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I would like to see some rugby matches involving NSW, Queensland, ACT and WA, where the players represent the provinces they came from. It could come after the Tri-Nation series and run at the same time as the Currie Cup in South Africa and NPC in New Zealand.
It could involve NSW playing Queensland home and away, and the ACT playing a Perth-based team home and away. Shorten the NSW and QLD club seasons by a month and those states could field B teams to play each other.
You can fill in the spaces, but I’d like to see a genuine QLD team: Moore, Sharpe, Chisolm, Elsom, Brown, Genia, Cooper, Hynes, Barnes, Mitchell, O’Connor Res. Horwill, Ioane
They could play a NSW team: Robinson, Polota-Nau, Alexander, Dennis, Mumm, Smith, Waugh, Palu, Burgess, Beale, Turner, Horne, Cross, Ashley-Cooper. Res Dunning
I believe such a match would generate a lot of “tribal” interest for the players and public alike. Most people probably don’t even know that guys like Elsom and Chisolm are Queenslanders.
ACT could include in their line-up Giteau and Peter Kimlin, as well as other ACT locals, and WA could include David Pocock and the best of their local competition.
Obviously, this isn’t ideal (eg. Giteau playing in a lower standard match), but Steve Waugh played for Bankstown occasionally.
Put the matches on for a season, promote them and see what the response is like from the public and the players.
It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be perfect in the first season.
State of Origin started with one match and evolved into a three match series and it certainly has an enormous profile now- much more so than back in the early ’80s.
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