Other sports that rugby should steal their U21s from
Roar Guru By Peter Karvinen, 12 Jun 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
Ignoring rugby league, where this is a well-known quantity, I was thinking about specific athletic skills required for different positions in rugby and in what sports they could be found for recruitment.
For props, you want both upper and lower body strength. Explosive power, but with some agility. And for them to not be muscle bound. I feel the obvious ones like power lifting and weight lifting would not be agile enough.
The sports I would target for rugby recruitment would be hammer and discuss throwers.
You want hookers to be more agile than props, so I would choose javelin throwers.
Locks need height, flexibility and hand eye coordination. One obvious sport would be basketball, but I would also look at AFL forwards (like Barry Hall), volleyballers, and pole vaulters.
For numbers 6 and 8, you want hard tacklers, guys who are good on their feet, are big and strong, and have reasonable pace. The standout for me would be college gridiron, players that do not make it to pro level. In particular, the Safeties and Tight Ends. In general, these guys are about the size and pace of Jonah Lomu.
For number 7, you need strength, flexibility and courage. I would look at gymnastics. These guys would have no problem getting off the ground quick, and would be able to get into position to pinch a ball.
At centre you need a strong runner, who is able to break tackles and go over the advantage line. From gridiron again, I would look at running backs. From athletics, I would look at decathletes.
On the wing you want pace and lots of it. This would obviously suit sprinters from athletics or wide receivers in gridiron.
For fullback, you want someone to be able to catch high balls, kick them a long way, and have good pace. My pick would be AFL players, probably those playing in the midfield
I have not been able to work out the best sports for scrumhalves (halfbacks), flyhalfs (5/8′s), or inside centre.
Maybe others can work these out for me.
These athletes could be put into the rugby sports academy for 18 months to see if their skills can translate to rugby.
It would be at a small cost. There are, for instance, plenty of really good basketball and gridiron players that do not make it to the professional leagues and therefore do not have many other alternatives.
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June 12th 2008 @ 4:49pm
Peter K said | June 12th 2008 @ 4:49pm | Report comment
In summary then there are a lot of sports we could attract great athletes from, at a young enough age to retrain, to fill any position we are short in.
It would not cost us a lot since they are semi pro at best, in most cases we would attract the young guys who just miss the cut in their first choice sport.
Then put them into an accelerated rugby academy, and retain the ones who make it.
June 12th 2008 @ 5:49pm
DaniE said | June 12th 2008 @ 5:49pm | Report comment
Re basketballers, I’m sure there are quite a few Sydney Kings players looking for a job at the moment!
June 12th 2008 @ 6:08pm
westy said | June 12th 2008 @ 6:08pm | Report comment
Do you blokes need a reality check. The NRL U/20 Toyota Cup puts on display week in week out quality potential rugby players in a professional setting at an age still able to be developed . This is the target not older league wingers.! My mate jokes ” DO you think we could get them to run ours” 15 professional junior teams puts on display means
15 or more halves , over 30 centres etc. including ACT and Queensland and New Zealand teams and not skewed towards the preferences of a handful of junior representative rugby coaches.
June 12th 2008 @ 7:47pm
Midfielder said | June 12th 2008 @ 7:47pm | Report comment
AFL has been doing it for years so why leave it to them ……….. but it cost more than you think
June 13th 2008 @ 4:41am
Cutter said | June 13th 2008 @ 4:41am | Report comment
Darren Clarke and Jeff Fenech both tried to switch to league unsuccessfully. As the Wendell Sailor (and Lote Tuqiri) experiment showed, good athletes dont always have the intuitive feel for rugby.
The best option is to have the good athletes playing rugby to start with. AFL might be a great game, but its not international. I would love to have those athletes available for selection for the wallabies.
June 13th 2008 @ 8:50am
Kolwin said | June 13th 2008 @ 8:50am | Report comment
Heres a radical idea!
How about rugby union stating its own under 20′s compteition similar to the NRL’s. That way they stay in Rugby Union.
June 13th 2008 @ 9:55am
Peter K said | June 13th 2008 @ 9:55am | Report comment
westy other than my original post explicitly said other than league players who are a tried alternative….
League does not help with props, hookers or locks. Mainly because most league forwards have the one body shape.
This was point of the post to look at innate requirements in those roles and equivalent sports / athletes to fit.
Even in the backs I have noticed that genuine pace is lacking in out and out flyers. The players who were noted for their pace in league that have come across to union are no where near as fast as the fastest union players.
Sailor would of been far better suited as a second rower, great leg drive, broke tackles, power through the legs etc. As a winger he was ok BUT caught from behind time and time again. Rogers, Tuqiri, Tahu same thing, they have some great qualities but do not stand out with exceptional pace.
Remember the competition are players like Habana, Rocokoko, Howlett, Paulser, CauCau, the list goes on and on.
June 13th 2008 @ 10:17am
stillmissit said | June 13th 2008 @ 10:17am | Report comment
Peter K – generally you are spot on again the only exception I can think of is Brad Thorn. However he could be a one off, cant think of anyone who played league, then went to union back to league and then back to Union.
Anybody know anything about his background. I suspect he is unique.
The bottom line in this thread is a fundamental one we cant continue getting players where we have in the past, the cup dryeth up.
June 13th 2008 @ 10:30am
John Ryan said | June 13th 2008 @ 10:30am | Report comment
Here’s another idea it might be a bit scary, but why not have your own juniors,like other sports,then you wont have to bludge off everyone else,bit like AFL and the taxpayer
June 13th 2008 @ 10:49am
stillmissit said | June 13th 2008 @ 10:49am | Report comment
I also want to change my mind about something I always believed as self evident.
The Western Suburbs of Sydney are not a rich untapped source of players. We will get the Kurtley Beale’s and Dave Dennis’ but they will be a short commodity and not a huge rush.
I have been ref’ing some school games out here and I have been shocked at the total lack of understanding about union even amongst the boys who play it each week. If we wanted to attempt it, we would have to start a major education campaign that would take years without any clear results. Their coaches are all union people and obviously want the boys to take up the game but there seems to be a total lack of interest amongst the boys. Would love to be proven wrong on this but it feels like an heroic effort in the face of enormous disinterest.
Could these boys make it in union? many of them would, but they do not get any kudos from their mates for playing union. They believe that they go to union only if they fail to make it in league.
The only thing that will change these boys is if League collapsed and Union took over and that ain’t going to happen any time soon.
I want to make it clear that union is alive and well in the West as it always has been. The subbies are going strongly and Penrith is getting better. Still it is a fringe sport and without some major change it will remain as such.