NRC rolls on: Wallabies allocations well on the mark

What started as a drip is becoming a proper stream. With next to no National Rugby Championship news ‘out there’ even as recently as three weeks ago, suddenly – happily – the news is rolling out regularly.

And we should start expecting more, too. As I’ve mentioned in recent weeks, numerous clubs have pencilled in the week either side of the Super Rugby final for their official launches, and the competition as a whole is eyeing off airtime in there somewhere too.

Last week, it was the draw. Yesterday afternoon saw the allocation of Wallabies to the nine clubs.

From the ARU statement, “Players recognised as Wallabies for the purposes of the Buildcorp NRC are those that were named in Australia’s 32-man playing squad for the June Test series against France.”

From that 32, injured Wallabies skipper Stephen Moore was not allocated to an NRC club, and will be used as a competition ambassador. Nick Cummins is now on his way to Japan and also wasn’t allocated.

The Wallabies allocations were as follows:

•  Brisbane City: Will Genia and James Horwill
• Greater Sydney Rams: Kurtley Beale, Ben Alexander, Rob Horne, Tatafu Polota-Nau, and Tevita Kuridrani
• Melbourne Rising: Scott Higginbotham and Luke Jones
• North Harbour Rays: Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, Wycliff Palu, and Pek Cowan
• NSW Country Eagles: Adam Ashley-Cooper, Sekope Kepu, Matt Toomua, and Nic White
• Queensland Country: Rob Simmons and James Slipper
• Perth Spirit: Nathan Charles, Matt Hodgson, and Ben McCalman
• Sydney Stars: Israel Folau, Bernard Foley, Nick Phipps, and Will Skelton
• University of Canberra Vikings: Sam Carter, Christian Lealiifano, Pat McCabe, and Scott Sio

Overall, these allocations look pretty logical. There’s a few here and there where the link might be on the tenuous side, but they seem pretty well on the money. There hasn’t been any major relocation of players, either.

With the Brumbies and Waratahs making up the lion’s share of that Wallabies squad in June, it was always going to be a case – particularly for the Brumbies – that some relocations were likely. Players were asked to nominate links to potential NRC clubs, as I understand the process, so no one’s being forced to play for a club they don’t want to play for.

Genia and Horwill to Brisbane City is pretty obvious, both being Brisbane boys and coming up through the GPS school system into the Reds program. With Genia ruling himself out of Bledisloe 1 only last week, with his ankle not quite healing as quickly after surgery as he might have liked, he’s a decent chance of returning via the NRC.

And indeed, that was one of many reasons for establishing the NRC in the first place, to provide that higher level of competition for players on the fringes of the Wallabies squad, and those returning from injury.

The Greater Sydney Rams – home of one of the funnier sporting hashtags around, #GetRammed – were the only team to take more than four Wallabies, and the extra one certainly had me scratching my head.

The southern and western Sydney links are obvious for four of their five: Beale hails from Mt Druitt, Alexander emerged from Eastwood and started for the Rams in the 2007 Australian Rugby Championship, Horne plays for Southern Districts, and Polota-Nau famously still hangs out with the Parramatta Two Blues.

But Tevita Kuridrani? Fear not, my Rams sources told me, it will all make good sense in first week of August, when at their official launch they’ll announce a big Polynesian event planned for early October, for which Kuridrani will be a key ambassador, along with Waratahs and Souths flyhalf Ben Volavola.

The Rams are very busily and very deliberately aiming at the big Polynesian communities in the greater west (and south), and will also have women’s Pacific Sevens games featuring at three of their home games.

My Rams sources also tell me Eastwood and Waratahs prop Benn Robinson is super keen to pull on a Rams jersey, and fight his way back into the Wallabies squad. My sources also told me that Beale was all but confirmed as a NSW Country player – in line with his Randwick affiliation – until an eleventh-hour phone call from Michael Cheika ensured he‘d be part of the Rams’ ‘One Family’ promotions.

On the topic of Rams jerseys, check out their social media channels for sneak peeks released over the weekend of their home and away playing strips.

Higginbotham and Jones were always going to be assigned to the Melbourne Rising, and you can expect most of the top-line Rebels to in there too. The Rebels and Rising have been promoting a number of local Dewar Shield players in recent weeks too, so there looks to be a good spattering of Melbourne rugby talent in the Rising squad.

I guessed correctly a fortnight ago that Fardy (Warringah), Hooper and Palu (both Manly) would be included for the North Harbour Rays, and I wondered if Cowan (Warringah) might be squeezed in as well. Waratah Matt Lucas and soon-to-be-Rebel Cam Crawford are already known to be in the Rays’ squad, and with Manly and Warringah finishing the Shute Shield rounds in first and fourth respectively, they’ll have a pretty solid squad.

Nic White (Scone) and Adam Ashley-Cooper (Ourimbah, on the Central Coast) are very welcome additions to the NSW Country Eagles squad, while Sekope Kepu also heads to the bush courtesy of his Randwick links. The Wallabies squad will be based in Orange from August 4-8 as part of their Bledisloe preps, and the Eagles will be very much front and centre, spreading the word about the game and the NRC itself.

What is Matt Toomua’s country link, you ask?

I wondered the same thing initially, but there is a link via Eastern Suburbs, who Toomua played a season or two for several years ago. Good enough, I suppose.

The Eagles announced yesterday that Central Coast Rays captain from 2007 (and occasional Roarer) Cameron Treloar, has come back from France to reprise his country roots, while Waratahs scrumhalf Brendan McKibbon and Australian under-20s flyer Andrew Kellaway have also been confirmed via their respective Easts and Randwick affiliations.

Rob Simmons hails from the tiny central Queensland town of Theodore, population 450, and his education at the Southport School on the Gold Coast with James Slipper qualifies both players for Queensland Country. Reds’ flanker Beau Robinson admitted to me on Twitter last week that he was lending his NSW Country background to Queensland for the NRC, though he also said he was thankful the two sides weren’t facing off in Dubbo, so he wouldn’t have to cop stick from mates at home!

Reds prop Greg Holmes, originally from the Darling Downs, and Gold Coaster Quade Cooper, would also have to be decent chances of running out for Queensland Country.

Perth Spirit logically get their three Western Force Wallabies in Charles, Hodgson, and McCalman, though they will be without Cummins as mentioned. Like Melbourne and the Uni of Canberra Vikings, they should also have a pretty decent Super Rugby-laden squad at their disposal, though I still haven’t been able to get a definitive answer on the status of imports such as Alby Mathewson and Wilhelm Steenkamp.

It had been long rumoured that Folau was not going to be used for the Rams, instead remaining with his Sydney University club and turning out for the Sydney Stars along with Uni teammates Foley, Phipps, and Skelton. As I mentioned in Part 2 of the initial information series, as much as Pat McCutcheon wanted to play for Country, he has elected to remain with his club and turn out for the Sydney Stars.

Finally, for the University of Canberra Vikings, it was always going to be a case of which four of their eight or so Wallabies would they pick. In the end, they’ve gone with Carter, Lealiifano, McCabe, and Sio, and with Toomua, White, Kuridrani, and Alexander heading interstate, that would suggest they’re using the NRC to get more experience into the likes of fringe Brumbies like Rodney Iona, Michael Dowsett, the Smith twins, and experiences players like Robbie Coleman and Jesse Mogg becoming key members.

Again, this is the whole point of the National Rugby Championship.