The Reds’ 41-7 victory over the Waratahs on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium was a promising start for Brad Thorn’s values-based coaching project at Ballymore, one that the Reds faithful all fervently hope will lead to rewards in terms of silverware.
The Reds beautiful unstructured attack and dominant scrum appear to have made their way into the DNA of the team, with new players fitting into the well-oiled machine just like the old hands. They were a bit rusty in some aspects of the game but there were no issues that Thorn and interim captain James O’Connor did not identify post-match, so those issues should be corrected and things are looking good for the season.
On the scrum, Thorn didn’t even need to start star tighthead prop Taniela Tupou to get the win. Playing Thor off the bench can only be good for a player that the Reds heavily relied on for 80-minute stints last year, but also demonstrated the confidence that Thorn has in starting tighthead Feao Fotuaika.
The Reds took Fotuaika out of Brisbane rugby club Sunnybank in his mid-20s through the Brisbane City team of the National Rugby Championship and turned him into a professional rugby player. A moment burned into my mind from the game while I sweated in the stands on that balmy Brisbane evening was of the 130 kg Fekuitoa sprinting across in cover defence like a halfback looking to make a tackle right before halftime.
It was an incredible effort for the man who had to lose 16 kg to get his chance in professional rugby, but it might not have happened without the pathway of the National Rugby Championship.
In July last year, I wrote about how the Reds obvious progress demonstrated the value of the NRC.
The Reds’ excellent finals run in 2020 and the game on Saturday night surely now demonstrate how far Queensland is ahead. I think that it would be hard to find a New South Wales supporter who would argue otherwise and naturally, they want their team to get back up to their formerly high standards.
Unfortunately, however, among the unpleasant power plays that unseated Raelene Castle from her role as Rugby Australia CEO last year, the NRC was dumped to appease loud and influential Shute Shield supporters who resented the NRC and who demanded a national club competition in which their clubs can star. These people were prominently supported in the News Limited media, which was hopelessly conflicted through its ownership of former rugby broadcaster Foxtel, and which used the Shute Shield versus NRC issue as a wedge in commercial negotiations and to unseat Castle.
Castle of course resigned but Foxtel also lost its Australian broadcasting rights. Consequently, Rugby Australia agreed to a ‘short-form’ national club competition in place of the NRC, though what that is to involve is unclear.
An NRC match between Melbourne and Fiji at Harlequins Rugby Club on September 9, 2017. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Ben Whitaker from Rugby Australia said in August last year:
“NRC was about developing players and seeing them tested at a higher level by pooling the best players available into teams.”
“This (a national club championship) is more about looking at how we support and promote existing clubs and brands. Through that, you’ll get some development and talent ID value but the core objectives are slightly different.”
Given that the obvious link between the rise of Queensland Rugby through embracing the NRC for player development with the corresponding failure of NSW rugby to do the same, surely it is time for Rugby Australia to reconsider dumping the NRC with its focus on development?
Perhaps the New South Wales rugby union and the Waratahs need to reconsider whether they are on the right path in kowtowing to the Shute Shield mob? Because from the outside it looks like they are on a path to further humiliation for a very long time.
Perhaps some more sensible heads in the Shute Shield need to look at the opportunities that their players are missing out on, but players like Fotuaika are enjoying because Queensland has made the most of the NRC?
Perhaps the broadcasters Channel Nine and Stan need to see the NRC as a low-cost investment, which will ensure the quality of their national and provincial Australian rugby competitions for more than just the next few years?
If some sort of arrangement could be reached where a short form national club competition can precede a reinvigorated NRC, then that would be great. Whatever happens though, the issue needs to be resolved in favour of reinvigorating the NRC for the welfare of the entire code in this country.
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
The idea that NSW Rugby is so far ahead of the rest of the country that it could field 8 competitive teams in a national competition is just laughable. They couldn’t compete with the rest of the country in the NRC with 4, then 3 then 2. The days of Sydney as the centre of the Rugbyverse are long gone. There are Premier Grade competitions in every state. The best interstate clubs would hold their own against any Sydney Club.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Maybe you’re just smarter than me. Personally I ask my biggest client’s what they want. I don’t try and tell them what I think they want.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
True TWAS, I had forgotten that. Just in case you had forgotten my opinion on that, what a bunch of no-hopers. If RA do not know where the value is, and what rugby fans want to pay to watch, it is no wonder we are next to broke. All these business people, no idea how to price their own product. Having said that, the NRC was dead before the current TV deals were done. No NRC will make it doubly hard for the Waratahs to dig their way out of the gigantic hole they have been excavating since 2014.
