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At a time when Australian rugby only seems to stop shooting itself in the foot when it pauses to reload, Perth Spirit’s maiden NRC title serves as a timely and jolting reminder that the game does indeed exist outside the so-called heartlands.
As if the number of players to have graduated from the NRC into Super Rugby the following season wasn’t enough of an endorsement, the number of fringe and injury-afflicted Wallabies who have returned to the squad this season only further underlines the importance of the competition in the Australian rugby calendar.
Though I wrote only a fortnight ago that an all-NSW Final might be the best thing for the competition’s health and awareness in Sydney – a point I stand by – I absolutely agree with the point a number of you made at the time, that a Perth Spirit win might just be the best thing for Australian rugby in general.
And I’m absolutely rapt for the team from the west for taking the title as they did. Having spoken to coach Dwayne Nestor and several players including skipper Heath Tessmann during the season, I’m genuinely thrilled with what they’ve been able to achieve and the manner in which they’ve achieved it.
All the headlines have been for the teams on the east coast, but all the while, the Spirit have just got on with their job, working hard for each other well away from the spotlight, knowing that team success would make it all worthwhile.
They would’ve have every right to blow up at the obviously deliberate timing of the Wallabies old boys last week threatening to hold the game to ransom, and with talk of rebel national competitions that, yep, you guessed it, only involved clubs in Sydney and Brisbane.
NSW Country skipper Paddy Ryan was annoyed enough to speak up at last Friday’s NRC Final media call in Sydney, offering, “I was a bit disappointed to see that brought up. It’s the week we should be worrying about the Bledisloe, in particular the [Wallaroos], and the NRC final.”
Perth going on to win the final in Tamworth on Saturday night should serve as a reminder of the excellent development work that goes on around the country, and especially in the areas outside the traditional strongholds of the game.
RugbyWA over the last couple of years have had tremendous success in the Junior Gold Cup programs, taking out the Under-15 title in 2016 (beating the ACT), and reaching the North Conference final in the Under-17s. It followed the 2015 result in which the U15s won and the U17s lost their respective Finals, both against the ACT.
Dwayne Nestor took on the Perth Spirit coaching role this season for the first time, but he’s been overseeing elite junior development in Western Australian for more than a decade. Think of a WA player to have come through the pathways in that time, and it’s a fair assumption that Nestor has coached him at some point.
In Saturday night’s Final, the Spirit were well led by the likes of Tessmann, and Ben Tapuai, Luke Morahan, Jono Lance, Ian Prior, and Pek Cowan, guys who all made their way west to continue their professional careers.
But it was the performances of guys like tighthead prop Jermaine Ainsley, hooker Anaru Rangi, backrower Ross Haylett-Petty, and scrumhalf Ryan Louwrens that should really be noticed, as these young WA locals have all come through those crucial development pathways. All of them have played Super Rugby, too.
The inaugural Phil Waugh Medal was deservedly won by Perth opensider Richard Hardwick, by far the best the player on the field, and who was absolutely phenomenal in defence and especially at the breakdown. Western Force fans worried about life after Matt Hodgson need worry no more.
Hardwick, too, has already played Super Rugby, and has been a member of the Spirit squad since the inception of the NRC.
Namibian born and Perth-raised, Hardwick has just signed a two-year deal with the Force, and is a graduate of the same Future Force program that has also fast-tracked young forwards Kane Koteka and Harry Scoble into professional rugby. Of the eight players currently in the Future Force program, five of them have already played at NRC level, as a minimum.
“The focus on junior talent has always been here, but I think the way they’re channelling their energy through the Future Force program and developing all the young players through the Junior Gold Cup now is great,” Tessmann told me late last week.
“This period during the NRC is when you really notice the amount the amount of work going in, because although we train at night to allow for the guys who work during the day, you go down there and there’s five fields full of kids from 13 through to 17, boys and girls, and training for Sevens and even an Under-19 competition next year.
“It’s great to see the number of kids wanting to take the next step and actually being offered that opportunity as well,” he said.
It’s a major reason why Tessmann at last Friday’s media call said talk of culling the Western Force was “absolutely a bit premature.”
Perth absolutely deserve their moment in the sun, and their NRC win should be being celebrated nationally. But we all know that no-one does self-interest and politick quite like Australian rugby.
And the shame of that is that when certain figures within the game would rather keep the blinkers on and look inwards, the one limb that everyone seems ready to cut off might just be doing the whole rugby development thing better than anyone else.