Cutting the Brumbies from Super Rugby is the most ridiculous notion, writes Mike Colman

TALK that the Brumbies are in line for the firing squad is the most ridiculous thing I have heard since Reg Smith was chosen to play his first game at prop in a Test against the Springboks, writes Mike Colman.

TELL ‘em they’re dreamin’.

Talk that the ACT Brumbies are in line for the firing squad is the most ridiculous piece of rugby nonsense I have heard since second-rower Reg Smith was chosen to play his first game at prop in a Test against the Springboks.

As my colleague “Gentleman” Jim Tucker so succinctly put it in a column this week, the Brumbies represent everything that is good about Super Rugby.

Some might say the only thing.

There they were, a foundation team created out of players that no one else wanted, which in a matter of a few seasons developed into one of the most successful, and certainly the most attractive, sides in the game.

The quality of players and coaches that have emerged from that little rugby melting pot during the Brumbies’ lifetime is astounding.

It is not the many, many players that coaches like Rod Macqueen and Eddie Jones imported from footy powerhouses Queensland and NSW who then went on to become Wallabies that makes the Brumbies imperative to the future of Australian rugby. It is the ones who were born in the ACT catchment area and developed their love for the game there.

Since rugby came to the ACT in the 1870s up until today, I would venture that per capita it has produced more great players than anywhere else in the country.

Joe Roff holds up the Super Rugby trophy in 2001.

How about these names for starters: David Campese, Simon Poidevin, Joe Roff, Steve Larkham, Matt Giteau and George Gregan?

Of those, only Roff and Giteau played for Australian Schoolboys, but plenty of other boys from ACT schools did. In fact, in the 48 years that the Schoolboys concept has existed, the ACT has contributed 178 players, including dual internationals Michael O’Connor and Ricky Stuart.

Victoria and Western Australia, the two rugby outposts that are apparently being considered ahead of the ACT for a Super franchise because they are supposedly “bigger markets”, have provided 36 and 13 players each.

O’Connor, who became a rugby league pin-up for Manly, NSW Blues and the Kangaroos, played 12 Tests for the Wallabies before joining St George at the age of 22.

Stuart, an Australian Schoolboys rugby captain from St Edmunds College, Canberra, never got to play a Test but toured with the Wallabies before signing with the Raiders at 20.

One can only wonder what he could have achieved in rugby if he had played for the Brumbies.

That’s the point. When Stuart went to rugby league the formation of the Brumbies was eight years away. Unlike Roff, Larkham and Gregan, he had no choice. The Raiders were the only game in town.

It was a move Stuart never regretted, but Australian Rugby could regret it for a long time if the next generations of ACT talent are lost to the game.

Just for the sake of the exercise, here is a team of Wallabies who learnt their rugby in the ACT before going on to represent Australia.

Fullback: Matthew Pini

Wings: David Campese, Joe Roff

Centres: Michael O’Connor, Matt Giteau

Fly half: Stephen Larkham

Halfback: George Gregan

No. 8: Mark McInnes

Flankers: Simon Poidevin, John Ross

Locks: Peter Kimlin, Owen Butler

Front Row: Guy Shepherdson, Geoff Didier

Hooker: Marco Caputo

Reserves: Ricky Stuart, Rod Kafer, Saia Fainga’a, Leigh Donnellan, John Weatherstone, Bob Brown

Train-on: Mat Henjak, Anthony Fainga’a, Paul Cornish, Manuel Edmonds, Huai Edmonds, Brad Girvan, Matt O’Connor, Craig Morton, Peter Scott

I would like to see how the best players raised in Victoria or WA would go up against that lot.

Originally published as Cutting the Brumbies from Super Rugby is the most ridiculous notion, writes Mike Colman