Australian rugby feels the Force

Jim Cook

The Perth-based franchise will become Australia’s fourth team in next season’s expanded Super 14 competition, but their player recruitment drive has upset the established order on the country’s eastern seaboard.

Australia has been at a numerical disadvantage since the start of the Super 12 series in 1996 with its three teams up against five New Zealand provinces and four from South Africa.

The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has long championed the need for an extra Australian outfit to broaden the player catchment so the Wallabies can continue to be competitive at future World Cups.

Perth was chosen ahead of Australia’s sporting capital Melbourne to form a new Super 14 team with the ARU impressed by the community backing and its location on Australia’s Indian Ocean coast as an ideal stopping-off point to and from South Africa.

But the Western Force’s efforts to build from scratch with raids on players coming off contract at the NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies and Queensland Reds have prompted resentment.

The three existing Super 12 organisations have been up in arms over key players defecting, enticed by the lures of Perth’s more relaxed lifestyle and the enhanced first-team opportunities for fringe players. The Force signalled its intention to be competitive next year with the appointment of John Mitchell, who coached the All Blacks at the 2003 World Cup.

Mitchell has criss-crossed the continent searching for the players he needs to make Western Force a force.

His key initial signings were Wallabies’ hooker Brendan Cannon from the Waratahs and Queensland Reds lineout jumper Nathan Sharpe. The signing of fly-half Lachlan MacKay rocked the Super 12 front-running Waratahs, who believed they had finally found the answer to their No10 problems.