With today’s TV dominated by reality rubbish looking to find the next top chef/singer/model etc, I have a wacky suggestion for all of those who have become sick of suffering while watching the same sub-standard Australia rugby players who are constantly selected from the same predictable gene pools.
My proposal is that we create a reality TV show to create a new Australian rugby team. The chosen side should then be given a trial match against the current Wallabies.
I had this thought some years ago when I decided that I had played against better props that Matt Dunning and Al Baxter in local comps on the Gold Coast.
Unfortunately for regional players though, representative opportunities are few and far between as selectors appear to be focused solely on certain big-named clubs.
This favouritism in selection extends all the way to the top as the most current Wallabies team beaten by the All Blacks on the weekend contained no fewer than eight Waratahs in the starting line-up.
NSW under-performed this year to the extreme, yet the more successful Brumbies and Reds franchises were ignored. This tells me that form is not the deciding factor in selection, and in my world this is absolutely incorrect in selecting any representative side.
I would propose that a reality TV competition be created to publicly identify players from all over Australia. Each week a new position could be filled, starting with tight-head prop and ending with a full-back.
All would-be players in Australia who fancy themselves with a shot at the title in their respective positions can come and chance their arm by undergoing physical examinations, tests of speed, strength and rugby prowess with the best judged being assembled into a team.
Could you just imagine a six foot four miner from Cloncurry propping against Benn Robinson, or a whippet-fast, tough stock-rider from the Territory going against Digby on the wing?
This would be awesome for many reasons but at the very least for the following two. First, it might identify a new, unknown and better Wallabies team and provide currently unknown players with an avenue to better their chances of representative selection. It might prove to the Australian sporting public just how good the current team and players are.
This seems like win-win either way.
So much is said about the “lack of cattle” that Australia has with regard to rugby players and how rival codes steal away the best and brightest. I suspect that this is not true, but due to the vast size of this country, there are hidden gems waiting to be found.
Unfortunately, the only ones looking (read “Wallaby selectors”) keep searching in the same over-mined places (read “Sydney club-rugby”).
Albo
Guest
I like this idea. I think it has the most merit thus far. The Rugby Club could spruik it and perhaps show the player video of the week, take a crew down to the club etc. I like the name, but, throwing another into the mix: "undercoverrugger.com.au"? I think The Roar may know a web designer or two... Speaking of which, ROAR? How about an extra segment on your website?
Jock
Guest
If not a tv show what about a website called "undercoverwallaby.Com.au" ( For e.g) where a guy at a rugger game in the bush can take an iPhone video of some kid at fullback doing freaky things, then uploads it to to Ucw.com for review by the Ucw.com judges and potential selection into "Ucw.com first XV" ... Or something like that. Anyone know a webdesigner?!
Dasher
Roar Guru
Squeaky Moore too. We at school never thought he'd amount to too much.
Dasher
Roar Guru
What about "Kiwi Eye for an Aussie Rugby Guy"? Wait a sec, we already have that and it's not working!! Seriously though, trawling for talent from the bush is a good idea. There must be some hardy and highly skilled players out there playing amateur club rugby that fly under the talent scouts' radars who'd prefer to watch games on a Churchie sideline. Years back there was the Australian Rugby Shield, played between regional sides (including Tasmania), which the ARU axed after 2008. Perhaps they could bring it back and combine it with "Farmer Wants A Wife"...
formerflanker
Guest
Great post M.O.C you have made many of us think! The issue of scouts is a vexed one - I don't know of any formal, inpartial scouting system which looks through Grade, Colts, Waratah Shield and subbies for potential Waratah players. The only suggestions about "players to watch" come from people with vested interests.
PJ
Guest
Jiggles the best example of this is Scott Hinginbotham 4thXV at TSS and 5 odd years later Wallaby star -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
PJ
Guest
Fetus, Greg Clark's kid Cameron was certainly picked for who he was the kid did not play one game for the Knox Grammar 1stXV last year not even a trial and yet he was picked in the Australia School Boys side. It's the way schoolboy sport works. Back in the late 1990's the same school had a kid who was a woeful cricketer yet was made 1stXI captain and school captain quite close after his Daddy stumped up the cash to build a new building for the school. Welcome to the world of private schools where the best players don't always play 1st level sport -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
jeznez
Roar Guru
MOC, what a bizarre list of props to follow your slow comment. I'm sure I once heard Gordon Bray announce that Daly had been a sprinter in his youth, I know that Handy was a halfback until he was 17 and Dunning for all his faults became a crowd favourite with his intercepts and linebreaks. I think it is harsh on Daly and Handy to mention Dunning in the same breath as them - one guy won the world cup and the other helped break a 45 year drought on the Bledisloe.
Invictus
Guest
Do we have anyone who is good at spotting talent? And at the junior level?
M.O.C.
Roar Guru
But surely for every 120kg prop there are a few Justin Beibers (JOC) 14 year old girls seem to love him.
Markus
Guest
I like the way the Canberra competition operates in this regard. All of the senior rugby clubs also have junior teams competing in the same competition as the private schools, with teams from surrounding country NSW incorporated as well (Yass, Cooma, Wagga etc). It opens the potential player base up to a lot of players who would have otherwise just been picked up by/stuck with league, especially among the pacific islander juniors and in traditional league feeder areas like Queanbeyan and Wagga.
NC
Guest
Stop calling them pigs to start with! It just shows the general ignorance in Australian rugby regarding the finer points of forward play.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Plus the chances of breaking a neck are a lot smaller. Also 120kg props are not what a 14 year girl likes to see on TV (the mainstay of reality television).
Brett McKay
Expert
I've not been able to ask the question MOC, by my suspicion is that rugby probably didn't carry the same appeal to an audience as those other sports must have. Plus I suppose it's easier for an audience to be able to see talented footballers and cricketers, rather than rugby players, simply because of the positional and technical intracacies of rugby...
mjg
Roar Rookie
Victoria used to produce occasional Wallabies in the amateur era. It just takes a good selector to spot talent at any level. The AFL scouts do this extremely well. A reality TV show could do some of the hard work for S15 recruiters.
Jiggles
Roar Guru
The African and English kids usually have the means to go to one of the private rugby schools, so players like Pocock, Goodwin etc. get caught by the system. Its the Kiwi and Islander kids that we should really be looking at through club rugby.
Markus
Guest
Great summary, Hoy. It gets more frustrating when even 12yr old kids have been fast-tracked into the crucial First XV and schoolboy rep pathways, based on 'potential'. Potential of course being a synonym for size. Kids who have their growth spurt young get a leg-up that can be almost impossible for late bloomers to make up in later years, even if the late bloomers are now twice their size.
redsnut
Guest
The suggestion is a bit like the ARC really. But it is a good one.
GWS Rugby
Guest
cannot hope to compete when we utilise maybe 10% of schoolboys. don't think aru want change either
Billy Bob
Guest
Btw it does not have to be a 'reality' show It could be a real competition of tight forward brawn. TV reality ain't actually 'real'