Should rugby embrace its own State of Origin series in 2017?

ON the back of a lacklustre mid-season Test schedule, should rugby have its own State of Origin series in 2017? Iain Payten explains how it could work.

Should rugby have its own State of Origin series?

LET’S not beat around the bush: the Wallabies June Test schedule for 2017 doesn’t get the spine tingling.

When the itinerary was announced this week, with Tests against Fiji, a weakened Scotland and Italy, the reaction was an overwhelming “meh”.

​With French finals still going, Fiji won’t have all their top players and with three or four stars on Lions duty in New Zealand at the same time, Scotland’s habit of troubling the Wallabies will be kicked.

Italy........yeah, well, Italy.

They’re all 3pm kick-offs, which will help sell tickets to a family market, but the only sizzle about ​these games will come via sun hitting skin.

An Origin series could have some spice that Super Rugby derbies lack.

It’s the excrement-sandwich one southern nation always eats when Lions tours are underway in another southern nation. The Lions brings huge excitement and a truckload of cash to the host nation — as it did here in 2013 — but you pay a delayed price four years later.

All the home unions are tied up with the Lions, and the only other big drawcard is France. Les Bleus are touring South Africa next year in June.

So that left the ARU scrambling to put together three Test match rivals.

The timing could be better but fair play for the Test against Fiji, and let’s hope the Pacific Island nations get consistent chances to play Tier 1 nations outside World Cups.

As for Scotland and Italy, would you honestly care if one of those was canned and a new concept was created for Australia’s best rugby players to strut their stuff in June instead?

What kind of new concept? Glad you asked.

What about instead of a “meh” Test against Scotland-lite or Italy in a year like 2017, Australian rugby plays a State of Origin game instead?

Queensland could reclaim prodigal talents like Stephen Moore.

Okay, that’s kind of an old concept but if any code is in need of re-invigorating its calendar, it’s rugby.

Super Rugby is a convoluted mess and even Test rugby has a tired “if it’s September we must be playing the Springboks” feel about it.

The rusty reliance on “the way we’ve always done it” needs to be turfed out and fresh new ideas to interest fans, excite players and generate media interest must be examined.

A State of Origin-style game is as good a place as any to start the conversation.

Given they produce the vast majority of players, the combatants must be NSW and Queensland, and all those players who hail from either state would be repatriated to their home state for a week.

Picture the showdowns: Pocock v Hooper, Cooper v Foley, McMahon v George Smith, Kerevi v Hodge, Hunt v Folau.

The teams would have to called something else given both NSW and Queensland are Super Rugby sides — there’s a team-naming competition for kids — but the basic principle would work along the same lines as the rugby league version.

George Smith could line up for New South Wales.

And staged at either Suncorp or Allianz, it would go gangbusters.

The rules? It has to have a genuine feel to it so the deciding factor could be where you were playing rugby when you were 16.

That would rule out those Kiwis or Pacific Islanders who came and made a Wallabies future after leaving school, but like the players who hail from Victoria, Tasmania, Perth or elsewhere, they could be found a game too. (We’ll return to that).

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The Queensland outfit have looooong complained about the ones that got away but here is a team that would get Brisbane-educated stars like David Pocock back, and Sean McMahon, and Stephen Moore and Tevita Kuridrani.

The NSW side could get the Canberra men on board (another reason why it can’t be called NSW) and guys like George Smith, Reece Hodge and Scott Fardy (all northern beaches boys), former Murwillumbah Banana Rory Arnold, and the front-row factory of Sydney’s west could see Scott Sio and Allan Alaalatoa return home.

Folau? A tricky one.

Folau could be eligible for both states.

Minto-raised, partially Brisbane-educated, playing league in Melbourne by the age of 17.

He played league Origin for Queensland and is a senior NSW rugby player.

You’d have to think a blue jersey but they do brainwashing well north of the border. Perhaps after all the lobbying there’ll have to be a 30-minute special on FoxSports called: “The Decision”.

In any case, like league’s Origin, the debate and speculation about selections in rugby’s cross border clash would be good pub fodder all year.

You’d have to assume foreign clubs wouldn’t release Giteau-law players but it couldn’t hurt to ask, particularly if clubs are finished for the seasons.

So how about this for what the line-ups could have been in 2017 (apologies for the howling omissions):

NSW:

Scott Sio, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Tom Robertson, Rory Arnold, Kane Douglas, Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, George Smith; Nick Phipps, Bernard Foley; Tom English, Reece Hodge, Mitch Inman, Rob Horne, Israel Folau.

Reserves from: Latu, Fitzpatrick, Alaalatoa, Ryan, Carter, Skelton, Mumm, McCalman, Holloway, Houston, Stirzaker, Lucas, Debrecenzi, Kellaway.

(Overseas recruits: Beale, Giteau, Ashley-Cooper)

QUEENSLAND:

James Slipper, Stephen Moore, Ben Daley, Rob Simmons, Sam Jeffries, Sean McMahon, David Pocock, Scott Higginbotham, Nick Frisby, Quade Cooper, Izzy Perese, Samu Kerevi, Tevita Kuridrani, Luke Morahan, Karmichael Hunt.

Reserves from: Hanson, Ready, Fa’agaase, Butler, Cottrell, Meehan, Lance, McIntyre, Magnay, C Kuridrani, Feaui-Sautia.

(Overseas recruits: Genia, Gill, Toomua, Mitchell)

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What about everyone else, you ask?

Why not stage two games on our fictional free weekend — the Origin clash and as a curtain raiser, a Rest of Australia team versus Pacific Island Barbarians?

All the top players raised in WA, Victoria, Tasmania or South Australia could make up a pretty handy side. From WA you have guys like Dane and Ross Haylett-Petty, Kyle Godwin, Cruze Ah Nau, Richard Hardwick, Harry Scoble, Nick Jooste and Kane Koteka. Adam Coleman is from Tasmania, and Victoria has churned out plenty of homegrown talent too, including Tetera Faulkner, Siliva Siliva and rising gun Sione Tuipulotu. Christian Lealiifano could coach the team, and hopefully captain it too.

The PI Barbarians? How about a mix of Aussie professionals — like Henry Speight, Sefa Naivalu, Lopeti Timani, Sekope Kepu, Taqele Naiyaravoro — and some young Pacific Islanders players keen to make a name for themselves, selected from their homelands or from expat communities in Austraila, or both.

It’d be some small recognition of how much Australian rugby appreciates the Pacific Islands.

That game, too, would be a cracker, both live and on the television.