On Saturday, 24 April, two of Sydney’s elite all-male private schools, Knox Grammar School and St Joseph’s College, ventured deep into what can’t exactly be called rugby heartland, Bankwest Stadium in Parramatta, to prove whose cashed-up rugby program for the teenage sons of Sydney’s upper class was in fact more cashed-up.
If the local western Sydney community wasn’t already sold, the match was only a curtain-raiser for the mighty NSW Waratahs Super Rugby fixture that evening. This came shortly after New South Wales Rugby Union innovatively tried yet another idea to grow the game: organising an open training session with Shute Shield Club the Manly Marlins.
Meanwhile, on the same sunny April afternoon, the Penrith Emus, who have long held the position of competition underdogs, remarkably scraped their first win in seven years – a hard-fought 11-7 grind over geographic rivals Western Sydney Two Blues.
Ironically it was the Two Blues whose name changed from Parramatta to Western Sydney to encapsulate the greater western Sydney area several years ago when the Penrith Emus were axed from the competition – only to be brought back last year.
The Two Blues themselves are not a particularly notable scalp in the competition. They have largely languished around the bottom of the table for years alongside Penrith – a far cry from the dominant Parramatta sides of the 1908s that thrived in rugby’s amateur era.
Nonetheless, the result of this match was huge for the Penrith rugby community, its players and its coaching staff led by rugby league legend John Muggleton, who has forged a cross-code coaching career since hanging up the boots himself. It is poetic that a win so crucial in the context of the history of both local sides occurred on the same day that the NSWRU scheduled a private schoolboy fixture in the local area at Bankwest as a precursor to the Waratahs match.
However, after the abrupt conclusion of the 2021 Shute Shield season due to COVID-19, a move by six of the competition’s most powerful clubs – Northern Suburbs, Gordon, Sydney University, Randwick, Eastern Suburbs and Manly – made an agreement that has left smaller sides like Western Sydney, Penrith, West Harbour and Newcastle-Hunter on their knees, with Penrith being forced out of the competition from 2022.
The agreement mandates that all clubs demonstrate a minimum turnover of $550,000 and must supply at least four grade teams, three colts teams, a women’s team and a full-time head coach and general manager.
John Murray, general manager of Eastern Suburbs, based in Woollahra, suggested that the three Western Sydney-based clubs should merge to form one team that would be more financially stable and competitive on game day. These recommendations were fiercely rejected by the three clubs, with West Harbour president John Meagher was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald saying, “It’s not very pleasant being bullied by the stronger clubs”.
Within Australia’s premier club rugby competition, the Shute Shield, the top half of the competition ladder continues to remain mostly homogenised between clubs situated in Sydney’s glamorous east and north while the weaker clubs from the west struggle to not only win games but even field teams.
In fact Penrith field only one or two grade sides and one under-21 squad, similar to other competition table bottom dwellers Two Blues, West Harbour Pirates and new competition entrants Newcastle-Hunter Wildfires. During these rounds the stronger clubs arrange bye rounds for their lower grades or alternate fixtures.
Simultaneously in rugby league both Penrith and Parramatta have emerged as NRL powerhouses in recent years, demonstrating that the areas are certainly not short on talent but merely short on enthusiasm, which is arguably even more worrying.
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
From a sympathetic point of view it is understandable that a young footballer who enjoyed a strong junior career in rugby union may be reluctant to join an embattled club that may be lucky to win a game or two across the duration of a season, particularly when a genuine alternative is a far stronger pathway with rugby league.
Even despite any pride or loyalty for one’s local area, from an enjoyment point of view the season would potentially be an unpleasant experience at a club lacking guidance and resources. From a personal development point of view playing at a club without strong coaching personnel would also be a hard sell for up-and-coming local talent.
As a result competition rival clubs have been the beneficiaries of the western clubs’ inability to retain their local talent, with clubs such as Northern Suburbs and Sydney University regularly bolstering their ranks with disillusioned West Harbour, Parramatta or Penrith cattle.
