Force taking their ball and going to Britain

[jargan83]

You've gotta love the Force, they march to the beat of their own drum. No wonder over East they hate our guts. Maybe we should put in an application to join the NPC or Currie Cup..

I love the Force for this very reason. All these ideas have merit (Currie Cup etc) its about time someone said "stuff you" tgo the NSWRU who are running the game in this country.

IF there is no ARC replacement then I would fully support the Force doing whatever is required to get strong competition for our player development, wherever that meant travelling to to find it.

The only "replacement" ARC we will see any time soon will be one that revolves around the wealthy sydney clubs who only look out for their own interests as we saw when the original ARC got canned.

Would it be finacially viable to participate in the Currie Cup????

[James]

What about an InnForcers tour of Britain, should it go ahead

If they do come during August I'll definitely be keen to come to at least 2 games. Speaking of which is anyone going to the IRB under 20 world champs in Wales in June?

[The Lone Hydrangea]

Sounds like a excellent idea to me. Player development against hard teams. Ulster is a bit stiff on missing out. Interesting to see the game against Ospreys, nice to belt them after they defeated the Wallabies last year.

[GIGS20]

What about an InnForcers tour of Britain, should it go ahead

To get this thread back to topic (thanks Ox)
I personally believe that touring Britain is a ridiculously expensive way to do something that we should be able to do within our own borders. It exposes our players to a travel schedule that is akin to that of a Wallabies tour and pits us against teams that will be playing a different style of game in a different phase of their season to our opponents. It's just ALL WRONG!

But put simply, it's all we've got. The atrticle is right that the only thing a national club competition gives to Australian Rugby is 8 strong teams in Sydney, Probably feeding their stronger players into the Waratahs....Who the hell would support that? Not RugbyWA, Not ACT Rugby, Haven't heard a direct statement from the QRU but they were already arranging to reduce their number of ARC teams, so I'd think not..... Even Vic Rugby, who really only stand to lose some contracts, which they probably can't sustain...and will have the sympathy of the sponsor in this situation aren't interested. In the absence of a truly national third-tier competition, which is a useable conduit FROM the clubs TO the Provinces, a trip to Britain- or South Africa - Or New Zealand (maybe Argentina?) is the only logical option!

[Em-Forcer]

(Oh... and... InnFORCEers tour, anyone?! )

What about an InnForcers tour of Britain, should it go ahead

See above, Oxley - got there before you! But it would be awesome. We had an unofficial one during the World Cup but it wasn't ratified by the strict InnFORCEers ruling body!

Agree with Gits though - excited as I am by the prospect, it's not the most practical, or cheapest, way of getting some extra competitive rugby. However, there are plenty of antipodeans over here so there's ready-made support, plus it would raise the profile of Super14 which might increase income longterm, if it encouraged rugby fans to holiday in Oz/NZ/SA during the competition.

[James]

To get this thread back to topic (thanks Ox)
I personally believe that touring Britain is a ridiculously expensive way to do something that we should be able to do within our own borders. It exposes our players to a travel schedule that is akin to that of a Wallabies tour and pits us against teams that will be playing a different style of game in a different phase of their season to our opponents. It's just ALL WRONG!

New Zealand and South Africa wouldn't work though because the Currie Cup and ANZC are on. Yeah a tour of Britain is very expensive but other teams tour- the Waratahs have been to Ireland, Eastern Europe and Argentina in the past couple of years so why shouldn't we send some players over?

As for the different style whats wrong with that? Maybe our guys will learn a few useful things that they wouldn't have learnt down here. Look I'd love to have the ARC back but that isn't going to happen any time soon JO'N is too arrogant to ever concede he made the wrong (spineless) choice. I'm with Jargan in loving that the Force are sending a big up yours to the East.

[KenyaQuin]

To get this thread back to topic (thanks Ox)
I personally believe that touring Britain is a ridiculously expensive way to do something that we should be able to do within our own borders. It exposes our players to a travel schedule that is akin to that of a Wallabies tour and pits us against teams that will be playing a different style of game in a different phase of their season to our opponents. It's just ALL WRONG!

You're right there GIGS, not an ideal situation however, as a number of posts have indicated, its good to see that The Force are actively looking for alternatives and letting the ARU know that they will not sit idly while the ARU fumbles in the dark. I would imagine a post season tour to Britain would exclude Wallabies as well as those needing extended recuperation thus potentially expose more local players to international rugby.

[beige]

i think the currie cup would be the go.
or an asian leauge?

The Currie Cup idea is my favourite. I doubt they would want us, especially in the current political climate, but it's gotta be worth trying if we can't get a decent comp here The competition structure suits us (the Force team would basically be the Super 14 side without it's test players - similar to the 5 big Currie Cup sides) and, despite the distance, it does still make some geographical sense.

Any Asian league would end up resembling the old APC expansion concept. The reason for this is that we would also need to get the support of ACT (and probably Queensland) as, realistically, the only viable 'Asian' franchises would be East and West Japan - probably based in Tokyo and Kobe respectively. Still, if NSW want to do their own thing, someone might bring it up again...

[AndyS]

• The ARU has given no indication of what...it plans to run this year...Although the four Super 14 clubs have been asked to put aside a block of time in September-October
• The Force...has taken matters into its own hands by arranging a tour of Britain in August.
• "We are very supportive of the ARU putting in place an interim replacement for the ARC..."
• Stooke was adamant the Force did not want Sydney clubs ringing its players..."Not one of our players will be playing club rugby anywhere but here (in Perth)," Stooke vowed.

I'm not seeing this as solely a response to the cancellation of the MARC. Whatever form of third tier competition there is runs late season after a big gap from the end of the S14...it's about keeping the lads busy in the mean time.

[GIGS20]

I'm thinking it's more of a disaster planning premise there Andy. There are limits to how much the players can play in a year, set by RUPA. We all know it would be far better to make them more like normal people and give them 4 weeks annual leave and they work the rest of the year (Rugby players do stupid things in the off-season, don't tell me I'm wrong!) but they generally have comps right up to the cutoff because all the governing bodies arrange it that way.

I'd think it's a way of putting some pressure onto the ARU to actually come up with something "because we'll do it ourselves if you don't"

I would expect a press release in the future, possibly just before the beginning of the season saying we've got tentative contracts with X,Y & Z and we need to sign them shortly, we'll be petitioning the ARU for some detail on the Post Season comp before then!

[Flamethrower]

We all know it would be far better to make them more like normal people and give them 4 weeks annual leave and they work the rest of the year

Geez Gigs That's Rich

[BLR]

It would be great if the history books of rugby were written 'And the pioneering Western Force, despite the venom from thier fellow Australian franchises, opened the floodgates for an international club competition that would raise the prestige of rugby union throughout the world and most of all making Rugby the number 1 sport in Australia'. A man can dream I suppose.

[Seldom]

Yes Bread, we can but DREAM.

[GIGS20]

It would be great if the history books of rugby were written 'And the pioneering Western Force, despite the venom from thier fellow Australian franchises, opened the floodgates for an international club competition that would raise the prestige of rugby union throughout the world and most of all making Rugby the number 1 sport in Australia'.

I'll add that to my collection of articles I'll never see in the Sydney Morning Herald!

[Em-Forcer]

We all know it would be far better to make them more like normal people and give them 4 weeks annual leave and they work the rest of the year!

Geez Gigs That's Rich

I get 6 weeks, plus 10 public holiday/lieu days...

Better even than a teacher's hols, eh, GIGS?!