Over the course of the weekend, four of the non-traditional rugby states in Australia battled it out in Adelaide for the Emerging States Championship.
Positive rugby
One of the standouts was the positivity of the teams participating.
Whether they were leading or losing, there was a good vibe around every game.
While Tasmania and Victoria Country struggled to make an impact in any way, travelling the long flight to Adelaide is commendable.
The standard of rugby on show was slightly lower than that of the Shute Shield, but the effort was there by all the teams – and while it became apparent early on that Tasmania and Victoria Country had no real chance of competing (let alone winning), only once was a team held to nil.
Kicking was a lower standard than I expected with some conversions not even reaching the posts in terms of distance.
However, this encouraged teams to run the ball with only a few touch finders attempted in this tournament.
Blowout scores
As you really would expect with an up-and-coming competition involving hurriedly created teams, there would always be some blowouts with Northern Territory and South Australia dominating Tasmania and Victoria Country over the course of the tournament.
The lack of contests in at least four of the six games could come across as a concern as it shows that states like North Territory and Southern Australia.
They seem to have more established club competitions than that of Victoria Country who are technically not represented by the Melbourne Rebels or Tasmania who field just two professional sports teams in national competitions and prove more successful.
Experienced players
This is not exactly a standout as such, but interesting to note that not all players are new to the game.
On the live stream, commentators mentioned that some of the Northen Territory players had been playing with each other for more than ten years.
No wonder they were one of the best teams before the hometown South Australians clinched their final round fixture to win the championship.
This was evident by the way the teams played the game. Many, if not all, had played the sport of rugby for a while.
(Photo by Daniel Carson/Getty Images)
There’s still something there, and it’ll be fascinating to see whether Andrew Forrest recognises and harnesses this, or mainly opts for overseas teams in World Series Rugby.
It was a great three days of rugby with some promising signs from most of the teams. The big disappointment for me was Tasmania who only won one game against South Australian U21s.
Why do we care?
Anything that attempts to break the ‘East Coast exclusive’ perception that Rugby Australia has put on themselves is surely a positive.
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