The Gordon Highlanders’ meteoric rise in 2020 was highlighted by the strategic genius and charismatic leadership of head coach Darren Coleman, who has performed similar transformations on other struggling clubs, such as the Warringah Rats, several years prior. The influence of Coleman has been profound in these instances, with him leaving the clubs in improved states culturally and successfully even years after leaving.
However, make no mistake that a large recruitment drive was a crucial part of Coleman’s Gordon rebuild, with many players from western Sydney and with professional experience playing key roles in the first-grade side’s premiership.
The lesson is that the problem for the western Sydney-based clubs is not a lack of talent. The catchment is home to 2.5 million people, and to further neglect the three rugby clubs situated in the area would be at a great long-term cost to rugby in New South Wales and Australia.
In Sydney’s inner west the Drummoyne Dirty Reds, former Shute Shield participants themselves, are yearly competition favourites in the suburban Division 1, fielding at least five grades each round and regularly strong colts. Simultaneously their supposed Shute Shield feeder West Harbour, with whom they’ve been sharing facilities during the rebuild of Concord Oval, struggle to field two competitive grades.
Alongside them the Blue Mountains hold a spot in Division 1 and are also fielding five grades and competitive colts, while at the same time their geographically correspondent Shute Shield club, Penrith, has also struggled to field two teams and has now been removed from the competitions.
Of course the level of rugby in the Shute Shield is by all counts superior to the standard in subbies, but evidently the strength of the rugby communities in these areas are not reflected by the Shute Shield clubs from the areas.
To become stronger, Australian rugby must grow. And to grow, Australian rugby, and New South Wales Rugby Union in this case, must go outside their comfort zone, potentially at an inconvenience to themselves, to make some long-term investments in the game.
What’s most disheartening about Penrith’s withdrawal from the competition moving forwards is not that they were outplayed by better-resourced and stronger teams but that their fellow competitors effectively forced them out. The entire situation is reflective of the current state of the game. It’s no secret that rugby has an image problem in Australia, and unfortunately selfishness has reared its ugly head in the form of the core Shute Shield clubs.
Penrith president Gary McColl, who has now joined Two Blues as an advisor, believes that the Penrith playing group will largely be lost to the game forever.
“Where do you think the hundreds of thousands – soon to be millions – of people are going to go?” he said, per the Sydney Morning Herald. “Rugby league, obviously.
“They’re not interested in soccer, they’re not interested in Aussie rules. They’ll either play rugby or rugby league.”
(Photo by Richard Heathcote – World Rugby via Getty Images)
The Sydney Rugby Union has expressed its desire to strengthen the Two Blues club by ousting Penrith, albeit acknowledging the success of the Penrith juniors program. However, McColl highlighted their naivety and disregard, saying “They see Parramatta as the enemy now. They won’t be playing there”.
It’s remarkable that the educated white-collar people in charge of the game, many of whom have esteemed backgrounds in business, can make such short-sighted decisions. It is reflective of their selfishness at the cost of the very sport they have been entrusted with the leadership of.
Rugby is a rapidly growing global code undergoing an interesting transitional period due to COVID-19, which has seen a rise in the number of domestic competitions around the world. Super Rugby AU has recaptured the interests of Australian fans, while Major League Rugby in the US and South America’s Super Liga competitions continue to gain momentum. Even without crowds this year’s Six Nations competition has arguably been the greatest rugby action since the World Cup, with a refreshing changing of the guard and tightly contested spectacles.
The Wallabies slipping down the world rankings may be painful for local fans, but it is symptomatic of an increasingly competitive international rugby landscape. Some other evidence of this is the decreasing margins between Tier 1 and Tier 2 nations at the Rugby World Cup and the upsets of strong teams by historically weaker and smaller sides internationally at both the senior and the under-20s level, most notably wins by Japan at the 2019 World Cup and Italy at the under-20s Six Nations.
All teams were new teams at some stage. Champions are temporary and power and form are cyclical, and a team can only upset another team once before a victory over them is no longer an upset.
Earlier in the year Rugby Australia hosted a party for the old boys of Australian rugby to pick the colour of the Wallabies jersey. Why couldn’t the colour have been chosen over a Zoom call and the money instead used to provide resources for the Penrith Emus?
