A looming tug-of-war over sevens rugby players for the Rio Olympics has been brought into sharp focus by Queensland’s annoyance at losing Liam Gill to Commonwealth Games duty.
Frustrated Reds coach Richard Graham went as far as to label the Australian Rugby Union’s approach to Gill to play in Glasgow next month as inappropriate.
The ARU have strongly defended their actions, but Graham’s outburst highlights how player sharing between Super Rugby teams and the sevens program threatens to be a never-ending battlefield ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games.
General manager at the ARU, Andrew Fagan says clubs have known since before the start of the season that sides out of finals contention would be compelled to provide players for the Commonwealth Games.
That Gill is one of those head-hunted should come as no surprise to the Reds, according to Fagan, who says the Wallaby star as well as Melbourne back-rower Sean McMahon have long been on the radar due to their sevens background.
Fagan says this fact was communicated regularly to the also-ran Reds and Rebels.
However, Graham claims the ARU first contacted Gill to sound him out before they notified the 12th-placed Reds of their plans.
He says he only discovered he’d be without his star flanker for the final two Super Rugby rounds when Gill told him on Monday.
“I would have thought that (better communication) would have made life a bit easier for us. And I probably would have thought it would have been easier for the ARU to come directly to us at the start,” Graham said.
“Asking the player probably isn’t appropriate but that’s what has happened, and we’ve got through that and we’ll move on.”
The ARU said they had been keeping Reds chief executive Jim Carmichael in the loop and were comfortable with how they communicated their interest in Gill and McMahon.
There’s an inherent conflict of interest in balancing a desire to make the most of Australia’s opportunity at an Olympics with the ARU’s desire to also have successful Super Rugby teams and a winning Wallabies side.
The player tug-of-war will only get more intense in 2015 and 2016 when high-profile stars would have to miss 15s action to qualify for the sevens team for Rio and also prepare for the Olympics.
New national sevens coach Geraint John said on Wednesday he would make contact with all Australian Super Rugby coaches and introduce a professional culture where all parties work together.
“When Liam and Sean are here our job is to make sure we report weekly to the Reds and Rebels and tell them what we’ve done,” John said.
“We need their (Super Rugby clubs’) support. Hopefully by us doing that they’ll feel comfortable that if there are other players we want in the future they’ll know they’re going to get a very professional environment.
“It’s a national environment so it should be better.”
H Wood
Guest
A CEO that though someone else would do his job for him, that a novel idea....
kunming tiger
Guest
plus 10
jutsie
Guest
Funny that graham is making such a fuss but has named gill on the bench behind Robinson. I'm pretty sure gill would rather represent his country at 7s than warm the pine whilst the Reds get smashed by the rebels :D
Magic Sponge
Guest
FOS we all know the reds wont get within 30 points of the tahs.
Chan Wee
Guest
who does the coach work for ? club or country? who does the player work for ? as an employee of reds , the coach shud have been informed by the club ceo. if there is official memo from country union, then maybe it shud be copied to those who matter in the loop - player and coach. obviously there is a communication gap between employer and employee and he is frustrated. :)
Owen McCaffrey
Roar Guru
Methinks his real beef is that he is so far down on the totem pole and there are other issues at play. Super Rugby franchises are corporate enterprises with $6million turnover. And they are subordinate in some cases to the ARU. Graham is just not the top rung in his organisation so he needs to get a better secretary or get his CEO to communicate with him better. The ARU sevens coach doesn't have all week to play phone tag.
formeropenside
Guest
Dunno, hopefully knocking the Tahs down the ladder a spot or two is a lot of redemption right there.
Markus
Guest
If new coach Geraint John had specific things he needed to discuss about Gill, I would expect him to discuss them with Graham directly. But any ARU administration contact would be to the QRU administration, as has happened.
redbull
Guest
There is not very much detail really to make any assumptions. The report says the "ARU" contacted Gill. So who is the ARU? The 7s coach, someone from the executive? If the ARU executive contacts the Reds executive then that is appropriate, should the ARU executive also be talking with the Reds coach? It seems to me that the 7s coach should be talking with the Reds coach about their player in common. Still seems to be confusing or non-explicit communication lines with Oz rugby as was the case with Folau injuries earlier in the year.
Magic Sponge
Guest
7s is more important than the reds season. You cant redeem it.
Gazzatron
Guest
It's the CEO's fault for not informing the coach. Case closed, nothin to see here.
El Gamba
Roar Guru
RG throwing up smoke and mirrors, taking the attention away from the key fact that he has steered the mighty Reds to 12th.
Jiggles
Roar Guru
He has no ARU contract, so they can't 'take' him.
Nek Minnut
Guest
Id suggest because he thought it a formality that they themselves would inform Graham. Id say Gill thought the same and Graham definately feels that way. The CEO is probably saying "what, they didnt call you?". Even if Graham is to be sacked, the CEO would inform the coach if he understood there was no notification for Graham, they arnt petty children. Do people seriously think that the ARU was right not to work with the coach directly? To not even tell him let alone discuss the whole process with him? To me it is ridiculous that you wouldnt ring the coach directly.
John Wagner
Roar Rookie
It seems that the ARU did notify Reds CEO, Jim Carmichael. One wonders why Carmichael did not pass that information on to Graham? Perhaps Graham has already been shown the door?
Sailosi
Guest
Don't you think that if he was any good at 7's he would have been around some national set ups in Fiji. He was a park footballer in Australia because he was a park rugby union player in Fiji.
formeropenside
Guest
So does Gill have an ARU contract now? I dont know how else they can remove him.
Nek Minnut
Guest
Yeah, the ARU shouldnt be working with the super rugby coaches. Just leave them out of the loop. Best practice 101.
PeterK
Guest
They should have taken Davies and Turner instead of Gill. The Aust 7's team really lacks pace, so choose fast backs.
PeterK
Guest
agree but that is carmichaels fault not the aru's