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The Roar’s Spiro Zavos wrote in a recent article ‘Given its great number of players, about 500,000, and the great wealth within the rugby community, it is actually something of a marvel how unsuccessful England has been as a rugby nation’.
The same sentiments could be echoed for both the Reds and the Waratahs in regards to Australian rugby.
No amount of obfuscation can change a number of undeniable facts.
I. The Brumbies are Australia’s most successful team, and the most consistently successful over the past five years;
II. The Brumbies have a much better history than the Waratahs or the Reds of consistently developing their players to be among the best in Australia;
III. The Brumbies have done this with far fewer resources than the Reds or Waratahs, and often when only getting the ‘scraps’ that the Reds and Waratahs did not want.
This means that the Brumbies are either much better at identifying prospective talent than the other teams, offer a much better training and development environment than the other teams, or both.
Take 2017, for example. Most pundits picked the Reds or Waratahs as the teams most likely to top the Australian conference. They had by far the best and most experienced teams on paper.
Meanwhile, the Brumbies had lost the wealth of their experience with Pocock on sabbatical, Lealiifano’s cancer, Vaea’s retirement, Cubelli’s injury and Tomane, Toomua and Moore departing. This is in addition to Nic White and Jesse Mogg, previous key players in the team leaving in the last few years.
Despite this, the Brumbies just smashed a woeful Waratahs team in Sydney and are clearly topping the Australian conference.
The Waratahs are playing pathetically incompetent rugby. I would not be surprised if they finish last in the Australian conference.
The Reds, while showing occasional glimpses of good abilities, are mostly languishing.
The Wallabies are the most important team in Australia for rugby. If the Wallabies are winning then Australia cares more about rugby. History since professionalism has demonstrated time and again that the Brumbies contribute the most to the Wallabies, especially relative to Canberra’s population size.
Even the Force and the Rebels have a history of doing more with less resources than NSW or Queensland, whose constant mismanagement of top talents is bordering on criminality.
If the Brumbies are cut and their players are dispersed through the other teams. watch the talents languish and previously skilful players go backwards.
This will especially be the case with the players who move to NSW and Queensland.
Meanwhile, if the Reds or Waratahs are disbanded, watch the other provinces develop many of their players to higher levels than they currently achieve.
More importantly, rugby is more than a business. It has deep cultural roots to many of us as well.
I don’t care what people say about NSW or Queensland as the heart of Australian rugby, people in those states care about their team less than those of Canberra do.
The Waratahs and Reds are based in cities about 12 times larger than Canberra, and have far more marketable superstars in their team than the Brumbies. Despite this, their crowd sizes are barely higher than those of the Brumbies.
Ideally, no Australian team should go. Each one is important to their fans, to Australian rugby and a cultural heartland for rugby in their state. It is a tragedy that any should go, and I commiserate with any fan who loses their team.
That said, if a team has to be cut it absolutely must not be the Brumbies – for the good of both Canberra and Australian rugby. A Brumbies administration of Sydney would almost certainly lead to better results for Australian rugby and the Wallabies than those that have been achieved by the untouchable NSW Waratahs.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.