The Reds have endured an absolutely terrible season until this point, summed up last Friday when they lost to The Rebels in Melbourne despite leading 12-3 after 15 minutes. The game turned in the 20th minute when James Horwill got himself stupidly sent off for violent conduct, with a very deliberate swinging arm catching Paul Alo-Emile In the jaw. Insult was added to injury (literally and metaphorically) later in the game, when Quade Cooper sustained a shoulder injury that looks likely to keep him out of action for about two months. However, the most damaging news to The Reds came in the early hours of the morning Sydney time, with Stade Francais barely able to contain they smug glee in announcing that Will Genia would be joining them after the World Cup. This signals the final death knell of the team that lit up Super Rugby early this decade, but has since been in a slow, consistent decline. This pattern has really followed Genia’s form which, although improved markedly this season despite results, has dropped off since he scored That Try against The Crusaders nearly four years ago to propel The Reds to a Grand Final victory.
Perhaps then in many ways, a move to France or Japan was somewhat inevitable: his Super Rugby team seems bogged down in crises both on and off the field, his form in 2013 and 2014 has seen him lose significant ground to Nick Phipps in the race for the Wallaby’s nine jersey, yet his is still a big enough name and talent to command big wages in those markets. Frankly, as disappointing as that reality is to me as a Will Genia fan and more generally a Super Rugby fan; one that who was looking forward to seeing this Reds team operate with Genia, Cooper, Hunt (cocaine supplying charges aside…) and O’Connor, it’s entirely reasonable and understandable. He needs a change of scenery and deserves the chance to make as much money as he can given the wear and tear he’s already sustained at the relatively young age of 27 (over 100 Super Rugby games and over 50 international caps).
Again speaking as a fan, this is an increasingly normal and worrying event: players in their early to mid-20s leaving Super Rugby for the more financially fertile climes overseas. This appears to be a particular issue in Australia, as while both South Africa and New Zealand still seem able to keep hold of their biggest stars (the odd Japanese sabbatical excluded), it continues to prove more difficult for Australia, who will also lost Bernard Foley to Japan after the World Cup on a two year deal (again, more than a few months that seems to be the norm for most New Zealand stars). Of course, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, with Jerome Kaino and Brian Habana being among the examples of players who have left the competition for prolonged periods of time while still seemingly in their primes. Looking specifically at Australia though, there is the chance of a mini exodus of talent after the World Cup, the aforementioned players being joined by Sekope Kepu and Nic White (Adam Ashley Cooper is leaving as well, but I’m going to focus on players in their 20s). In addition, there are rumours of bigger dominoes to fall with Israel Folau, Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale and weighing their options between moving north and staying in rugby, or staying put and playing in the NRL.
Here lies Australia’s inherent problem: out of every top eight international side in the world in rugby union, it is in Australia that the sport has its most tenuous hold. There is also a fairly simple reason why: despite the wealth of talent and excitement in Australian Super Rugby and the new domestic competition (unrivalled outside of the big three nations and maybe now France as well in my opinion), the sport has more direct rivals for a fan’s attention in Australia than in any of those other countries; and it isn’t close. In the NRL and AFL, Australian rugby union for not only fans but perhaps more importantly talent, just YouTube Greg Inglis, the top NRL tries from last season or highlights of any given AFL match and you will realise the sheer number and quality of players rugby in Australia misses out on. It is a constant struggle to recruit athletically talented teenagers to the sport, whereas in New Zealand, South Africa or even England, there isn’t the same number of direct rivals for young talent (of course in England football is the main draw for young sportsmen, but most footballers are in academies by eight and signed to binding contacts by their early teens, meaning there isn’t the same direct struggle for talent as there is between Super Rugby, the NRL and the AFL in Australia).
Recently, in the case of Bernard Foley, Michael Cheika fought to make him the first “overseas-based” player for Australia, meaning he would be jointly contracted to a club in Japan and the ARU, allowing him to play Waratahs and international games when the Japanese league is out of season. From Cheika’s point of view and even from the point of view of the national team in the short term, this is a viable and indeed helpful solution. This way, the player makes his money, but can continue wearing the green and gold. However, over time this may prove to be a dangerous solution, firstly it could open the floodgates for many other players to do the same, thus weakening Australian Super Rugby and the overall brand as a whole but secondly and more damagingly, if Super Rugby lost its foothold in Australia and the NRL and AFL were able to gain popularity as a result, it could really shrink the talent pool from which Wallabies of the future are drawn. There are already plenty of examples of young super talents picking other sport over rugby union in Australia and if the Super Rugby brand and product is significantly weakened, rugby union in the country may not be in the running for that calibre of player again.
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