• Welcome to the Green and Gold Rugby forums. As you can see we've upgraded the forums to new software. Your old logon details should work, just click the 'Login' button in the top right.

Aussie Player Exodus

KOB1987

Rod McCall (65)
Complexity of it is that he turned down an opportunity to play in Aus A squad to increase his earnings potential long term.
I was taking the piss a bit but wouldn't it actually be that he can play for Ireland A and still be eligible for both nations? Or is Ireland A their 2nd 'invokes ineligibility for other nations' team?
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
I watch a lot of these games, the standard isn’t poor (if it was, Ireland, France and England) wouldn’t be better than us right now.


FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) wasn’t playing long enough to benefit from a “change of scenery”. Has to be more to it why these guys who are frankly average here perform so well over there.
 

Dctarget

John Eales (66)
I watch a lot of these games, the standard isn’t poor (if it was, Ireland, France and England) wouldn’t be better than us right now.


FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) (Fergus Lee-Warner) wasn’t playing long enough to benefit from a “change of scenery”. Has to be more to it why these guys who are frankly average here perform so well over there.
Surely it’s just dilution of talent no? With 12 teams the average quality is probably lower and it’s easier to stand out.
 

Brumby Runner

David Wilson (68)
I watch a lot of these games, the standard isn’t poor (if it was, Ireland, France and England) wouldn’t be better than us right now.


FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) (Fergus Lee-Warner) wasn’t playing long enough to benefit from a “change of scenery”. Has to be more to it why these guys who are frankly average here perform so well over there.
As Dct says, dilution of quality over a larger number of teams probably is a factor. But FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) was always more than just average. He was consistently one of the best Force players and would not have been out of place at higher levels if selected.

Interesting though if it is true that the team quality is diluted with more sides in a competition, but nonetheless England, Ireland and France remain stronger overall then that seems to shoot down any argument against an Aus-only Super or NRC type of competition with upwards of 10 - 12 local teams. The cream will still rise to the top but there would be many more opportunities for players to show their worth.
 

Drew

Bob Davidson (42)
Just saw an article where Worcester in England are put into administration. Wonder if any Aussies will return as a result?
EDIT; just looked at their squad FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) the only Australian there
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Interesting though if it is true that the team quality is diluted with more sides in a competition, but nonetheless England, Ireland and France remain stronger overall then that seems to shoot down any argument against an Aus-only Super or NRC type of competition with upwards of 10 - 12 local teams. The cream will still rise to the top but there would be many more opportunities for players to show their worth.

The issue there though is that they've got much larger player bases with more overseas players (England and France) in the competitions or a competition involving multiple countries (Wales/Ireland/Scotland).

If we went it alone we'd be back filling all those spots with players from below Super Rugby level.
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
With the pound in freefall, excess of players looking for new clubs after Worcester and potentially Wasps going under - I doubt we see any Aussies sign to UK clubs in the short term future. Maybe a few off contract might even come home.
 

Dctarget

John Eales (66)
Expect Meafou to play for France at next year's world cup. Shame we can't afford to develop talent like him at home. Apparently he's lost a bit of weight and managed to get down to... 150kg. Aha.

On his eligibility for France, "I'm not yet, all that remains is the passport, I submitted my application about a month ago. As soon as I have it, I can play for France".
 

stillmissit

Chilla Wilson (44)
Expect Meafou to play for France at next year's world cup. Shame we can't afford to develop talent like him at home. Apparently he's lost a bit of weight and managed to get down to... 150kg. Aha.

On his eligibility for France, "I'm not yet, all that remains is the passport, I submitted my application about a month ago. As soon as I have it, I can play for France".
I'd never heard of him and was amazed that nobody offered a 6' 8" 120+ kg lock an opportunity at the tahs in 2019 when they struggled for locks. Still, that's ozzie rugby at it's best.
wiki entry: Meafou stated: “Rugby was still a passion and dream of mine. The only reason I went down the NFL road was because I had no offers. For me rugby was over.”[5] Between 2018–19 Meafou switched sports again, citing no offers to play rugby in Australia. After his agent allegedly sent footage of Meafou to French rugby clubs, he received a number of offers before accepting to play with the Toulouse academy.[5][6]
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
I'd never heard of him and was amazed that nobody offered a 6' 8" 120+ kg lock an opportunity at the tahs in 2019 when they struggled for locks. Still, that's ozzie rugby at it's best.
He played NRC and club rugby and couldn't play more than a half and wasn't particularly good. He needed a lot of work.

This is definitely where Australian rugby struggles. We just don't have the capacity for more than a handful of project players around the country.
 

Adam84

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
I've said it a million times before and I'll say it again... we need more teams = more pro contracts.
In the case of Meafou id argue the issue is squad size, teams don't have the depth in fulltime contracts to be able to offer contracts to players who are purely developmental.

There isn't enough money to cover extra positions, in fact I think the number of fulltime positions in squads were reduced during a recent EBA

Extra teams is certainly an issue to be addressed, but we also need to increase the number of positions in current squads
 
Last edited:
Top