Melbourne Rebels set to be a huge success

Cipriani & Borthwick on Melbourne's Super15 list Article Published: Sunday 24 January 2010 http://www.thesuper15.com/news/viewarticle.asp?id=23979 Danny Cipriani and Steve Borthwick are said to be high on the Melbourne Rebels squad hit list as they try to build a squad for the Super 15 which kicks off in 2011. Rebels recruiter John Connolly will land in London this week armed with a list of transfer targets including Borthwick, Cipriani, Matt Stevens, Michael Lipman, Nick Abendanon, Luke Narraway and Magnus Lund. Connolly, the former Bath and Australia boss, is in charge of putting a Rebels squad together in time for next year's February kick off. Borthwick is the incumbent England captain but their have been rumblings that he will be replaced while Cipriani is a fair way off the England Elite squad. Cipriani comes off contract with London Wasps at the end of the season and has French sides chasing him. Leaving for Australia would however end any chance of a recall to the England set-up as the Super 15 season clashed with the SixNations. The Rebels will be privately funded which means that Cipriani and Borthwick are likely to be offered deals between £400,000 and £450,000 a season for the move to Australia. Borthwick has an Australian girlfriend and still has a year left at Saracens but it is believed that he has a get-out clause from the final season. His deal will hinge largely on whether or not he retains the England captaincy. Connolly is also ready to try to get controversial former England stars Matt Stevens and Michael Lipman to join the Melbourne Rebels . Stevens is currently serving a two-year ban for testing positive for cocaine last year while Lipman, who grew up in Australia, is banned until the end of next month for refusing to take drug tests. Connolly is also said to be keen on Bath’s Nick Abendanon, Gloucester No.8 Luke Narraway and Magnus Lund who is currently at Biarritz.

SBW i'd say they won't be looking at, he's mediocre and definitely wouldn't fit with the culture they're trying to produce. as you said luke rooney is saying hes english

what are the odds the Rebels will be wanting to talk to SBW as well? Luke Rooney has already stated he wants to play for England so Rebels may not succeed with him

Although I wouldn't say NZers are 'proud' of the large number of NZ born and bred players who turn out for other countries, they understandably get upset when they hear overseas based people complaining about all the polynesians that play in the All Blacks (most prominently the UK media) when most countries are far more guilty of poaching than NZ! If you want rugby to rise above its current position in Australia then how about the ARU spend money on development, rather than focus energy on recruiting NZers and South Africans? Getting foreigners on the ARU's books seems like treating the symptom rather than the cause of Australian rugby's problems to me. They're trying to buy depth rather than develop it.

Hill heads to Europe for Rebels recruits DAVID BENIUK January 24, 2010 - 3:44PM AAP http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/hill-heads-to-europe-for-rebels-recruits-20100124-msb0.html The Melbourne Rebels have intensified their worldwide search for players, with assistant coach Damien Hill flying out for a whirlwind tour of Europe which is expected to include a meeting with former NRL star Mark Gasnier. New Melbourne recruitment boss Greg Harris, until April last year the Western Force's chief executive, said Hill flew out on Sunday to gauge interest from Europe-based players, many of whom are in the final weeks of working on new deals. The Rebels can sign up to 10 overseas players for their inaugural Super rugby season next year. Former league international Gasnier, who plays for Paris club Stade Francais, has said he will make a decision on his future early in the year. "Anybody who we think has the capacity to play is within our thoughts at the moment," Harris told AAP on Sunday. "Without a doubt, Mark Gasnier's somebody who's a great athlete and he's played the game over in France so if he has a desire to come back to Australia then he'd be someone you'd naturally want to consider." Harris, whose official title is general manager of football operations, is the latest piece of the Rebels picture to be completed after the appointments of chief executive Brian Waldron, who officially starts next month, head coach Rod Macqueen and Hill. Former Wallabies coach John Connolly will continue as an advisor on player recruitment, Harris said. Harris, who endured the Firepower debacle and a spate of off-field crises at the Force, said he had given an undertaking to his former employees to remove himself from any negotiations with players at the WA franchise. "Frankly, I haven't taken any information with me, that was contractual," he said. "I spent time over there building that place up, the last thing I want to be personally a party to is things that would be detrimental to the Western Force. "There's a trust situation between them and myself. "That doesn't mean that the Melbourne Rebels aren't going to be looking at players from the Western Force ... but I've given them an undertaking that information that's confidential won't be released in my position as it is at the moment. "There are other people in the organisation who can conduct conversations with any person in Western Australia but it won't be me." The collapse of Firepower's third party agreements with Force players like Matt Giteau will also affect how Harris recruits for privately-owned Melbourne, despite no rule limiting what they can pay their overseas stable. "The reason why people like (Melbourne chairman) Harold Mitchell have got a dollar is because they haven't made decisions that aren't wise," he said. "They're not in this to sort of throw money up against the wall. "Anybody can come in and say there's an unlimited budget and just throw money, I've seen that where I was before and those things can fall over. "We've got to be pretty wary of that. "We do have the capacity to look after people financially but ... let's say the days of Firepower are gone and I've been through that." Meanwhile, the Rebels are hoping to strike a deal with ARU boss John O'Neill over a ban on signing Australian players before May 31. "We've got to come forward with some reasonable arguments to hopefully get some exemptions to that or some variations to how it currently stands," Harris said.

The ARU and Melbourne can poach whoever they like. They won't end up being as good as they would've been if they'd stayed in NZ.

if that is the case sam, which i don't agree with the open argument for, thanks for the support, as rugby league is crapping all over rugby in oz currently and you should be proud new zealand is beating australia in something in terms of development and social economics.

