Super 15 debate hots up

The Mecury - Friday, August 14, 2009 11:28 AM

FROM outside Australia, we suspect, and this has been strongly voiced in New Zealand, where it is believed young islanders from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga will be lured with Super 15 contracts.

FOR some time New Zealand and South African rugby authorities have suspected that there is something rotten afoot in the state of Denmark... or if Shakespeare was alive today and not writing about Hamlet, the Australian Rugby Union would be the target of his invective, and John O'Neill would be Darth Vader.

Okay, we are not only mixing metaphors here but also time spans and artistic genres, but you get the picture, or should that be the script.

To cut to the chase, the Australians are bidding for a fifth Super rugby franchise when they haven't got the strength in depth to support their four current franchises. Many Aussies would say that the addition of the Force four years ago to the established rugby bases in Brisbane (Reds), Sydney (Waratahs) and latterly Canberra (Brumbies) was stretching resources to the limit. The Force plundered players from the aforementioned unions, while it was not that long ago that the Brumbies primarily comprised surplus players from the strongholds of Queensland and New South Wales.

SO where will be the players come from for O'Neill's fifth franchise, which the ARU on Wednesday confirmed would be based in Melbourne?

From outside Australia, we suspect, and this has been strongly voiced in New Zealand, where it is believed young islanders from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga will be lured with Super 15 contracts.

The same goes for young South Africans and New Zealanders, with the long-term goal of making the whole lot of them eligible for the Wallabies.

There is some irony in the Kiwi concern that the Pacific Islands will provide the resources for Australia's new team, although the New Zealanders repeatedly stress that the Sivivatus, Rokocokos and Umagas of this world voluntarily go to New Zealand to seek their fortune.

Whatever the case may be, imagine if a new generation of southern hemipshere players were offered a pot of gold in Melbourne, one of the world's great cities?

Anybody in doubt of this conspiracy theory should have been at Craven Week over the past few years and heard the pied pipers playing Advance Australia Fair to the cream of our youth.

Sadly, too, many South African CVs have gone Down Under and it won't be long before we hear of the next Clyde Rathbone case.

Australia's imperialistic intent under the ruthless O'Neil has got to be stopped, especially if you consider that if the Melbourne venture succeeds, it would be at the cost of South Africa's Southern Kings .

Sceptics will scoff at the suggestion that the Kings can succeed, but if Super rugby salaries are offered to the hundreds of South Africans in Europe, and indeed those thinking of leaving South Africa, our depth will be significantly increased while stopping the Aussies in their tracks - and bringing through talent in that region.

Incidentally, O'Neill yesterday said that Melbourne had been chosen over applications from western Sydney and rural New South Wales, as well as regions in Queensland.

He said the ARU board decided that Australia's second-largest city had the best chance of success.

SANZAR has ruled that the 15th team will play in an "Australian conference" with the country's four other Super teams. But it has also allowed New Zealand and South Africa to bid to base the team on their shores.