The Force’s forceful entry into the Super 14 competition ruffled quite a few feathers. With no constraints upon their recruitment, the Force were right to chase players with the aggression they did. And their focus and drive has established a competitive squad.
The downside is that Australian rugby’s shortage of Super 14 quality players is showing. The Reds were stripped of almost all of their established stars and Matt Giteau’s defection will be felt more keenly by the Brumbies next season when George Gregan and Steve Larkham retire. Even the star-studded Waratahs have struggled to find ready replacements as injuries mounted. This player shortage is not likely to be relieved any time soon.
In the interim it would be well worth the ARU’s time to consider re-allowing a small quota of foreign players to represent the Australian provincial teams. The Super 14 competition is very highly regarded amongst the majority of northern hemisphere rugby players and supporters. If a limit of two foreign players per team were allowed, the interest would be such that each province would have their choice of quality international players.
The mercurial Freddie Michalak has signed up for the next Super 14 season with the Natal based Sharks. He follows fellow Frenchman Thierry Lacroix, Scotsman Gregor Townsend and Samoan Trevor Leota as internationals that have played Super 12/14 in South Africa. An experienced foreign international’s guidance would have been very useful to several of the young Australian players who were rushed into the Super 14 frontline this year. Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale are the two most obvious players who would have benefited from Freddie’s 42 international caps of experience.
Importing oversees players is not to everyone’s tastes. Recently Northampton born and bred Steve Thompson quite angrily questioned the commitment of imports to the Saint’s cause as the team faced relegation from the Guinness Premiership.
There are other options open to the ARU to fill the experience gap but it is interesting to see the amount of effort the ARU has spent chasing league players compared to that spent trying to bring back Australian rugby players who are playing overseas. The ARU drove the creation of the new team and the ARU must drive the effort to ensure the teams have enough quality players.
That Australia would not have enough quality players to fill four Super 14 squads was foreseeable. That the ARU did nothing to alleviate the situation by pursuing either foreign or ex-patriot players is a sad indictment on the lack of foresight that organisation possesses.
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