Australia has basically declared it wants to poach players. What do you think the non-Test 'marquee' player is all about? It's about getting a non-Australian to play for 3 years to qualify them for Australia under IRB eligibility rules. Sivivatu is the only current All Black you could possibly claim moved to NZ for rugby reasons. He was at secondary school when he moved - hardly compares to all the NZ born players in the Samoan team though does it? As for polynesian players in Super squads - NZ teams have exemptions for pacific players in their Super teams - quite a number that have played Tests for pacific countries, they're never going to play for the All Blacks. Unlike in NZ (with the exception of the marquee player, and the non-Test marquee player) you have to be eligible for Australia to play Super rugby in Aussie.

certainly wasnt the story of sivivatu, theres no doubt that there are polynesians in new zealand what with the maori's and such. you could argue just as much that later in life the rugby players are simply looking for a better quality of life in australia. (since thats why so many new zealanders come to australia for). may i remind you that that article refers to two players who come from new zealand, and only for the super teams, not the national team. im sure i could find ATLEAST two islanders who were poached when they were young for the super comp. i see no evidence for melbourne taking any stars of the allblacks so far, and if anything it might just be a huge reflection of the amount of kiwis and saffas in melbourne and sydney, and brisbane, and perth...... just as you are saying with south auckland and the islanders

Im sorry RugbyFuture, but your trolling is of the fail variety. Might as well say Aliens come down from mars and kidnap Fijians to play for Mars.

hahahaha. Yeah I love that theory. Muliana arrived before he was 5, so did Rokocoko and So'oialo. Saying these guys were recruited young? Mate if NZ has a fella that can spot an All Black before the age of 5 it's no wonder the Wallabies havn't beaten them in so long. I love this myth that NZ pillages all it's polynesian players from the Islands. Been to South Auckland lately? You'll hardly see a white face. There are more polynesians in Auckland than any city in the world!

the PI players move to nz to get more money and are alotta the times scouted and then they hold them there for the amoiunt of years needed without playing for their teams in the islands and then they finally turn up in the allblacks squad, not ignorance at all.

The grandparent clause has been around for years and I would suggest it has probably been used by every country at one time or another. Its happened to Australia as well you know... Dan Parks, Cockbain and Hynes are all Aussies playing for other countries. You just wont find too many Aussies moving to NZ so its not a great resource for NZ rugby ;)

Thats incredibly ignorant Rugbyfuture. The two situations are nothing like each other. One is the result of parents moving their children to a new country for a good life, the other is rugby scouts raiding already established school boy stars in another country. Such ignorance..................

much like the new zealanders do to the pacific islanders? all the wings and centres of the allblacks are set to be from fiji tonga and samoa

The behaviour of the Rebels, Reds and Force in targeting Wallaby-eligible NZ players (grandfather clause or otherwise) suggests that any further expansion of Super rugby in Aust remains a pipe dream. Forget Adelaid, Western Sydney or Hobart; the Aussie provinces see their future players as coming from Manawatu, North harbour, Hawkes Bay, Dunedin, etc Interesting to note that these Aussie provinces do NOT want any Kiwi signing to play in the NPC after Super rugby. (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10621595) If the Aussie provinces continue to raid NZ rugby then I think NZ should either pull out of a revamped Super competition the next time the competition is up for renewal OR demand a sixth franchise. After all, there is a good chance NZ will have a sixth franchise anyway, based in Melbourne.

I sincerely hope that the Rebels are a huge success, but there is more wishful thinking than logic by some of the rugby contributors to the Roar on this issue. To read some of the comments, you might think that the Rebels will have unlimited funds, an in with the Melbourne media because Harold Matthews will be able to wave a magic wand, an unlimited number of potential supporters, access to some of the best players in the world, the ability to sign some of the best league stars, and so on. Additionally, some Roar contributors seem to suggest that the Storm might as well close down tomorrow, such will be the impact of the Rebels. AFL must be quaking in its boots! If we look at the reality, however, the club has some big hurdles to jump, and you have to question whether it has the right personnel to jump them. I'm not convinced that Brian Waldron will be a great chief executive (I hope I'm wrong), and Rod Macqueen, while probably the greatest coach in the history of the Wallabies, will not have coached seriously for ten years when the Super 15 series kicks off in 2011. The game has changed massively in that period, and Rod, now in his 60s, I believe, will need the energy of a much younger man if he is going to get up to speed on the modern game. The Rebels have the potential to bring a lot to the Australian rugby table, but they will only succeed through hard work and judicious signings, and not because they have some divine right to success. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Disagree. It is a big mistake to write off western sydney. After all, they keep saying the population out here is bigger than Perth and Adeliade combined. There is arguably better grass roots development here. Parrmatta and Penrith play in the shute shield and a number of juniors are open to playing both RU and League.

Working class Adelaide has a population of over a million, and is not much developed in terms of rugby participation. So the potential for growth would be huge, as the NRL has almost no influence there either.

Roger Well, ideally now that the Tahs and NSWRU have become seperate entities more attention can be focused on Sydney's West. If this happens perhaps the need to have a WS team may be negated. Being realistic. We will always lose talent to League out there. But by developing and identifying it early we can arrange measures to keep the best of it. If Rugby were to expand further in Aus. I'd like to see Adelaide be the next cab of the rank. Then in the future as the conference grow look abroad (North) to areas in Asia with large expat populations and that are our time zone to fill other positions.