Wallabies set to go on strike if Force are axed

AUSTRALIA’S professional rugby players may go on strike early next year if one of their Super Rugby teams is axed in a shake-up of the competition.

Reports Down Under suggest Australia’s Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA) are considering preseason strike action if one of the country’s five Super Rugby teams, believed to be the Western Force, is cut.

A decision on the structure of the unwieldy tournament, which has grown to 18 teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and Argentina, is expected next week.

Organisers SANZAAR announced nearly three weeks ago that a shake-up was imminent but since then the governing body have been mute on the issue.

Former RUPA boss Greg Harris has urged the body to “seriously assess” what industrial action they could take should the news be bad for an Australian team.

“The professional game evolved out of player militancy,” said Harris. “It might well be that player militancy again is the only action which looks after the best interests of the game in Australia because there are no indications that the ARU are performing this task at present.”

RUPA have also launched a petition to save the fiveteam model in Australia, warning of “permanent damage” to the game if a Super Rugby team was cut.

With games played in cities straddling 17 time zones, travel schedules can be intense, while the quality of play has been criticised and the tournament is also hard for fans to follow.

Speculation has been rife that the competition will be trimmed back to 15 clubs, with South Africa losing two of their six teams and Australia cutting one of five.

A report this week said the Force, who were founded in 2005, would be chopped, but the Perth-based club rejected the account as “totally false”.

The union cannot take industrial action during the term of their collective bargaining agreement, but it is understood to be mulling the option during the Super Rugby pre-season next year.