If rugby in New South Wales and Australia wants to come full circle and shrivel up into an archaic game played within the walls of Sydney University by only the richest college students, it should continue to allow its expansion teams to weaken and falter only to be kicked out of the competition by the eastern and northern sides.
However, the reason the game grew out of the walls of Sydney University in the first place was that new teams appeared in new locations and people who didn’t play the game before suddenly took it up.
Now, with the commercialisation of the game, new clubs need financial support to stand on their own two feet and compete with older, stronger clubs. Give them this support or watch rugby crumble further in this country.
jeznez
Roar Guru
looks superb
Phil
Roar Rookie
Hi mate thought you might like to see the Two Blues new stadium. Hope it brings a lot of success for them. https://twitter.com/wstwoblues/status/1438967074567569409?s=21
Phil
Roar Rookie
Hi Ray just saw this, the new Eric Tweedale stadium of the Two Blues, looks super impressive. They are recruiting players and coaches well too. Thought you might like to see it https://twitter.com/wstwoblues/status/1438967074567569409?s=21
Phil
Roar Rookie
Hi mate this just popped up on Twitter. New Two Blues stadium. Looks really impressive. They are recruiting coaches and players now. Hope they can become really strong. https://twitter.com/wstwoblues/status/1438967074567569409?s=21
BeastieBoy
Roar Rookie
It is so so Late in the day.. nothing will happen ..really .. unless there is a big clean out at Head office. In any event there are many things that need to be done, but massive Rule changes is Definitely one of them. The Players have gotten too Big. Most parents cant see a future for their kids in the game as a result. The Coaches have slowed the game down and caused breakdowns so they can have ever increasing sizes of their players. We need continuity and adventure back and we need it real soon. there have been some token efforts this year, but next year the rule changes need to quadruple in number. But it wont happen and the slide will continue. The Shute sides will be playing each other three times until they lose another grade in a few years. The Private "Rugby" schools will continue their conversion to "Soccer" schools so much so that the next generation of Alumni who only played soccer for the school will make the conversion Official. Please will the Powers in charge prove me wrong.. soon.
Guess
Roar Rookie
league fan says it’s too stop start :shocked: That’s the thing you don’t tell other sport what it should change to suit you, you don’t watch it
Sterling Anderson
Guest
Ball Handling 101 NSWRU must certainly adapt, by breaking up into its constituent 9 country zones joined by 3 metro zones (North Harbour, Eastern Suburbs and Western Sydney). The state union as a whole is far too unwieldy and unmanageable due to its size and layers. QRU needs to do the same thing, breaking up into 10 country districts joined by 2 metro districts (North and South of the Brisbane river). These 24 unions along with ACT, South Coast, Southern Inland, VIC, TAS, South Australia, NT and WA would be the 32 amateur rugby provinces that would be the foundation that could keep the game relevant in Aust, the same as NZRU with there 26 provinces. The 32 Aust provinces would also have to stay completely separate from the professional game, connected only by player recruitment to premier rugby clubs, which would all be affiliated to and run nationally by Australian Premier Rugby not local states/provinces/territories/unions etc.
Phil
Roar Rookie
How does that relate to Penrith?
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
The kids who had been raised from the get go with the Force and a real possibility of playing Super Rugby were only just reaching senior playing age when Rugby [East Coast] Australia yanked the ground out from under them in 2017. Many of the most talented just gave up Rugby and chased their dreams in other sports. Two of my sons did exactly that. Others were poached by east coast teams. We lost a whole generation. That gap will take some time to fill.
Sterling Anderson
Guest
PeterK, SS is only tagged as "elitist" because NSWRU, SRU and the SS clubs themselves continue to sell the SS as a grassroots/amateur comp. I.e the Premier clubs being the same as sub-district clubs, when they clearly aren't. Sub-district clubs are amateur and participation based, only drawing from the local populous. Premier clubs became part of the professional system (irrelevant of payments/lack of) the moment they decided to become excempt from relegation and thus attracting the best talent nation wide. The sooner the governing bodies stop pretending otherwise the better.
