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The news that champion openside and maul-based try-scoring machine David Pocock is contemplating a sabbatical year of study at either Cambridge or Oxford is not so much of a surprise to the Australian rugby fraternity.
Pocock’s decision to re-sign with the ARU and the Brumbies for just the 2016 season was always going to fuel speculation as to his plans for 2017, but the concept of him taking a year off rugby to study or scratch his numerous charitable itches was always said to be on the cards, and was viewed as Pocock wanting to do something for himself in order to extend his playing career.
It was, and still is, hard to argue.
More rugby:
» David Pocock could take a sabbatical from rugby
» Bill Pulver flexible, Brumbies not so much
» Liam Gill to leave the Reds after 2016
» Super Rugby format explained
The news on Wednesday about Liam Gill, however, was somewhat from left field.
The Queensland Reds confirmed the prolific 23-year-old ball-thief would be heading to the endless rucks and open chequebooks of the French Top 14 competition, having signed a deal of unspecified length with super-spenders Toulon.
When Gill re-signed with the Reds last year, albeit for just the one further season after knocking back a serious approach from the Melbourne Rebels, the general presumption was that this was Gill giving the club and particularly coach Richard Graham 12 months to convince him staying at Ballymore beyond 2016 was worth his while.
No doubt the lack of interest from the Wallabies coach since then has been a major factor in Gill’s decision. If one of the leading ball-winners in the country cannot rate among the top three openside options for a Rugby World Cup, then there probably isn’t a lot of point him remaining in Australia – no matter how good the Reds’ rebuild is, or how good an offer the Western Force tabled.
Gill’s “I feel I have done as much as I can in Australian rugby and now look to enjoy a new opportunity” was as pointed as it was sufficiently explanatory in this regard.
The irony now is that Pocock shapes as an option to replace Gill, and return home to Brisbane.
Brumbies’ CEO Michael Jones is walking back down a dangerous path if he maintains the position behind his “my preferred solution, and our offer to him, doesn’t allow a break” quote.
Even if the Brumbies thought they had met every one of skipper Stephen Moore’s requests during his recent negotiation, Jones comprehensively lost the PR battle with a press release as strongly worded as none other I can recall in all my time, to convey the Brumbies’ disappointment at the time.
Continuing to play hardball with Pocock – named the ACT’s Australia Day Ambassador as much for his off-field exploits less than three weeks ago – would show nothing was learnt from the Moore episode. Is Jones really prepared to gamble seasons 2018 and 2019 on making Pocock play in 2017? It’d be ballsy.
Of course, the Brumbies may well read the tea leaves and revise their offer. There is still, as Jones said, “a fair bit of water to go under the bridge” until the deal is done. But Pocock himself told me for ABC Grandstand the same week as his Australia Day gong that a new deal was something he was “keen to sort out sooner rather than later”.
Brumbies fans will certainly be hoping the conversations continue. And if they don’t, you can be sure the Reds will be hovering in the background.
‘If not playing in 2017 is what it would take for you to wear a Reds jersey in 2018 and 2019 and return home to your family, David, sure we can find a way of making that happen,’ is how I imagine the phone call would go.
And that’s without even thinking about offers from Europe or Japan. Already I’ve heard whispers of a French offer a long way north of $2.5 million per season.
In the short term, though, where once the Wallabies’ options at openside seemed to run waist-deep, the departure of Gill and the looming Pocock sabbatical make the cupboard appear a bit Mother Hubbard-like.
Presuming Michael Hooper stays fit, the race to be his understudy suddenly puts Sean McMahon, Jarrad Butler, Colby Fainga’a and the like firmly into the frame.
Butler, off contract at the end of this season, could quite easily find the Reds on the other end of the phone regardless of any Pocock decision.
Fringe players like Chris Alcock, Kane Koteka and Richard Hardwick over in the west, Jack Dempsey and Boyd Killingworth in Sydney, and even Michael Gunn in Queensland might suddenly find themselves in demand, too, and good luck to them.
But while all of those guys are useful players at their current levels, it’s really only McMahon that sticks out as Test quality at this stage. Wallabies coach Michael Cheika clearly rates him, and he played very well alongside Pocock and Scott Fardy in the 15-6 win over Wales during the Rugby World Cup, when deputising for the suspended Hooper.
But if Pocock sits out 2017, then a Hooper-McMahon double team will hardly strike fear among the ruck monkeys of world rugby. Both players were able to play as well as they did in 2015 because of the guys wearing No.6 and 8 beside them.
Australia’s return to the top of the tree has to involve a competitive over-the-ball unit, and with Pocock and Gill going or gone, it’s suddenly alarming as to where such vital playing attributes might come from.