Ripia resigns from Force

[GAFFA]

Replacement player granted


By RugbyWA Media




Following the departure of Foreign Developing player Willie Ripia on Tuesday evening the Emirates Western Force has been granted special permission by the Australian Rugby Union to recruit a replacement player.

The club was required to submit their full squad list by December 31, 2011 and as such made the request to the ARU for another player to be recruited in place of Ripia.

The contract rules allow the ARU to permit a Super Rugby team to replace a nominated player where it sees fit and with the overall interests of Australian rugby.

Richard Graham and his coaching staff will begin the process of finding a suitable replacement immediately.

“We are pleased with the ARU’s decision to allow us to recruit a replacement player under the circumstances and will look to fill that gap as soon as we can,” Graham said.

With the 2012 season fast approaching Graham is not concerned with the time frame of recruiting a new player and has confidence in his current playing stocks at the club.

“James Stannard proved more than capable in the number 10 jersey at the back end of the 2011 season and the playing group have a lot of confidence in his control and ability,” said Graham.

“Ben Seymour and Kyle Godwin are continuing to develop in a competitive environment and will add competition and depth to that position,”

“Obviously this has been a disappointing outcome for the squad but our main focus is moving forward and continuing our preparations for the 2012 season.”

http://www.westernforce.com.au/NewsE...2/Default.aspx

[travelling_gerry]

By RugbyWA Media

Following the departure of Foreign Developing player Willie Ripia on Tuesday evening the Emirates Western Force has been granted special permission by the Australian Rugby Union to recruit a replacement player.

The club was required to submit their full squad list by December 31, 2011 and as such made the request to the ARU for another player to be recruited in place of Ripia.

The contract rules allow the ARU to permit a Super Rugby team to replace a nominated player where it sees fit and with the overall interests of Australian rugby.

Richard Graham and his coaching staff will begin the process of finding a suitable replacement immediately.

“We are pleased with the ARU’s decision to allow us to recruit a replacement player under the circumstances and will look to fill that gap as soon as we can,” Graham said.

With the 2012 season fast approaching Graham is not concerned with the time frame of recruiting a new player and has confidence in his current playing stocks at the club.

“James Stannard proved more than capable in the number 10 jersey at the back end of the 2011 season and the playing group have a lot of confidence in his control and ability,” said Graham.

“Ben Seymour and Kyle Godwin are continuing to develop in a competitive environment and will add competition and depth to that position,”

“Obviously this has been a disappointing outcome for the squad but our main focus is moving forward and continuing our preparations for the 2012 season.”

[James]

Don't know who Delany is, but I think the other 3 are excluded based on the fact we've got our Marquee player.

Yeah also capped I'm afraid. Even if he wasn't, he is 29 and the ARU wouldn't allow someone that old as a development player.

[BeeJay]

Year after year I say it:

convert Sheps to a 10.

He's got all the attributes it takes.

Larkham-esque in my view...

[Tonkar]

As much as i hate Little Jonny Wikly he would be a very good back up for Chucky

All we need is the back up for Chucky I think Chucky and Swannie really brought the best out of the team Back in NZ last yr so lets give Chucky the reins and I think he would really proform

Look for a younger back up someone we can train the western way

[Lee Grant]

Tonkar you are going to need a few million Euros to buy out Wilko's contract from Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal and he won't sell him anyway.

For those talking about Stannard as a 9 earlier in the thread, or Ben Seymour as the 10: Stannard did not play very well at scrumhalf in the Sydney comp in 2011 and though it was no disgrace to be in 2nd grade for Eastwood behind Nic White (a real contender to challenge Phipps for the Oz no.2 spot IMO) he looked poor in the one game he did play in the Ones, which I saw.

If Turner is fit I would look upon him now as no.2 scrummie and consider Stannard only as a flyhalf. Then promote Godwin from the EPS to take Ripia's contract and get a scrummie into the EPS to take Godwin's spot there.

As to who that scrummie should be: Chris Cottee has been with the Force before but I'm not sure he will be available because of his business. DeWet Roos of Southern Districts in Sydney is a tough little bugger Sheehan type of scrummie and played well for Sydney City v. Country in 2011. He would be a good suggestion.


As for Seymour: I was a bit surprised that he got a full contract, though he is very promising, because he has a bit to learn in managing a backline as we saw when he played for Manly in 2011. But whichever of Godwin or Seymour proves to be better in trials and training should do a sound job backing up Stannard.

I have forgotten - is Godwin a goal kicker?

[Tazzmania]

Went home last night and watched the second last game of the 2011 season v Reds, and Stannard did what was needed, so I am feeling a bit less stressed than yesterday. Nothing less than Ripia did on the few occasions that he got out on the park last year.

Unfortunately flyhalf is such a crucial position we do need a decent replacement for Ripia. The artciles above do not mention what dispensation the ARU have given the Force for the recruitment, is it an Australian, Development or Marquee player?

[travelling_gerry]

BY: WAYNE SMITH From: The Australian January 12, 2012 12:00AM



Willie Ripia at a Western Force training session on Tuesday. Source: Getty Images
THE Western Force was an organisation released from purgatory yesterday after having spent most of the last year knowing there was a thief in its ranks.

Since early last season, the Perth-based Super Rugby club has been beset by a string of low-grade robberies, thefts at first on such a small scale - $10 here, $20 there, $50 elsewhere - that the victims of them, players mostly, initially thought nothing of them, believing they had simply miscounted how much money they had been carrying in their wallets.

But over time it became apparent that the missing money could not so innocently be explained away, that not only was there a thief at work but, worse, it could only be an insider.

