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Rupert Guinness | March 24, 2009
THE Australian Rugby Union may introduce selection trial games between the Wallabies and an Australian Barbarians side made up of fringe Test players from club rugby ranks this year.
In a throwback to the 1970s, when Wallabies selection games were held between the Probables and the Possibles, the games would be held in October after the Tri Nations ends in September. The concept would allow Australian Test selectors to cast their nets wider and pick players on form for the Wallabies' end of season spring tour.
It would also help provide match fitness to the players who are selected to go on the tour. Furthermore, the trials would act as a much-needed bridge between Test and club rugby as the Barbarians squad would include players who have been playing club rugby in Sydney or Brisbane.
The squads could include Wallabies on the comeback from injury, players ranked from 23rd to 45th by coach Robbie Deans, or several as yet unknown talents the selectors want to see first-hand after hearing about them on the grapevine of club rugby.
For those fringe players, knowing a pathway exists to the Wallabies after missing Tri Nations selection would keep them motivated while playing in Sydney's Shute Shield or Premier Rugby in Brisbane. That in turn would benefit the club competitions and their respective clubs. The trial games would be particularly significant this year as the ARU axed the Australia A program which gave fringe players a chance to impress.
The ARU is reluctant to comment on the proposal. However, the Herald understands that the idea, while still in blueprint form and far from being locked in, is being seriously considered.
Even though the objective of such a game - or games - would be to find the best possible Wallabies squad and future talent, the potential to raise revenue would not have been lost on the ARU.
The timing would be perfect. With the Tri Nations and club rugby competitions over, there are no other major rugby fixtures in Australia at the time. By having these Wallabies-Barbarians games in October, the Australian market would remain stimulated until the tour starts in November.
That in turn could convert into healthy ticket sales and crowd figures, especially as the intensity of the games could well be higher than any Super 14 derby in Australia.
There would certainly be everything to play for as players fight to hold their spots in the Wallabies squad, or prove the selectors wrong and battle their way into the side.
Deans could even unearth a hidden gem or two from Australian club rugby, the grassroots of the game which he has openly embraced since starting the job last May. One of the first calls he made in the job was to allow Wallabies who were not required for Test duty to return to play for their clubs.
It was a move that was heartily applauded by the clubs, who needed their stars back to help combat diminishing crowds. Deans's support of club rugby was evident again on Sunday night at the Randwick club season launch. He addressed the club members and presented the jerseys to the Galloping Greens' first-grade side for this weekend's first round of the Shute Shield. Deans also spoke of his own of grassroots rugby days to a packed room of Randwick players and club members.
Deans, a former All Blacks and Canterbury icon, began his rugby days playing for the Glenmark club.
"The surroundings are different [than at Randwick]. Glenmark is a one-teacher school, one house, two rugby fields c they got their priorities right," he joked.
Deans could not finish without commenting on new Randwick first-grade coach Gary Ella, whom he played against in 1984 at Concord Oval. Of the day he played on the wing for the All Blacks, who beat a NSW side that included the Ella brothers Gary and Mark, Deans laughed when he conceded: "It was a stressful experience c"
This year's Shute Shield grand finals will be held at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday, September 27, it was announced at the season launch yesterday.
The decision marks the return of all four grade grand finals to the home of NSW Rugby, which last year had to take the title deciders to Concord Oval as it could not book the SFS.
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