horizons as the NRL and AFL launch expansion franchises left and right. But with flagging crowds, falling TV ratings, stagnant participation rates and the Wallabies brand at an all-time low, rugby in Australia is facing a life and death battle.

A smart redistribution of the Rebels roster is a key part of the rearguard action. RA must fill the coffers and find the fans before hosting the 2025 British & Irish Lions and 2027 World Cup. The plane hasn’t crashed yet but casualties are mounting and the chilly winds won’t relent. It’s time to come together and survive, whatever it takes.

[GIGS20]

Has that twat done any research on the Force playing stocks at all?

Why the actual fuck would we want Jordan Uelese when we have BPA on the way, Dolly to back him up and still presumably negotiating with Feleti and Tom Horton.

In BPA and Horton, we've got the goods to wave goodbye to Uelese regardless how good Nic Dolly is or isn't.

And lure LSL to the force? Why to sit on the bench watching Rodda and Swain get all the minutes while collecting a fat chunk of our salary cap?

Yeah I get that Canham would likely be value for money and could develop well behind the two big locks we have already in the system.

Daugunu and Lancaster are good shouts, and we undoubtedly need them, but to ignore the fact that we are desperate for starting quality props, all while trying to push an overpriced lock that we don't need. It's just shit Sydney fish n chip wrapper journalism!

[chiraag]

Wow, that is a shocker of an article. Definitely no idea on where our shortcomings actually are, and also talks about Gordon working with Perese if he goes to the Tahs, but Perese is confirmed as leaving (along with a few other centres at the Tahs).

I'm hoping we start seeing some signing announcements soon (whether it be re-signing of our key players, new players from the rebels or elsewhere)

[Burgs]

Has that twat done any research on the Force playing stocks at all?

Yep, he watched "Alive"...

[Burgs]

I'm hoping we start seeing some signing announcements soon (whether it be re-signing of our key players, new players from the rebels or elsewhere)

Speaking of which, is All Rugby wigging out on others?
Is only listing the more recent few names and then turning into unlinked initials for me.
Appreciate if someone can check please?
https://all.rugby/transfers/logs/