Tahs signings a slap in the face for locals

 
Bay35Pablo Roar Guru

By Bay35Pablo, 6 Nov 2009 Bay35Pablo is a Roar Guru

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The Waratahs’ signing of two “foreign” locks/second rowers for 2010, albeit one under the marquee rules, is a slap in the face for local talent.

Recent injury woes suggest a lack of depth in the Australian lock ranks, although the toll has been truly horrid. However, the question arises as to whether those toiling away in the club rugby ranks aren’t good enough to step up.

The Waratahs have seen fit to sign South African Hendrik Roodt, and now New Zealand-born lock and loose forward, Cam Jowitt.

Although the Waratahs have developed local talent, such as Will Caldwell, Chris Thomson and Kane Douglas, in addition to Dean Mumm, it begs the question of why the Waratahs have to go off shore for talent.

The answer may be they need a quick fix, but it also begs the question as to why there isn’t talent close to home in the supposedly lauded club rugby ranks (sometimes I find O’Neill and L’Estrange’s praise of the club competitions to be protesting its quality too much, to paraphrase Shakespeare).

If those toiling in club rugby are overlooked for professional contracts, then it is an unsubtle message of “you’re not good enough”.

To the extent that it is due to the step up required from club rugby to professionalism being too big, then it again brings us back to the issue of needing an extra tier of competition.

One also has to wonder about the letting go of David Dennis in those circumstances.

Here is a lock developed by NSW, and apparently good enough to tour with the Wallabies (albeit mainly due to the injury toll), but who doesn’t figure in the Waratahs’ plans while “foreign” players do.

Perhaps we should be happy for the limits on “foreign” players.

One gets the feeling that in a few years time, with no such limits, we could see the NSWRU running out a European football style foreign legion of players, which would remove the need to worry about pesky issues like developing local talent.

I’ll be cheering on Roodt and Jowitt, like anyone else that wears the sky blue jersey.

But don’t expect fans not to ask questions about what this means in a deeper sense for NSW – and Australian – rugby.

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