The Force awaken for golden chance of revenge
Three years after being expelled by Super Rugby, the Perth side return, writes Ben Coles
Anumber of olive branches have no doubt been extended during the coronavirus pandemic. You might have attempted to patch things up with an old friend, having realised the error of your ways.
The problem facing Rugby Australia is that it presumably needs the biggest olive branch in existence to placate a huge chunk of the country’s rugby-supporting population, whom it rather coldly chose to cut off previously.
Super Rugby’s reliance on international travel – featuring teams from Argentina, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and, for the final time this year, Japan – meant the competition faced an uncertain future from the moment lockdowns and quarantines were being imposed.
This has led to a series of domestic offshoots from the original competition, including “Super Rugby AU” in Australia, which will feature the current four Australian franchises – ACT Brumbies, Melbourne Rebels, Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs – plus a familiar face in the scorned Western Force.
Three years have passed since the Force were unceremoniously axed in a move to reduce a bloated Super Rugby from 18 teams to 15. South Africa’s Free State Cheetahs and Southern Kings were at least able to join the Pro14.
All that was left for the Force, offered up by Rugby Australia as a sacrifice, was relative obscurity, after losing a Supreme Court battle to remain in Super Rugby. The sight of a teary-eyed Matt Hodgson, the Force’s bruising back row and captain with 140 appearances for the side, after their appeal failed was distressing.
In response Andrew Forrest, the Force’s owner, created his own competition, Global Rapid Rugby. It has tweaked rules to speed up the game and featured teams from Fiji, Samoa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and China, but lacks the profile of Super Rugby. Top-level rugby in Australia was already clustered along the east coast anyway, with the Force being the sole representative in Australia’s expansive west. After their expulsion, even that no longer existed.
That was until this week, when the Force and Forrest accepted an invitation to be part of Super Rugby AU. The ramifications are fascinating, starting with incoming Rugby Australia chairman Hamish Mclennan’s sheepish apology.
“We are grateful for Andrew Forrest’s support and understand that decisions made by Rugby Australia in 2017 were painful for sports fans in Western Australia and the Force players, and we are sorry that they haven’t been able to share in the rivalry against their fellow Australian teams.”
London Irish lock Adam Coleman, part of the Force when they were axed, was one of many Wallabies forced to up sticks and move east to join a new side ahead of the 2018 Super Rugby season. “The Force were cut and a really big part of my life was cut, too,” he said recently. “That was pretty hard for me.
“I fell in love with Perth, the culture and the lifestyle that Western Australia produces. It has definitely limited rugby in Australia to the east coast. There is a lot of talent in Western Australia that can go missing, untouched.”
Super Rugby AU, played over 12 weeks including a finals series, represents a glorious opportunity for the Force to give the rest of rugby in Australia a bloody nose, proving the decision to sacrifice the only Super Rugby franchise west of Melbourne was a colossal mistake.
Tim Sampson, the Force coach, also hopes the tournament will help his players push for Wallabies selection.
Forrest, to his credit, has been diplomatic, given that the Rugby Australia chairman and chief executive who oversaw the Force’s demise, Cameron Clyne and Bill Pulver, are long gone.
“I am prepared to help out Rugby Australia and new chair Hamish Mclennan in a time of crisis, for the good of the sport,” he said this week.
At the same time, surely the Force and Forrest want nothing more than to humiliate the other four established Super Rugby franchises. As opportunities for revenge go, this is a golden one.