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Australian rugby doing just fine

The Reds cross the Tasman to take on the Highlanders in Dunedin. (AAP Image/SNPA, Ross Setford)
Roar Guru
23rd April, 2013
21

Too much is made of the Australian conference being the ‘weakest’. It is simply not true Australian Super Rugby sides are easy beats.

Depth in Australian rugby has always been questioned. And fair enough. It is difficult to argue that the pools of rugby talent in Australia are anywhere near as deep as those in South Africa or New Zealand.

Many of Australia’s best footballers play AFL or rugby league. This ‘choice’ is precisely why another tier of professional rugby in Australia has never materialised.

There is neither the player base, corporate money or interest in it.

As a result, the Australian Super franchises don’t have the same grass root player base to draw from as their SANZAR peers do. That much is uncontroversial.

It has always been this way and probably always will be, but this is not translating into a lack of competitiveness among Australian Super Rugby sides.

The intensity and quality of the Brumbies vs Queensland fixture more than matches any other SANZAR derby. In fact the fixture just past was probably the Super Rugby match of the season so far.

Then again those two sides are way out in front of the Aussie conference in terms of consistently high performances. So how about the other end of the conference?

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With the exception of the Rebels’ thrashing by the Sharks in Durban, there have been no capitulations by any of the Australian franchises this year or last.

By comparison, this is far different to what we saw from the new South African Super Rugby franchises as the competition shifted first from Super 10 to Super 12 and then to 14 provinces.

While the Kings have caught many sides off guard this year and performed exceptionally well, we only have to cast our minds back to the disastrous decade enjoyed by the Cheetahs and Lions between 2000 and 2010 to recall some truly one-sided match-ups.

Many players from the Lions, for example, were absorbed into more competitive franchises and those who replaced them were simply too young to compete at the Super level.

Yet the Rebels on-field struggles have very little to do with depth. A side that boasts Kurtley Beale, James O’Connor and Scott Higginbotham, along with Gareth Delve and Cooper Vuna, simply should not be struggling to that extent. The fact is the Rebels have not gelled.

Perennial underachievers the Waratahs beat Auckland and have now taken the scalp of the Chiefs, as have Queensland who did it even more impressively in Waikato.

In fact the Reds also beat Otago in New Zealand, as did the Brumbies right after they rolled the Sharks comprehensively in Durban. The list goes on.

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The supposed ‘weakest’ Australian team on paper, the Force, still managed a win over the Crusaders and pushed the Hurricanes in Wellington.

Those performances came after losing their starting hooker for the season and without Hugh McMeniman. Their squad will be bolstered by Luke Morahan’s signing from the Reds.

It is in fact Morahan’s signing that signifies the greatest shift in Australian Rugby for some time. He simply had to leave the Reds because they couldn’t fit him into their budget.

While the Scott Higginbotham situation was similar last year, the difference is that Morahan went without a huge ARU top-up and because he wasn’t a guaranteed starter at the Reds.

The same could be said for Colby Faingaa’s move to the Rebels too.

Bill Pulver has already heavily flagged a preference for a player ‘draft’. Such a move will only hasten and regulate the distribution of talent from the rugby factories of Brisbane and Sydney that is beginning to intensify.

Australia has nowhere near the player base of other countries but quality not quantity rings true. Australian sport in general has always pioneered new ways.

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It’s learnt to be smarter, leaner and tougher. Rugby will follow that mantra because it has to.

In the meantime, the Kiwis and South Africans can moan all they like about the Aussie conference. It obviously distracts the New Zealand Rugby Union from the plight of Otago both on and off field.

Meanwhile, the political earthquakes felt at Ellis Park after the Kings were admitted to the competition is the big talking point across the Indian Ocean.

Long may the moaning and distractions abroad continue.

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