Why all the fuss about Walker and Larkham's one-off return?

The announcement last week that former greats Andrew Walker and Stephen Larkham would be running out in a Brumbies jersey for the Brisbane Global Rugby Tens was met with surprisingly mixed reactions.

The event, to be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on the weekend of February 11 and 12, is a new way of kicking off the season in Australia and New Zealand, and is being viewed as the ideal ‘soft launch’ into Super Rugby, rather than fumbling our way through a few trial games and using the first few weeks of the season proper to knock out the lingering rust.

Obviously, there’s commercial elements to the event, with Duco Events, the organisation behind the NRL Auckland Nines, hoping the ‘BGR10s’ can bring the same level of high octane excitement to rugby. And coming the weekend after the Sydney Sevens – now expanded to include a women’s draw – it’ fair to say it will be the biggest start to a local rugby season in some time.

And while there’s decent prize money up on offer (in the vicinity of AUD$1.6 Million), the BGR10s is mostly about having a fun weekend of rugby watching the very players we’ll be seeing in Super Rugby a fortnight later.

The fun element is important here. The 10s game has always lent itself to a more recognisable form of rugby than its Sevens cousin, but the extra room on the field means players will still be wanting to have a crack and throw the ball around.

Duco pulled off a coup getting the event endorsed by both the ARU and New Zealand Rugby Union, and the guarantee of Super Rugby sides and all their stars immediately gave the event some gravitas despite the obvious entertainment leanings.

And just has been the case with the Auckland Nines, there was always a chance the welcome mat was going to be thrown out for some former legends of the game. Indeed, former Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors enforcer Ruben Wiki was only last week unveiled for this year’s NRL event. But Duco know there’s a fine line between inviting select legends and turning the event into a golden oldies weekend, and will err well on the side of novelty.

The Queensland Reds kicked off the concept of the ‘wildcard’ player, announcing former Wallabies fullback Chris Latham was returning to Suncorp Stadium for the 10s, and presumably bringing short socks and thumping ‘torps’ with him. Like Larkham at the Brumbies, Latham is still heavily involved in training with the NTT Docomo club in Japan, where he remains fit and active as their backs coach.

Curiously, it’s all still a little unknown how the ‘wildcard’ player will work within each team’s squad, or indeed, how many each side can have. Evidently, it’s at least two now, but I would imagine most teams won’t have any at all. The event’s website mentions eight-man benches in addition to ten-a-side, though there is no mention of squad size. They run a line, “Join 300 stars of world rugby during two days of rugby heaven at Suncorp Stadium…” and some rough maths there equates to 14 squads of around 21 players.

Whether 21 is the final number, or whether that number includes however many wildcard players each side is allowed is currently anyone’s guess. Maybe you can have as many wildcards as you like, but only one can play in each game? Whatever it is, the BGR10s website doesn’t list it, and I haven’t seen that detail explained anywhere.

We’ll find out soon enough though; squads for the Tens themselves are set to be unveiled this week.

The Australian sides – at the very least – will be taking their full squads to south-east Queensland the week before, for the ‘Tournament week’ part of the event. When I spoke with Reds coach Nick Stiles toward the end of last year, he was in the process of organising additional trial matches and “opposed scrimmage sessions” against other Super Rugby squads in town during that week.

The Melbourne Rebels have announced they’ll play trial games against the Western Force and the Reds either side of the BGR10s event.

So given that the Australian sides will be using the Tens as part of their pre-season preparations, and that there would appear to be plenty of time for all squad players to play a decent amount of rugby in some shape or form during that week, it was a little surprising to see some of the reaction to the Brumbies’ confirming Larkham and Walker would take part.

“They are blocking the pathway for young blokes to get a run at a minor event,” was a common sentiment of comments just on this site, while other comments hinted at re-thinking their decision to attend.

And in both cases, I have to just wonder, “Really?”

For one thing, I can’t recall any adverse reaction to Latham’s announcement, but regardless, the Tens will be just one element to each teams’ pre-season. The Brumbies, for example, will play their first trial game this coming Saturday. In playing and training squads pushing 40 players these days, there will be players sitting out this game or the next game for every club.

The Tens is hardly going to be the outlet for teams to trot out their Super Rugby game plans and patterns anyway. It’s all about throwing the ball around, getting some miles into the legs, and generally just remembering why we love watching rugby.

The wildcards have a legitimate place in that picture, and will definitely add to the event from both a coverage and ticketing appeal sense.

It’s all good fun; let’s just enjoy it for what it is!