The Wallabies get thumped by the Irish and the threat to raid rugby league to find attacking backs is on again.
I dunno much about the workings of the Australian Rugby Union but this is panic inspired, ridiculous, short sighted approach.The ARU claim to have a junior development program in place but the suggestion to target league seems to indicated a lack of confidence in the program. For one, any up and coming union back is going to questioning whether it is worth it all and the grass roots of the game will suffer. This will mean a lack of talented players coming through, leaving a void in union which means that they will be continually looking at league to fill.
Some will say that league raided the union ranks for decades and that is true. What is forgotten is that union was amatuer back then which made the jump to league very attractive. And also the talent pool for league was very strong and the union players were not needed to fill any void. They complimented the game.
Wikipedia has an interesting list of union to league converts and vice versa.
And it was a union to league convert, the fabled Dally Messenger, that started it all in the first place.
3 responses so far ↓
Mungo Amanda // Nov 22, 2006 at 5:16 am
One in every two Australian Super 14s player is in this touring party. And they still get flogged.
My considered response is this: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa!
Patrick // Nov 22, 2006 at 7:24 am
You are dead right that it is a joke. At the limit if they were picking Berrick Barneses, that would be intelligent. But as my post today indicates, I wonder if they are losing their minds in Australian Rugby Central.
Rugby Leaguer // Nov 22, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Spot on! The reason rugby league was born at all in this country is because rugby union officials wouldn’t look after the players. Now they have to pay players like Lote a bucketload more than League to play for them! RU can’t win either way. How ironic!