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Australia's Next Top Rugby Team

Roar Guru
20th August, 2012
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Roar Guru
20th August, 2012
46

With today’s TV dominated by reality rubbish looking to find the next top chef/singer/model etc, I have a wacky suggestion for all of those who have become sick of suffering while watching the same sub-standard Australia rugby players who are constantly selected from the same predictable gene pools.

My proposal is that we create a reality TV show to create a new Australian rugby team. The chosen side should then be given a trial match against the current Wallabies.

I had this thought some years ago when I decided that I had played against better props that Matt Dunning and Al Baxter in local comps on the Gold Coast.

Unfortunately for regional players though, representative opportunities are few and far between as selectors appear to be focused solely on certain big-named clubs.

This favouritism in selection extends all the way to the top as the most current Wallabies team beaten by the All Blacks on the weekend contained no fewer than eight Waratahs in the starting line-up.

NSW under-performed this year to the extreme, yet the more successful Brumbies and Reds franchises were ignored. This tells me that form is not the deciding factor in selection, and in my world this is absolutely incorrect in selecting any representative side.

I would propose that a reality TV competition be created to publicly identify players from all over Australia. Each week a new position could be filled, starting with tight-head prop and ending with a full-back.

All would-be players in Australia who fancy themselves with a shot at the title in their respective positions can come and chance their arm by undergoing physical examinations, tests of speed, strength and rugby prowess with the best judged being assembled into a team.

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Could you just imagine a six foot four miner from Cloncurry propping against Benn Robinson, or a whippet-fast, tough stock-rider from the Territory going against Digby on the wing?

This would be awesome for many reasons but at the very least for the following two. First, it might identify a new, unknown and better Wallabies team and provide currently unknown players with an avenue to better their chances of representative selection. It might prove to the Australian sporting public just how good the current team and players are.

This seems like win-win either way.

So much is said about the “lack of cattle” that Australia has with regard to rugby players and how rival codes steal away the best and brightest. I suspect that this is not true, but due to the vast size of this country, there are hidden gems waiting to be found.

Unfortunately, the only ones looking (read “Wallaby selectors”) keep searching in the same over-mined places (read “Sydney club-rugby”).

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