James DUPREE (senior)
Roar Rookie
The Rugby family has an history that is worth consideration as recorded in Dr. Google. A few short remarks "....The first Australian rugby club was the University of Sydney in 1864. Next in 1870 was the Wallaroo Club. New clubs were formed at Burwood, St Leonards, The King's School, Newington College, Calder House, and one called the Waratahs appeared. The first body to control rugby in the colony, the Southern Rugby Union,formed in 1874 which Union by 1880,controlled 100 clubs in Sydney and the country. The Queensland Rugby Union (called it the Northern Rugby Union)was founded in 1882. In 1892, the names Northern Rugby Union and Southern Rugby Union were changed to the Queensland Rugby Union and the NSW Rugby Union. The Metropolitan Rugby Union was formed in Sydney in 1896 to control club football, and in 1900, Glebe won the first district competition. The hal mark of this diversity was development of crowd-pleasing players like Ken Catchpole, John Thornett, Tony Miller, Mark Loane, Roger Gould, Tommy Lawton, the Ella brothers and more recently Nick Farr-Jones, Phil Kearns, Michael Lynagh and the incomparable David Campese turned Australian teams into consistent drawcards....." The point I seek to make is that the Rugby History is one of inclusion of players from diverse clubs with wide appeal, not exclusion by elite clubs with narrow suede elbow appeal.
Noodles
Roar Rookie
ball handling: Interesting that you highlight the exemplary business experience of the NSWRU board. CVs suggests some have had big roles, but largely transactional ones. No one there appears to have been engaged over time in building a business. Compare them with guys like Frank Costa, who created a huge business from scratch and totally remade Geelong FC from a very poor situation. My issue with NSWRU is that they typically start from a prejudice rooted in their clubs. A few clubs (let's say Sydney Uni) are allowed to do what they like with the backing of big donors and public facilities. Good luck to them. But there's no balance. It is bloody obvious that the AFL draft and seeding of growth clubs works. ARU and NSWRU and QRU are, in my view, living off the seeds that would grow the game in a healthy way. The test of NSWRU board performance should be the health of growth clubs. Not the privelege of a few.
Double Agent
Guest
There aren't enough good players in Rugby for clubs,coaches,development officers etc to worry about what school someone went to. I honestly don't understand what it is you expect. Just play for your local club. Maybe you'll get in the rep side. Maybe in the district or Sydney team. Or into CHS. You will definitely be noticed by then and if you're good enough they'll want you. No kid has NSWRU running around after them. Once you're in Colts or older no one gives a toss what school you went to. No one ever asks that. I remember the head of NTS was a bloke of PI heritage. Do you think he didn't like PI kids? I recall Gordon used to import Fijians back in the 90s. Do you think they put them in 2nds so the bloke from Barker could play 1sts? No the coach wanted to win so he picked the best. No coach ever said at speech night "We may only have finished mid table but at least we only selected private school boys". Just play footy and if you're good enough you'll go far.
Phil
Roar Rookie
Thanks again Ray. I’ve had similar feeling when I played out at Penrith. But unfortunately that was a long time ago and they’ve never been able to bring themselves up to a competitive level consistently. It’s a good point about lack of development officers and lack of rugby in schools. I think sometimes when there’s scarce investment from governing bodies you have to make it work on your own to an extent and I’m sure they’ve tried desperately but haven’t been able to get enough people, players, sponsors and love for the club to make it work.
Double Agent
Guest
Good to know.
