Another question about Australian rugby...they have a region South Australia that has never produced an international Wallaby...they do play rugby there despite it's dominated by Aussie Rules but it's second division...why I asked my son who lives in Adelaide...you have produced cricketers like Greg and Ian Chapel and ofcourse you have the famous cricket ground in Adelaide but rugby union zero interest. Strange, he says that there was talk about trying to introduce it to Super Series but it had some major drawbacks:
Could Super Rugby work in South Australia?
There was an attempt to establish a rugby league side
in Adelaide in the mid-nineties, which failed due to on and off field
problems.
The club wasn’t competitive on the park
and suffered from financial losses and poor crowd numbers. After the
NRL reduced the number of teams in the league, the Adelaide Rams were
booted out after just two seasons.
So if the Adelaide Rams were such a failure, then why am I suggesting that we try again, this time with rugby union?
I get the feeling that if a Super Rugby franchise were to be awarded
to South Australia, the state would be slightly more prepared than the
previous rugby league project.
The possibility of a franchise in a notoriously staunch AFL state is
exciting. When the question is raised, the usual South Australian
excuses come out like snails after the rain.
Things like: ‘we don’t need another team’ and the ever popular, ‘we don’t have the money’.
So do we need another super rugby franchise in Australia?
The short answer is yes, for the betterment of rugby as a whole.
My frustration is with the ARU and their apparent satisfaction with where they are at the moment regarding their talent pool.
There is no national competition and the vast majority of the current
players are born and developed in New South Wales and Queensland.
They may play rugby in Canberra, Melbourne or Perth, but their roots
are firmly in the blue and maroon of Australia’s rugby heartland.
There is no doubt that stronger competitions, better coaching and
elite rugby in the other states would lead to better players coming out
of these areas. This would in turn, lead to a more competitive national
side.
What about the argument that there are insufficient elite players in Australia to sustain more teams?
This may be true but it would only be the case initially. South
Australia has produced players that have managed to climb to the
pinnacle of Australian rugby.
There are historical examples of people venturing out of ‘The Festival State’ in order to wear the green and gold of Australia.
However in the modern game there aren’t many. Women have fared better
with three players representing Australia in recent times: Lee Fata was
selected in the 2006 15-a-side squad; and D’Arcy Sadler and Bree Nathan
were selected for the sevens squad in 2013.
If a franchise was based in Adelaide, then the standard of rugby in the state would lift and the talent pool would grow.
Last year the South Australian Rugby Union (SARU) hosted the Western
Force and history was made when Hindmarsh Stadium saw Super Rugby grace
its turf for the first time.
A President’s XV lost 42-0 but the score didn’t reflect the
competitive nature of the game. Eleven South Australians were joined by
players from the state competitions in New South Wales, Queensland and
Victoria as well as fringe players from The Force that bolstered the
squad.
A week is a long time in politics but in rugby terms it wasn’t enough.
If these players had been able to work together for longer the result could have been different.
The professional attitude of the squad and the coaches showed me that
the talent question would be answered very quickly in Adelaide.
Players from South Australia, in particular, Chris Bartlett and
Patrick Williams, acquitted themselves well. Part of me wishes that they
were born in the eastern States, as they would have received Australian
caps by now.
So what about the enthusiasm for rugby in an AFL heartland?
The match was relatively well attended for a wet and cold Friday
night, with 3,500 people watching from the impressive western stand of
Hindmarsh Stadium, which with a capacity of 17,000 is a perfect size for
a secondary sport.
Those players who travelled to Adelaide for the exhibition game
showed enthusiasm and when the hypothetical question of making a living
playing rugby in the City of Churches was raised, the response was
positive.
The training facilities would need to be decided, but SARU could
follow the Melbourne Rebels’ example and strike a deal with one of the
AFL clubs to use theirs. So the foundations for rugby are there at a
player and infrastructure level.
So, onto the subject of money. There seems to be an obsession with Australian sport being government funded.
What sport needs is a financial backer with enough money not to care
if they lose it. (I would suggest Gina Rinehart but she strikes me as
the kind of person that would know if her kids took $2 out of the change
jar).
Sporting clubs need to move away from the Federal teat and start
looking to private enterprise to fund the ever-increasing expenses of
professional sport.
The Super Rugby competition is played across three countries and two
continents – three if you count the recent game played in London – and
the amount of money that would be required for the travel and
accommodation for teams and management would give Wayne Swan a reaction
similar to being trapped in an elevator with Joe Hockey.
The Western Force and Melbourne Rebels have shown that it is possible
for rugby to succeed in non-traditional states but financially it is
tough.
There is no dispute regarding that. Without a financial backer with
more money than sense, there is little chance of top-level rugby in
South Australia.
A lot of water needs to run under a lot of bridges and a lot of ducks need to line-up, but this shouldn’t be a pipe dream.
The ARU needs to look outside of the safe states and push rugby development in the minority states.
If not, there could be future superstars lost due to limited
opportunities. SARU does impressive work in identifying talent and
creating pathways towards elite rugby.
However, they are hamstrung by the lack of elite level rugby in South Australia.
This means that talented youngsters have to move east or west in
order to progress in their rugby careers – a costly exercise both
financially and emotionally for parents, as their children have to move
interstate at sixteen years old.
Elite rugby in South Australia would create a goal for the next
generation of rugby players without having to move halfway across the
country.
The increased higher-level participation would lead to the next
generation of Rugby World Cup and Rugby Championship winners, and
hopefully a new generation of South Australian Wallabies.
