Western Force sign NSW schoolboy Luke Jones

Where is Steve Merrick It is very interesting you mention young Hooper as I believe he is a special player. The word is that the Brumbies are courting him hard to replace Smith.

Where is Steve Merrick Thanks for that. Hopefully they are or at least beginning to take Rugby more seriously. I played for the school in 03 and 04 when we were running around in place of High in the GPS 2nd Comp. We did okay coming second in our first year. But it was very much an opportunity for the borders to play a sport on the weekends. I was the only Day student in the team in 03. If they train more intensively I'd imagine they'd improve. In regards to Campbelltown and Penrith. Being an ex-Campbelltown Harlequins player it is ridiculous that the only other team in the area is Camden. Two clubs for 200,000+ people and growing. The NSWRU and ARU need to rectify this situation. Get more club into the area. By this time the Harlequins should have been the South West Sydney equivalent of the Sydney Premier Clubs.

I think St Greg's have finished mid to lower table... ISA runs two divisions now and caters to just about 16 or so schools St Augustines have dominated the last few years - I think rugby in general is to blinkered to the beenfit of the few as opposed to the whole - similar to the continued shunning of Western Sydney by the NSW rugby - how NSW Rugby have not worked to have both Campbelltown and Penrith as strong clubs over the last decade is beyond me - two massive growth areas of Sydney that they largely ignore - this will come home to roost in a few years time.... Am I the only one who finds it laughable that in teh "premier" division of Sydney Rugby three clubs Uni / Randwick / Eastsare in such close proximity - Also does anyone else feel the formation of the Waratahs Super 14 has devalued the NSW jersey honestly the numbers of caps these guys are notching up, including the replacements - why not have a specific NSW side to play touring sides that is selected on form - the Tahs do not respresent NSW Rugby .....

Where is Steve Merrick My old school recently started playing in the 1st Div of the ISA comp this season(it still appears to be just the borders), so I would like to see some more news of the results. Are you up to date with the ISA. If so how have St Greg's gone. They talk alot on the ISA thread on Sportal but don't actually give many results.

If he was a product of the GPS system there woudl have been a great hoohah about this - he plays for the struggling St Pius side in the often maligned ISA competition....... Why does ABC rugby on Saturday broadcast the GPS results but not CAS or ISA? Given that the GPS competition is really out of three or max four sides each year..... Interesting to note that Michael Hooper the pplayer many describe as teh best schoolboy player in Australia is in the same 1st XV - unfortunately Hooper has been out for the season

OK to open up the discussion but a meandering tale from a water polo player at 30,000 feet is light evidence First of all getting up at 6.00am never hurt anyone and plenty of people do it every day. If they dont do technical, tactical and physical development training then when is this going to happen. Guys like O'Conner, Beale, Cooper, Turner, Pockock are all playing for the Wallabies at 19 or younger so how are they supposed to compete with the Bothas, Matfields, Nonu's etc. Answer is that they have already been in talent id squads since age 15/16 and have been doing physical and skill development work run by the ARU. The idea of training twice a day is a function that they earn little and they still go to work or Uni. Rugby League teams do nearly twice as many weight sessions weekly all the way through their careers are their injuries worse or better than Union. In all the sports science that exists why would rugby not be focussing on core strength. That is simply incorrect. The physical development is all encompassing and includes, stretching, preventative injury training, core strength, olympic movements, recovery, nutrition etc etc. Yes it is an easy debate to have about academies but who else is providing the development to latch all the other professional teams in the world? Lastly Harry is praising Growden's piece in the SMH about reducing the fixed earnings for the Wallabies and increasing incentives. What better tool for ascertaining the players with the right mental and physical ambitions by making them work for it - I dont think getting up at 6.00 and training after work is too onerous. Many players in the amateur era did just that day after day and they did it for fun

Lets open this discussion up a bit. Rugby academies are ruining young rugby players in a few different ways. The boys I know who have attended them have to be there for a very early morning start which involves them getting on a train at 6am then they do tactical moves etc and a lot of weights work for a few hours then back to the training late in the afternoon to do more work. They are over muscled and suffer knee and other joint injuries and don't get to play a lot of club rugby. If they don't live near the academy then the day is stuffed and they can only do part time work. I sat next to an Olympic water polo player on a plane recently who was at the 2000 games and got talking about training etc (he also had played rugby). His view was that rugby players and particularly young ones are doing too much weights work, insufficient core strength and far too little to strengthen ligaments. I tried some of his core exercises on my guys and they couldn't do any of them for very long. I think it's time to review what we are doing with our young rugby players generally and specifically at the Academies.

anopinion I sympathise a great deal with your views and in a perfect world this (professional football clubs signing people at school) wouldn't happen, and I agree many of these developing players - Beale, Cooper, even O'Conner, all forwards - would be far better off playing club rugby, even at Colts level, for a couple of years after leaving school. But its a fact - the war for talent is extremely hot, not just between league and union, but now Aussie Rules is into Qld and NSW schools as well. Union has to compete, however regretable the consequences you highlighted. I don't know what the solution is, of course its exacerbated by ye olde "agents" in there tryig to sign people up at ridiculously young ages. Anyway credit to the Force for some canny recruiting, which is what they need to do to prosper. I only hope they continue to work on and invest in junior and club rugby in the WA so that one of these days they can realistically hope for a squad of at least half locallly born and reared rugby players. Why do the Force "raid" or "poach" players while NSW "recruit" by the way? What do Queensland do when they sign players to contracts ..."condemn", "languish" "take a chance" come to mind. Anyway its rare that I say this, but Growden's column in today's SMH about the overpayment of Wallabies leading to complacency and mediocrity is 100% spoton, and a fine piece of journalism.

I object to schoolboys being offered contracts. I object to students being approached. Wait till they graduate year 12 then approach them. An NRL club have approached a lad in year 8 at the school I work in. There go his studies, he does not need to do homework anymore because he believes he is going to play RL. It is unethical for these clubs to distact young men from study. Spiro to say "would have languished in the NSW Academy and played a bit of club rugby". What an awful way to spend ones youth. I hope no one ever has to languish. Club rugby is where people make life long friends, become part of something they can return to play, coach and watch rugby when they are 35+. The Western Force will not care for this young man at that point in his life if he turns out to be an average footy player. Can we not allow these guys to prove they can handle colts then grades then Super then Wallabies? Why all the fast tracking? Eg Quade Cooper would have been better off with a year of club rugby instead of his first year of Super Rugby

I googled him 108kgs and 197cms - not a bad start nonetheless - similar weight to Eales at the start although he ended up 122kgs from memory at the end

I dont think offering a one year rookie contract is a massive endorsement rather and indication of the second row stocks in Australia at the moment - agree the tahs should be looking at him but I seriously doubt whether one year out of school he will be physically capable of taking on the likes of Botha and Matfield. Remember the school season is not alot of hard games in Sydney. The schoolboy tests and championship maybe and a few of the derby games but its a long way from training weekly for 11 months of the year - this will take some adjustment as well. The physical progress in the Tight five is a bit slower but heres hoping he might be a future John Eales

Here are the NSW Waratahs looking around for second rowers and the Western Force seems to have stolen a player who might have been the NSW equivalent of John Eales was for the Queensland Reds. One of the benefits of having a number of Super Rugby teams is that most of the talent that is available gets chased down and utilised. The Reds were going to lose James O'Connor to rugby league before the Western Force poached him. Luke Jones would have languished in the NSW Academy and played a bit of club rugby, perhaps, if he'd stayed in NSW. Now he's beeinf fast-tracked into Super Rugby with a chance to get on with his career in Super Rugby.

The "Force" be with you Luke!