Roar Rookie
Joined September 2018
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With my old Western Force cap on, I sat down on Friday night and watched the Queensland Reds struggle to beat an ordinary Stormers…
Twiggy Forrest and his Global Rapid Rugby advisers are not trying to please the average Roar rugby poster, who would no doubt be a…
Surely we need kids who grew playing rugby and are desperate to pull on a Wallaby jumper and dream of scoring the winning try in a Bledisloe game.
Is this kid desperate to pull on a Wallaby or Kangaroo jumper?
Or are he and his agent/family just chasing the biggest dollars, with no loyalty or jumper ambitions? Will he just become another code switcher like Folau before him, that NRL, RA and even the AFL have wasted big money on and pissed off their loyal players/fans at the same time.
The Wrap: Truth proves elusive as Superman Suaalii saga rages on
I have also seen him down at a local rugby club in Perth running around enthusiastically playing games for an hour with 5-6 years old kids. That was at 5pm after he would have had a hard days training with the Force.
Force captain Stander: We 100 per cent can beat the Brumbies
There are 3 bank balances in the dick waving contest. NZR 93mill, RA 11mill and Twiggy 20billion
Critics keep coming for NZ Rugby over proposed breakaway comp
I have heard Twiggy say he would love to help Australia win back the Bled on a regular basis. So yes he is a passionate Wallaby fan. However he is no fan of the old guard at the ARU/RA who tried their best to kill rugby in WA and at the same time steered Australian rugby itself onto the rocks.
If the RA gets its act together and becomes more inclusive for all Australians, then I am sure Twiggy will be right behind them and waving his gold scarf as he was at the Bled in Perth this year.
Critics keep coming for NZ Rugby over proposed breakaway comp
The arrogance and sense of entitlement of the NZR in this saga, reminds me of the attitude of the NSW and Qld elite, who in 2017 had the Force in their gunsights ( pretending that the possibility of the Rebels or Brumbies were also up for the axe), but never ever were their own teams the Tahs or Reds even considered. Never mind that the Brumbies and Force were the top two Australian sides on the 2017 Super ladder.
Critics keep coming for NZ Rugby over proposed breakaway comp
Mitch, Apparently Prior tweeted that his shoulder is OK
Brumbies dealt massive blow with Noah Lolesio out for two months
Yes, there are lots obstacles and possibilities.
The Wrap: Super Rugby goes up a level, as Australia and New Zealand eye each other off
Marco,
Two things,
1) COVID19 restrictions will unfortunately virtually guarantee that South African rugby teams will not be playing rugby in NZ/Aus or the UK in 2021.
2) Dont blame the Aussies. It is NZ who have come out and put a proposed format on the table to Australia, that excludes RSA and Arg.
The Wrap: Super Rugby goes up a level, as Australia and New Zealand eye each other off
Well did they?
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
OK, I see your laughing face!
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
You will be pleased to know, in breaking news the Force have just signed former All Black Richard Kahui.
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
Really Max, are you serious?
Look up Rugby Union in China in Wikpedia. 76,000 registered players, The official sport of the Chinese Army etc etc.
The Kiwis, for example Bay of Plenty have been shuffling themselves around Shangai in China for the past 3 years, without any help from Twiggy.
The Kiwis recognise the size of the rugby market rugby in Asia.
You may have missed the recently World Cup in Japan?
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
Hi Neutral.
You must have in Sweden when the Force started in 2005? When the Force started, they poached a whole lot of Wallabies and Super players from Queensland, NSW and the Brumbies.
The ARU were to blame here, because they stupidly restricted us to 1 or 2 imports, and the rest had to be Australians qualified to play for Australia. So Qld and NSW never forgave us for stealing their players.
When the Rebels started in 2010, the ARU allowed them 10 or so imports from outside of Australia.
Importing star Boks and ABs as you suggest is a just quick sugar fix, but they wont stay long. We have more success with lower rung young SouthAfricans and Kiwis who end up staying here.
Remember in 2017 we had about 15 Force players taken by the ARU and spread out to the Rebels. Nsw. Qld, and Brumbies. These included WA schooled and bred Wallaby players like DHP, Hardwick, Rona etc
So Twiggy had to start again almost from scratch again in 2018.
NSW in 2020 have still poached our 2 WA schooled and developed Aus U20 players and I understand are trying to sign Godwin for 2021.
So the traffic is definetly not one-way anymore.
As far being competitive, we are already competitive! In our first Super game in 3 years, we lost by 9 points to NSW in Sydney (Australia’s rugby heartland, as we are constantly reminded). Home ground and no travel is a big advantage, so back in Perth the result could go the other way.
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
It is going to be intesting if the Force are asked to play in some Aussie/NZ Super comp or an Aussie only comp. Would Twiggy say no, because he already has GRR set up? I doubt it. If he says yes to Super, is he going to dump the other GRR teams. I doubt that as well. Maybe WA will have a team in both?
