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Similar to an article posted by TG but more info on some on the other new players we might see this year from the West Australian
Mitchell has high hopes for Rockingham prop
12th January 2008, 13:00 WST
Western Force coach John Mitchell predicts Kieran Longbottom will this year become the first complete product of the WA club system to play Super 14 rugby.
The Rockingham prop was one of several rookies Mitchell yesterday earmarked to break into the Force team at some stage this season.
John Welborn was the first WA native to represent the Force but he had to go to Sydney in the early 1990s for the competition to polish his talent to international standard.
Others who are prospects to wear the blue and black for the first time this year are scrum-halves James Stannard and Adam Clarke, locks Tom Hockings and Sam Wykes, winger Nick Cummins and league convert Josh Tatupu, hired to cover at centre for injured Junior Pelesasa.
“These guys have every chance of playing Super 14 rugby,” Mitchell said after a training run at Cottesloe. “They’ve showed a great deal of progress.”
Another who would be a strong candidate with Australian Rugby Union dispensation is lock Sitaleki Timani, man of the match in the Perth Spirit’s semifinal loss to the Central Coast Rays.
Tongan Timani has another nine months to go before he meets the ARU’s three-year residential requirement for a Super-14 contract.
But Force chief executive Peter O’Meara said the ARU had been asked to reconsider Timani’s eligibility, which the national body previously refused to fast-track.
DAVE HUGHES