That's about as devastating a discovery as a football club can make. All businesses and organisations preach the virtues of teamwork and trust but a rugby club must live them or die.


Coach Richard Graham knew he had to act quickly before suspicion and unrest tore his side apart.

It was a relatively simple piece of detective work he was faced with. Eleven thefts had been reported to club officials over the past year, some of them occurring on the road, most at the Force's Mount Claremont headquarters, so Graham set about the task of establishing who was in the vicinity when each of the robberies occurred.

One by one, all players and officials were eliminated as suspects, all save for Willie Ripia, the New Zealander recruited by the club as a foreign development player in 2010.

As such, he was signed in the hope that after fulfilling his residential qualification period by living in Australia for three years, he might eventually come into the calculations for Wallabies selection.

A persistent foot injury meant Ripia, who initially was named at five-eighth for the opening match of the 2011 campaign against the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium before being forced to withdraw, missed that match and most of the season, but when he made his return late in the day he showed glimpses that a gold jersey might one day be within his reach.

Eventually the evidence against Ripia became so compelling that Graham had no alternative but to confront the player head-on, a meeting he was dreading.

"I told him I thought he was the thief," Graham told The Australian yesterday.

"One of the things about accusing someone of something as serious as that is that you have to be absolutely bulletproof in terms of the evidence you've got."

An innocent rugby player accused of such a thing by his coach might have been expected to explode and Graham, frankly, was on high alert in case he needed to duck. Instead, Ripia took the accusation calmly and, far from becoming agitated, sat back in his chair and coolly denied the charge.

As grave as Graham's suspicions were, he also wanted to believe him. He was aware Ripia had a gambling problem and had sat him down in the past and attempted to put some structures in place in his life, arranging for him to spend one day a week working in real estate to prepare him for life after rugby. He even drew a graph for the 26-year-old, showing how much money he could put away before he retired from the game if he stopped gambling it away.

Ripia assured him he would try and outwardly did, never failing to turn up for his work-experience commitments. But the petty thefts continued.

The other players weren't stupid. They too had their suspicions but it is one thing to have doubts about a teammate, it's quite another entirely to express them openly, especially about a player strongly in contention to wear the No 10 jersey.

It's not true that the game of rugby revolves around the five-eighth to the same degree that American football does around the quarterback but there is no question that the player with the 10 on his back is the team's main decision-maker. So any problem involving the five-eighth doesn't just affect one position. It destabilises the entire team.

The players knew that and outwardly pretended nothing was amiss, all of them coming together for a pre-Christmas barbecue, Ripia included. But Graham was acutely aware of the tension building beneath the surface.

"Obviously when something like that is going on, there's an undercurrent," he said.

In the end, Ripia virtually gave himself up. The surveillance camera mounted over the players' lockers could hardly have been more conspicuous and yet Ripia still went brazenly from locker to locker searching for one that was unlocked. Case closed.

On Tuesday, club officials called him in, sat him down and played him the surveillance tape. They didn't need to hear him confess because the footage said it all but Ripia did anyway. Then the discussion turned to whether he should be suspended or have his contract torn up. Again Ripia made it easy for the Force.

He resigned on the spot, effective immediately.

It's believed Ripia caught the midnight plane out of town, just before the story broke. Seemingly he is bound for New Zealand and his family home in Rotorua.

Anxious Force officials still feel a duty of care towards him and want to make certain he is OK but, not unexpectedly, he has gone into hiding.

But even so, it was as though an entire rugby club released all its tension yesterday and breathed a big sigh of relief.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226242095430

[mudskipper]

He cant pass to himself Muddy
Posted via Mobile Device

Jeez well he's no good then...

[The InnFORCEr]

I'm having dinner tonight at with Sesone Anesi, do we want a wing/fullback??

Any questions??

I obviously lost something in the translation and I actually had dinner with Salisi Mafu and young Elvis. Both enjoyed a Matt Special (mash instead of chips ). Salisi is a very quietly spoken guy for big man and Elvis liked a laugh. Both on one year deals to test the west. Both relieved about Ripia, and both said Chucky will be 10. Both were very serious in thinking that they will plaay well enough to get into finals this year.......bring that on! New HQ is the bomb for training and both agree that The Honey Badger is the class clown...but we already knew that. The feed was good so I'm sure they will be back

[palitu]

JB's, official force watering hole? (during the season, then pub after )

[TOCC]

I obviously lost something in the translation and I actually had dinner with Salisi Mafu and young Elvis. Both enjoyed a Matt Special (mash instead of chips ). Salisi is a very quietly spoken guy for big man and Elvis liked a laugh. Both on one year deals to test the west. Both relieved about Ripia, and both said Chucky will be 10. Both were very serious in thinking that they will plaay well enough to get into finals this year.......bring that on! New HQ is the bomb for training and both agree that The Honey Badger is the class clown...but we already knew that. The feed was good so I'm sure they will be back

are there any pictures of the new HQ, its always been a interest of mine checking out these....

When i was in the US i was able to see some of the College Football and NFL facilities.. woah!

[Tazzmania]

The West today mention that Francios Brummer is on the Force radar.

He looks very handy:

Brummer 2011 Video


Anyone know why he still available?

Good thing is he can pass, kick for goal and clearance and drop kicks are not too shabby either. May be a good buy if there is not a compleeing reason he has not yet been snapped up.

[GAFFA]

He has skill but yes i would want to know why he hasnt already been picked up...but hey beggers cant be chooses i guess.

[GIGS20]

Ok, this is all with the assumption that 10 can be covered internally, by Chucky, Kyle and other options........Mark Swanepoel! He was a great scrummie, solid, where Turner is looking fragile and provided some fantastic highlights last year. We could do worse!