Lr6050
Guest
The Alalaatoa brothers grew up in Western Sydney before attending Newington. I believe they both played for West Harbour before having successful careers at the Brumbies and Crusaders. They probably would’ve got there without the fancy private school education that the author so despises, but I don’t think it’s fair to lump all private schools in as the root cause. Many have done a great service to the game and community. I think the ‘latte swilling, neck sweater hooray henry’ stereotype is a bit outdated, no? Even in England where the game was particularly private school centric in the past has moved away from that, as have the wallabies. As for the GPS and other private schools, I think they should be applauded and encouraged for continuing to produce quality players, regardless of whether they were offered scholarships or not. Whether they continue after school is up to NSW rugby but it’s a strong competition that encourages some interest in the sport. Another GPS centric sport is Rowing which, arguably, offers far less an incentive for schoolboys to continue with after they graduate. There are no giant French rowing clubs offering the money that someone in rugby would get, nor is there a Rabbitohs equivalent. There is not much glamour in the sport apart from the Olympics, yet it is a fantastic team sport which over the years has inspired a country with courageous performances and wins. Many of these are of the ‘private school privilege’ that the author so hates. Yet there is little focus on where these people went to school. It seems only rugby can have this. Everyone on this forum loves to talk about the ‘good old days’ like the 1980s Parramatta or 2003 Wallabies. Time goes on. Like it or not, these are the seeds that have been sown. The world is a very different place and in those times who would have even though the South Sydney Rabbitohs would one day be going to GPS schools to poach players, after nearly folding in the early 2000s. Do you think the NRL fans care about where Cameron Murray went to school? That somehow he is not worthy of the jersey because he’s not from the stereotypical ‘nrl battler’ mould? I think as a whole, the rugby community has so much potential and so much to offer. There’s still a fair bit of support and I think that the Wallabies can produce a good side. We’ll never beat the All Blacks and stronger teams regularly because our country has moved on. Union just isn’t a priority. Enjoy the game and just stop criticising everyone and having constant digs at private schools. Not everyone who went there grew up with a silver spoon and like the media’s coverage of Manly Beach mid lockdown, some of the articles on here are kind of the same - they’re easy targets without considering there’s probably a wider issue at hand.
Spanish nobleman
Guest
Yes Penrith won the state champs Under 17s in 2015 and one would reasonably expect that to translate to a good Emus Colts team, however circa 10 of those players were subsequently recruited to play Colts at Gordon, Norths and Sydney Uni.
Ray L
Roar Rookie
It is my understanding that the Academy will focus on Juniors. No doubt it will benefit Eastwood as well, but it is definitely open to all other clubs in the west and won't require any commitment to Eastwood. I don't know why Penrith seniors haven't been able to compete, but I suspect that one reason is that their best juniors get picked off by other clubs. It's also hard to attract talented players when the senior teams get flogged week after week. A friend who was a director of the Parramatta Two Blues once told me that a lot of Penrith's woes were a direct result of poor administration over the years. Sound familiar? Another is the lack of support from the NSWRU, particularly in promoting the sport in the public schools. While the NSWRU mouths platitudes about supporting Rugby in the west, it doesn't help when they cut back on development officers. The same thing has happened with the Two Blues. I've watched a lot of Penrith games over the years and take the trek out to Nepean Rugby Park when my club is playing them in an away game. They are always physically willing and give as much as they get, but just run out of puff. I always feel sorry for them when they end up on the wrong side of the score sheet and you wonder how they can back up week after week only to cop another flogging. That says a lot about their loyalty to the club, which is commendable. If AFL can start from scratch in a Rugby League stronghold and produce a successful team over such a relatively short time-frame, then there's no reason why Rugby couldn't do the same when the basic player resources are already there. All it takes is to commit a meaningful investment by both RA and the NSWRU if they're serious about promoting the game in the west, which would benefit both Penrith and the Two Blues. If the Super Rugby AU competition is expanded, as I alluded to on another thread, then I would like to see the Western Sydney Rams revived as the focus for drafting up and coming players and keeping them in the western clubs. It should continue with the original foundation SS clubs as feeders, i.e. West Harbour, Eastwood, Parramatta and Penrith to form a competitive western bloc. Eastwood is already a successful club and with its proposed relocation to Castle Hill, it will expand its catchment into the growing North West. Equally, Parramatta Two Blues has the opportunity to expand into the growing South West region and Penrith has the Outer West and Blue Mountains to exploit. However, recruitment should focus on the broader population and not just the PI community in the west.
Ant
Guest
SRU clubs are a private club. Why can't NSWRU or RA place a development team in the Shute Shield? A mixture of aspiring talent and experienced heads, maybe retired SR players, or returned professional expats. Mix in a healthy bunch of locals . Play as the Penrith Emus
Ant
Guest
Excellent article