0
Force stand tall among the poor rugby States
31st January 2008, 9:00 WST
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=13
From polecat to fat cat. The upstart Western Force may irk the east coast rugby establishment but they at least have black ink — and a lot of it, at that — at the bottom of their financial statement.
When all the sums for 2007 are done, Rugby WA will be the only one of Australia’s big four rugby States to post a profit. Between them, NSW, Queensland and the ACT will be several million dollars in the red, a vivid contrast to WA’s positive result of more than $500,000.
Though Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill bemoans the state of the sport, the Force are travelling very nicely and if attendances at Subiaco Oval for Super 14 matches remain around 25,000 this season, will continue to do so.
“Our new chief executive will, when appointed, come into an organisation that’s doing well,” Rugby WA chairman Geoff Stooke said last night.
Stooke was confident the mistakes of the past, which yielded huge fines, would not be repeated.
The ARU review of the Force’s internal rules has been completed and the indication is that no adverse findings will be made when the official report is issued.
“The informal advice from Sydney is that there is nothing untoward,” said Stooke, who revealed the Force had rewritten some club procedures to eliminate the recruiting misdemeanours which yielded two significant fines totalling $260,000.
“We’ve introduced measures to reinforce the ARU protocols. The idea is to ensure there is no confusion with interpretations because we don’t want to break any more rules.”
Force coach John Mitchell will take 28 players to Melbourne tomorrow for Saturday’s pre-season match against the Crusaders.
He aims to insert them all into the contest.
Unlike the Brumbies, who have withheld most of their big names from their practice match against the Waratahs, the Force will give their complement of Wallabies a good run, including Matt Giteau, who could be added to the Force’s leadership group this season.
“The idea is to build as much depth as possible by exposing all our players to Super 14 intensity and let them adapt to the new scenarios the new laws will create,” Mitchell said.
Those who will not travel because of injury include centre Junior Pelesasa, fly-half Jimmy Hilgendorf, prop Kieren Longbottom and lock Pat O’Connor.
DAVE HUGHES