Bushfires: Player welfare concerns force Brumbies to find new home base
With bushfire smoke blanketing the nation’s capital and no time to lose thanks to the earlier than usual start to the Super Rugby season the Brumbies have been forced to flee the ACT.
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Brumbies coach Dan McKellar admitted on Sunday that, had the Super Rugby season not started until March, his side could have waited out the closure of its Canberra training facilities because of the bushfire smoke enveloping the city.
However, given it only has four weeks until its season-opener against Queensland, it had no option but to relocate.
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The Brumbies made the decision to move to Newcastle, where they have been given use of the Knights’ Academy facilities for the next 10 days, after the University of Canberra announced the immediate and indefinite closure of its indoor and outdoor training facilities due to the hazardous air quality being experienced on site and throughout the Canberra region.
The side had planned a camp at Jindabyne but with all tourists ordered to leave the area on Friday after a fire was apparently deliberately lit, those plans also had to be shelved.
“First, our thoughts are with those affected by the devastating events throughout the country,” McKellar said.
“The small changes we have had to make are nothing in comparison to the distressing position so many people in our region are experiencing.
“Had there been a March start to the season we could have adapted and worked around the closure of the gym and other training facilities.
“But Canberra is surrounded by bush and grass fires and even the headquarters staff would have been struggling to get access to our regular base. Player welfare is always a priority for us and moving to Newcastle will enable us to continue building up to Round One on January 31.”
Rugby Australia’s director of rugby Scott Johnson, who helped organise the move, admitted he had never faced a situation like this.
“The move was only organised on Friday night,” Johnson told The Australian.
“I’ve never come across anything like this and I doubt anyone else has. It’s terrible what the country is going through.”
Brumbies staff will continue to work with the University of Canberra who are liaising with ACT Emergency Services Authority to monitor the weather and the air quality conditions.
It is not just the Super Rugby side affected but also the Brumbies Academy and Super W women’s programs following the closure of their AIS facilities.
Johnson, meanwhile, believes Australia could be on the brink of an exciting generation of playmakers taking centre stage.
For the first time since Australia made the final of the 2015 World Cup, it has a number of players queuing up for duty at five-eighth, although Johnson cautioned an old stager such as Bernard Foley, who was off the boil at the last World Cup in Japan, would still be eligible for selection under the Giteau Law.
“Foley is still available and we also have Matt Toomua and James O’Connor who can do the job. But I believe we have a generational change coming at 10. We’ve got Reesjan Pasitoa (the former Nudgee five-eighth who will play for the Brumbies) along with Will Harrison and Ben Donaldson (at the Tahs). And there is Carter Gordon of the Reds.”
But the one player who excites him, at least as far as his defence is concerned, is Isaac Lucas, who has a highly promising season of Super Rugby under his belt for Queensland, besides playing brilliantly at fullback in the Junior Wallabies side that just lost the final of the Under-20 World Cup.
“He reminds me, especially when he plays at fullback, of Leigh Halfpenny (the Wales and British and Irish Lions fullback),” Johnson said.
“He is as brave as anything. Defensively he is fantastic. I can’t say which ones will come through but someone will. That’s the responsibility for us coaches now because we can no longer say we haven’t got the players.”
Originally published as Bushfires: Player welfare concerns force Brumbies to find new home base