AndyS
Guest
If those teams were dominating super rugby before, you might have a case. Far from it, so clearly a false equivalency. And even if it weren't, splitting those players across multiple teams in the one city is dooming them to more of the same anyway. More teams and less money only leads to less competitive teams, not more. And you could expect that to translate directly to the Wallabies, so less money again, etc.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Well, how has putting franchises in Perth & Melbourne really worked out? Locals don’t give a stuff, so not enough local players, and NSW & Qld just lose theirs, weakening their depth to compete with NZ/SA sides. What was the better alternative: put a SR franchise in Argentina, or bring the argies here instead?
AndyS
Guest
Sounds like an unthinking article of faith. I think you can take it as read that if you can't pay enough to keep your own players, international players won't be beating the doors down to join. You also haven't addressed the question of where the money comes from, not just for the Force and Rebels, but the additional franchises in NSW and Q'ld. And I'm not really seeing where all the 'tribalism and community support' comes from if the teams are being flooded with Argentineans and PIs in the name of competitiveness...are the players all newly professional locals, or blow-ins?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Internationals: teams like the Force & Rebels should be inundated with internationals. Half a dozen argies each, half a dozen PI’s each etc.
AndyS
Guest
And apart from those couple of players, where do the rest come from? That's right, brand new amateurs taking the step up. And probably more of those than you'd expect, given that RA isn't currently paying for the Force and can barely afford the other four teams they have now. Add another few teams, salary caps will have to follow, and you'll be replacing a lot more than just the new opportunities as existing players unwilling to take a pay cut bail. If you want more teams at the same standard, the professional development structures have to expand by at least as much. RA long ignored that, then made a pretty average attempt at it, and now even that is gone. Going forward, just having more rounds of amateur rugby definitely won't cut it.
Micko
Roar Rookie
I'm talking about a proper comp tailored for the fans to facilitate some tribalism and community support. With international recruits to develop proper teams why do you assume the quality would be low? The Force have a couple of Argies and an Irishman now. Surely that'll boost their quality, and therefore the comp as a whole?
AndyS
Guest
Hard to see how anyone can believe that a more expensive version of club rugby plus a lower standard Super Rugby is the way forward for Australian rugby. Because what you are proposing is both.
Micko
Roar Rookie
No...states are there as rep teams. An Australian football code is best financially operated through franchises or clubs. The Waratahs & Reds should NEVER have been turned into weekly franchise teams, but everyone took Murdoch's money to build Rome in a day and build the "super rugby" comp... a comp that was always going to be a failure for the sport in Australia.
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
I’d say rugby’s main grassroots supporters in Sydney need to look at how they can get the Waratahs back on track before they did anything else. I’d assume the Waratahs would be part of any new comp and they are pretty crap at the moment. I agree the old NRC wasn’t the best and needed revamping to get the tribalism going but it filled the desperately needed gap between Club and Super rugby. Maybe Super rugby needs to change as well and what we saw last year and are seeing again this year I think we’re on the right path. A lot will depend on the Trans Tasman portion later
Micko
Roar Rookie
What I mean is for the failed super rugby to replaced with a proper pro comp. The NRC is a white elephant because it's a nothing comp: a plastic semi pro development league that has no interest from rugby union's main grassroots supporters in Sydney.
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
Not sure I agree with that mate. I don’t think the NRC would get the level of sponsorship needed to pay the players to stay and I think you’d then just move the gap from between club and super to between NRC and Tests.
Micko
Roar Rookie
That's why you let them stay amateur. It's part of rugby union's weird culture anyway. They're stubborn and proud about that history. Don't forget that stubbornness was the reason that rugby league took over as the footy code of choice in Sydney & Brisbane. You need to establish actual new pro franchises in those areas. This is the way forward. This comp needs to be the real deal, not a nothing comp like NRC.
AndyS
Guest
As I said, tried and failed. Those fans had two decades of FTA TV and ARU investment to make those competitions into thriving professional competitions. They didn't, tuned out, and have apparently only returned now those comps have reverted to pure amateur.
Micko
Roar Rookie
The NCC would have far more support with rugby union's actual fanbase: people in Sydney & Brisbane.
Micko
Roar Rookie
They HAVEN'T rejected the concept at all! They rejected a completely meaningless semi-pro comp shoved in to an already packed calendar. Why should they have given a stuff about the NRC? If the NRC is so good it should've been established to take over from Super Rugby.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Super rugby doesn't work for Australia: states are supposed to be rep teams, not weekly franchises (what the Waratahs & Reds were turned into) The professional structure was a complete failure from the start, where they accepted Murdoch's money and built Rome in a day in the mid 90's.
AndyS
Guest
I was talking about the push to a NCC, replacing the NRC. But if instead you are suggesting an amateur SS supporting an NRC centred around multiple Sydney teams, when they've so resoundingly rejected the concept, and make that the only professional level to support the Test team...that would surely have to be deliberate sabotage.