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Emirates Western Force players will no longer be required to play for WA clubs at the completion of the Super 14 after RugbyWA completed a review of its post-season rugby program.
From 2009 players can choose to play in Sydney’s Shute Shield competition or remain in Perth after their Super 14 commitments have been completed.
Until now all Emirates Western Force players have been required to play for a WA club whilst they are contracted to RugbyWA.
RugbyWA General Manager, Rugby, Mitch Hardy, said the policy change will not result in players abandoning the local competition.
“This policy will apply to all players with our professional Rugby program and their requests will be dealt with on a case by case basis with coaching structure, strength and conditioning and player welfare taken into consideration,” said Hardy.
“During the Super 14 players not selected in the 22 will be required to play locally in Perth and all players will continue to be aligned with our clubs to assist with training and development,” he said.
“It is not our intention to send locally developed players to the East away from the clubs that have put considerable time and resources into their development.”
Hardy said players will need to meet certain conditions to be enabled to switch to a Sydney club.
“Each player will be able to request where they want to play their club rugby post Super 14, but will have their individual development needs assessed by the RugbyWA Match Committee before any move is approved,” he said.
“Already we’ve had players like Scott Staniforth indicate that they wish to stay in Perth after their Super 14 commitments are completed.”
This year the team embarked on a five-match development tour of England in search of high quality rugby post Super 14, however Hardy confirmed that would not be repeated in 2009.
“The UK tour was a costly exercise and is not viewed as something that will be viable for the organisation going forward,” he said.
“At this point there is a large gap on the professional rugby calender for those who aren’t involved in representative teams post Super 14 so we really need to consider where our players are going to get the best opportunity to develop during that period.”
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
Gee, if only there was another option... like some Oz-based regional competition.... naaahhh.....
Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill
They should have a couple of internal games. We could field two 22s with whole academy couldn't we? I'd pay to see a game or two of that.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Does this mean the Singapore tour has been cancelled?
I would say that Singapore is still on. Its only a local game up there anyway. Flight less then 5 hours. Same time zone. Luxury![]()
Piss-weak![]()
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
caving into the sydney clubs...
This bites the big one.
It is great to see Force players playing for our local clubs. Why don't they at least try a Western Force Gold side and stick that in the local comp? Without the Wallaby players I'd think they get some decent competition during the year using their academy/emerging talent as well.
It would be a game that each club would want to win each year and I'm sure they play out of their skins for the win. Wanneroo V Western Force Gold, I'd like to see that.
I emailed the head of Singapore rugby to see about the comp in Singapore but no response yet.
Will post when he replies.
would this possibly be at the players request? Most of them are from NSW/QLD
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Probably. It was one of the big complaints for non Wallabies or Aus A Force players that they weren't getting exposure to top level rugby. The MARC would've been perfect and in its absense we had the UK tour which was way too expensive to do every year so this has become about the only option left. Its very unfortunate but these are unfortunate times. On the up side if some of the players get a bit of a block of time back home (QLD or NSW) it might alleviate feelings of homesickness.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Perhaps they are finding that this is a sticking point in our next wave of Recruitment.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa