Australian rugby in 2017: Super Rugby growing pains don’t end well

The Australian Super Rugby season review concludes this week with the two sides who dominated the headlines for the worst possible reasons: the Melbourne Rebels and Western Force.

I’ll repeat a point I made in last week’s review of the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies: disgruntlement about the conference format was always hovering in the background, but I’ve no doubt at all that the performance of the Australian sides was a major factor in SANZAAR’s hand being forced into a competition restructure.

In short, SANZAAR’s growing pains became too much. And too soon, it would seem.

But, with the decisions made, and format and participants for the 2018 season now confirmed, there’s little point in revisiting those decisions here, nor the flow-on effects of the move, in which a large portion of the Western Force have now joined the Melbourne Rebels for 2018 beyond.

There’s no doubt at all that the off-field rumours, back-room dealings, and the overall poorly-handled move to discontinue the Force in Super Rugby played a huge part in the on-field performance of both sides, however.

RECAP: The bold predictions for 2017 – as made in the first week of February
As mentioned last week, I was a touch wide of the mark when it came to predicting the Australian conference for 2017. I had the Queensland Reds topping the conference just ahead of the NSW Waratahs, I had the Melbourne Rebels finally delivering on their roster and possible snaring a wildcard spot, and though I had the Brumbies finishing ahead of the Western Force, it was going to be really close.

No-one finished in their predicted position, which you all need to remember when I trot out the inevitable 2018 predictions early next year.

Melbourne Rebels

Man, oh man. Of all the predictions I got wrong in 2017 – and there were heaps, as you know – I reckon this is the one I was the most disappointed by. I had high hopes, or at least high-ish hopes for the Rebels, and they rewarded my optimism by running fifth in the Australian conference and dead, stinking last overall.

“This has to be the year the Rebels take the next step,” I said back in February. “There’s now too much talent and experience sprinkled throughout this still-young squad for them to blow chances and make dumb decisions.”

I will claim this small, moral victory: “Reece Hodge can only benefit from a full season at 12.” Hodge was the Rebels’ best by a good margin in 2017, with really only Marika Koroibete comfortably making the highlights reel.

They started the season with five straight losses, and with two byes in there, the Rebels had just a solitary competition point going into Round 8. Their two losses before the first two byes, the Blues and Hurricanes, were by 56-18 and 71-6 scorelines. It was barely March when the phrase. ‘it’s going to be a long season for the Rebels’ was first uttered.

And it was. Losses to Chiefs, Waratahs, and Crusaders followed, though at least the margins were narrower and totals not as high. In fairness, Hodge looked like beating the Waratahs himself before the New South Welshmen found the first of many late, late comebacks to win games. Regardless, the whispers around coach Tony McGahan’s future had begun.

(AAP Image/Joe Castro)

With just the aforementioned point to their name, and with their head officially on the chopping block, the Rebels dug in and muscled up to beat the Brumbies up front in Melbourne. They led 13-12 at half time after a first half grind, and it only got tougher in the second half, triumphing 19-17 despite the Brumbies scoring three tries and the Rebels earning three yellow cards.

From there, it was to South Africa, where the Rebels played a tryless, card-laden 9-9 draw with the Sharks in Durban. But just as you might have argued things were looking up, they were thumped 44-3 by the Kings.

Sadly, it only got worse from there for the Rebels. A flogging at home to beaten finalists the Lions was followed by a heartbreaking derby loss to the Reds in Round 12, and the odds of McGahan remaining in the job for 2018 were lengthening by the week.

After three more heavy losses to the Waratahs, Crusaders, and Brumbies, the announcement that everyone saw coming was made: McGahan and the Rebels had “decided to part ways” at season’s end.

A coming together of the teams in the crosshairs saw the Force and Rebels walk out onto Perth nib Stadium as a united group, and they again came together after Force’s 31-22 win. In the final round, the Rebels managed to lead the Jaguares 19-10 at halftime, but in an illustrative end to their season, ran out of puff and lost 32-29, with the Jaguares’ own disappointing season made to look better with an unbeaten tour of Australia.

Remarkably, the Rebels didn’t finish the season with the worst record in the competition – that belonged to the Sunwolves, who conceded 17 more tries – but the Rebels’ average of 5.3 tries scored against them per game while only scoring 1.5 tries a game themselves shows where their problems were in 2017.

Western Force

If the Rebels was the prediction I was most disappointed about, the Force was the one I was glad to get wrong. Though I thought the Brumbies and Force were about on par going into the 2017 season, I didn’t imagine their level would be enough to top the Australian conference, where the Force finished second, and 12th overall.

Despite ranking them fifth of the Australian sides, I also said, “I’m really excited about the Force this year.”

(Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

“It will all depend on how they start; if they post some early wins, the confidence will flow. The Force probably won’t play finals, but they might not finish fifth in the conference, either,” I suggested back in February.

And they did kind of start well, losing a close one to the Waratahs and Brumbies either side of a really hard-fought win over the Reds in Perth, with recruits Chance Peni and Curtis Rona both crossing. It was the Force’s first win at home in ten games, but it also came at the cost of losing Adam Coleman to a leg injury before halftime. Things weren’t going their way, and that’s without being officially in the crosshairs yet.

After their first bye, a 45-17 loss to the Crusaders in Christchurch was followed by a 24-15 loss to the Blues in Auckland, made to look better by a late try to Dane Haylett-Petty. A season that they needed to start well had netted just the one win going into Round 7.

An 87-point, eleven try thriller in Perth saw the Force home against the Kings, winning 46-41. Five tries were scored between the 61st minute and Ben McCalman’s in the 74th minute to seal the win, which pushed the Force to third in the conference going into their second bye.

The Chiefs landed in Perth after two weeks in South Africa, and with the Force now officially in the firing line following SANZAAR’s confirmation they would reduce the competition to 15 teams. One of the bigger nib Stadium crowds of the year saw the teams locked at 7-7 at halftime, with three Aaron Cruden penalties in the second half the difference between the two teams in a heavily defence-oriented game.

That loss was followed by a 24-15 loss to the Lions at home the following week, which would’ve earned the Force a losing bonus point if not for an Elton Jantjies try after fulltime.

A trip to Durban resulted in a bit of a thumping to the Sharks at Kings Park, but the Force then became the first Australian side to beat the Jaguares in Argentina, with tries to Alex Newsome and Isi Naisarani in the last fifteen minutes capping off a patient second half display.

But just it felt the Force were building for a run home, they were thumped in Perth, with a 38-point second half racking up a big 55-6 win for the Highlanders.

From there though, and with the rumour mill running hot that their days in Super Rugby were numbered, the Force finished strongly, winning three of their last four games. A comprehensive 40-26 win over the Reds in Brisbane kicked it off, with Peter Grant’s perfect 7/7 night from the tee the highlight.

A 34-12 loss to the Hurricanes in Perth followed, but the Force finished on a high, with a well-deserved 31-22 win over the Rebels at home in the aforementioned display of unity followed by a last game to remember.

Though they didn’t know their fortune at that stage, the Force played like they did, annihilating the Waratahs 40-11 in front of a huge final showing from the ‘Sea of Blue’. A try and 80th minute penalty goal to the retiring Matt Hodgson was only matched as a highlight by the appearance on-field at the end of the game of Andrew Forrest, an event that added yet another intriguing element to the Force’s season.

(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

In the end, the Force finished second in the conference, which was about right for how they played relative to the three Australian sides below them. It’s often mentioned the Force finished equal to the Brumbies on top, with six wins each, though that overlooks the eight bonus point-advantage the Brumbies had; the Brumbies also finished with seven losing bonus points to one, a fair indication of the difference between the two sides.

Ultimately, the Force learned of their fate a week after the Super Rugby Final, though this wasn’t confirmed until they lost an appeal in the first week of September. It was – and still is – a sad end to chapter that should have been so much more beneficial to Australian rugby than it was, only made more painful for the mass movement of players and coaches from the Force to the Rebels for the 2018 season.

The priority for Rugby Australia now must be to keep the pathways and the grassroots of the game in Western Australia strong in the short term. Should Super Rugby take on a trans-Tasman focus for the next TV deal, a reboot of the Western Force will be essential.

NEXT WEEK: the Australian rugby year in review concludes with a look back on the Wallabies.