But COVID19 plays a big part in all these permutations. Because I cannot see international travel restrictions being lifted enough by March next year to allow either GRR or the Super ( with South Africa and Arg & without Force) to resume.
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
Spot on EX. It would not help rugby in WA or Australia, if Twiggy went out and bought 15 of the best players in the world.
He is into long term investments. He wants to build up grassroots rugby in WA and grow the number of WA players in the Force team. Yes, he has to bolster the Force with good players in the short term, but he has shown no intention of stripping them from current Australian teams. The players he has recruited were playing overseas, so it is a benefit to Australia as well, if he brings them back.
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
The reason rugby did not fall of a cliff in WA, because Twiggy’s wife and children saw how much the Force fans and players cared & hurt. His family told him had to do something. I heard him say that himself.
If the fans had just shrugged their shoulders and walked off, so to probably would have Twiggy.
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
No I dont think the RA will be silly enough to dump the Force again or any other teams to please the Kiwis.
Why do you think GRR stinks?
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
Hi Neutral.
As a Western Australian, I dont wont to see the Force going back to the days of signing expensive big stars from other other Australian states, let alone NZ. We want to build our team and our culture.
Twiggy is on the right track wih : 1) Spending $7mill growing grassroots rugby in WA over the next 5 years. 2) He and other WA business people have been funding an Emerging Force squad of young mainly WA elite players. 3) Bolstering the Force team with mainly ex-Force players returning from overseas and uncontracted players from eastern Australia. Thrush is the only All Black the Force have, and I think he came from Europe to Perth for the lifestyle and weather 3 years ago.
If the Kiwis play hardball and only want 3 Aussie teams, then there is a ready made alternative. Bring the the 4 Super teams into GRR, with the Force, plus Fiji, Samoa, and Hong Kong. There are dozens of high quality Fijian and Samoan professional players in Europe and Japan probably looking for contracts, as the teams there are facing salary and overseas player number restrictions.
But most importantly leave Twiggy and his professional GRR managent team to run this GRR competition properly. And save a bucket of money by keeping the top-heavy expensive RA and Sanzaar administration out of it.
The Wrap: Rugby Australia must resist being drawn into New Zealand’s spider web
Attention Geoff Parkes. Sure thing, the Tahs played really well in the 2nd half and deseved the victory in the end. Tahs were certainly much better than their first game. But yes, I am proud to be a Force fan.
How to fix Australian rugby, Part 1: State of play
What about Ian Prior, Brynard Stander, Kane Koteka Pek Cowan Chris Heiberg, Brad Lacey and Heath Tessman?
The Western Force's return to Super Rugby almost complete
Andrew Forrest is already saving Aussie Rugby by keeping the Force and WA rugby going strong. He is paying for the Force players salaries and their expenses in Super rugby, so the RA are able to sell the 5 team comp (instead of 4) to Foxsports and Kayo.
How to fix Australian rugby, Part 1: State of play
Piru, I watched the Tahs and Reds game again last night and it made me confident that the Force has a very realistic chance of beating the Tahs. I see in the teams announced today, that the Tahs have stuck with young and inexpierenced Bell at loosehead prop, who was yellow carded last week for his struggles in the scrum. This week Bell will be up against Longbottom, who I consider as an absolute scrumming monster at tighthead for the Force. Then the Force have Wallaby Greg Holmes on the bench as the reserve tighthead.
Super Rugby Week 5: The Force is strong with this one
Geoff’s Sure thing: “If the Force lose to the Tahs, expect their fans to say “that’s just what we expected, really proud of our boys…” If the Force win, expect those same fans to say “we told you so!”.
Sure thing, is that we must have really got up Geoff’s turned up nose in the past 3 years.
Super Rugby Week 5: The Force is strong with this one
TWAS, For the first time in my on Roar, I am finding myself supporting you. I remember maybe 25 years ago here in Perth, one of my mates who was in advertising and obsessed by TV ratings etc, mocking rugby union compared to NRL and AFL . He declared us a niche sport. I told him I did not care and I was quite happy with rugby, because Australia had just won the 1991 World Cup and did again later in 1999. And at the time we were winning more than our share of Bledisloes. The World Cup and Bleds, would be boring if all the AFL and NRL guys played union in Australia, because we would win them each time.
The good times for rugby in Australia will come again.
The Wrap: Be patient and Super Rugby AU will stand on its own five feet
Geoff, I was not talking about the kid pissing off fans and loyal players, I am talking about the RA, NRL or AFL administrations pissing off their own fans and loyal players by paying big dollars to sign code switchers or potential code switchers. Living here in AFL territory I have seen it with Folau and Hunt, and as a rugby fan it has too many times.
Playing rugby, NRL or AFL is more than a highly paid job. You have to love the game to put up with the endless training, injuries, losses and other setbacks.
Even highly paid jobs become a grind, if you do not enjoy them.
The Wrap: Truth proves elusive as Superman Suaalii saga rages on