Bring Australian players home, Dave Rennie tells Western Force

Dave Rennie has a plan for the Western Force as Super Rugby clubs become nervous over plans for next season.

Inexperience and a lack of playing depth has seen the Force run out of puff. Picture: Getty Images

Dave Rennie was discussing The Rugby Championship or at least the possibility of it. He noted it could involve playing six Tests across six weekends, which would seriously challenge Australia’s depth. The All Blacks, he said, could completely change their XV from week to week and still field a formidable side. The Wallabies ….

Somehow the conversation moved on to another side experiencing difficulties with their depth, or rather the lack of it. After 55 minutes at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday night, Western Force was trailing Queensland Reds 15-5. Given that they had been making do with limited possession, it was a commendable effort. But then James O’Connor delivered a freakish one-handed pass for Fraser McReight to score and the floodgates opened. Five more Reds tries flowed in the remaining 25 minutes.

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For more than seven weeks the Force have been on the road, having received barely three weeks’ notice that they were required for the Super Rugby AU competition. No fewer than 15 members of their squad had never tasted rugby before at that level but, filled with the “we’ll show ‘em what the west can do” spirit, they hit the road and threw themselves into their task.

All sides were troubled by them. Even the Brumbies won 24-0 yet there were long passages when they were uncomfortably put to the test by the team from Perth. But by Round 8, the Force was running out of steam. They looked tired. Their veterans looked every inch their one score and 10 years.

Their rookies had had their freshness knocked out of them and were playing with the troubled earnestness of young men handed too many lessons to absorb.

Rennie understood precisely the challenges that their coach Tim Sampson was now facing.

“They have played a really good brand of footy,” he said.

“I think Tim has done a really good job and they pushed a lot of teams close early on. The other four teams have had the advantage of playing Super Rugby all year and they’ve created depth. I have no doubt that the Force, with a bit more contracting and a bit more time to prepare, will be even more competitive. So I think it has been really positive, having them back in.”

Over in New Zealand, the All Black coach Ian Foster also was running his eye over the Australian competition. Not necessarily the Force but the Super Rugby AU series in general. For a man who previously had expressed strong reservations about getting involved with Australia in a trans-Tasman competition, he seemed to have undergone a “Road to Damascus” experience.

“The difference between their first couple of rounds to their last couple has been dramatic,” Foster observed in an interview with the New Zealand Herald. “From an All Blacks coaches’ perspective, we’ve seen a significant rise in the standard in their competition. That bodes well for a Super competition but also for us as we head into a Bledisloe series.”

What Foster didn’t say, teasingly, was how many Australian teams he and the NZ Rugby were prepared to accept. Rennie, who understands the Kiwi perspective because, well, he is one, articulated their concerns. “I think NZ’s question is can we (Australia) field five competitive sides? Can we make sure that each week there is a genuine competition because that will increase the quality of the games and so on?

“I reckon we can. We have to provide opportunities for a lot of our young players to play Super Rugby and there is real competition now with the American leagues. There are quite a lot of Aussie boys who, if they miss out on Super Rugby, are going to ply their trade over there because it is a chance to be semi-professional and earn a bit of money.”

But there was a condition, Rennie said. “There is no doubt that if the Force came in they would need to strengthen that (current) group and try to target Aussies who are playing overseas who could come back and really add to the game and share that overseas experience with the younger guys coming through.

“What we can’t have is five teams and one side picking the eyes out of the other four sides. There are a lot of great Australians playing all over the world and if we can get some of those guys back it will obviously strengthen our comp and ultimately strengthen the Wallabies.” Sampson is already thinking along those lines.

“I think given what this year has been, there have been a lot (of foreign-based Australians) who have popped up on the open market because other countries and clubs are slashing their salary caps and player payments as well,” the Force coach told The Australian.

“I am sure that Rugby Australia would want that, if we are in the competition next year, to get Australia-eligible players back home.

“It (the recruitment program) is ramping up but we are holding back a bit until we get an indication of what next year will look like.”

Everyone is getting jumpy. Brumbies chairman Matt Nobbs said on Sunday it wasn’t just the players who are becoming edgy about the lack of detail around the 2021 season.

“Players, staff, sponsors … we are all getting nothing from Rugby Australia,” he said.

“These are good rugby people you don’t want to lose.”

It may be that RA has nothing to tell them yet. Foster’s comments, which must have been made with the full knowledge of the NZR, give a fair indication of the ambivalent state of mind on the other side of the ditch. The Kiwis fully appreciate what a trans-Tasman competition can do, the commercial appeal it has to broadcasters and private equity groups, but the risk is that a fifth Australian team could dramatically lower the standard of rugby.

It’s going to be a busy week, with the NZR about to close its expressions of interest on its proposed 2021 competition and RA preparing for its meeting with broadcasters in early September.

But the natives are restless and they are demanding answers.