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Western Force reveal they are yet to receive an invite for new Australian domestic competition

By AAP
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

The Western Force say they have yet to receive a formal invitation to compete in Rugby Australia’s mooted domestic competition scheduled to start in July.

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RA on Monday released a return-to-play strategy with the aim of starting a five or six-team 12-week competition featuring the Western Force and possibly Japan’s Sunwolves alongside Australia’s four Super Rugby teams.

The original five-nation Super Rugby competition was suspended in mid-March because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

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Brumbies prop Scott Sio briefs media

Wallaby prop Scott Sio has offered his qualified support for a scrum clock to be trialled during a planned domestic competition in Australia.

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Brumbies prop Scott Sio briefs media

Wallaby prop Scott Sio has offered his qualified support for a scrum clock to be trialled during a planned domestic competition in Australia.

But Global Rapid Rugby chief executive Mark Evans has issued a statement on behalf of the force as “clarification”.

“The Western Force has not to date received a formal invitation to participate in the proposed 2020 Australian domestic competition,” Evans said.

“There may be some interest on our part, but to suggest the Western Force has agreed to participate is inaccurate.

“Until an invitation, complete with full competition details and arrangements, is forthcoming and has been agreed to, the Force will continue to review a range of playing options for the remainder of 2020 and beyond.”

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The Force were cut from Super Rugby in 2017 but seemingly feature very much in Rugby Australia’s plans for a replacement competition it hopes to kick off on July 4.

“The Western Force have been involved in our whole COVID-19 working group – we’ve had weekly phone calls involving their key staff as we’ve dealt with this whole pandemic,” said RA’s Anthony French, head of professional rugby at RA.

RA’s general manager Ben Whitaker said the Force wouldn’t even require more players from other states squads to be competitive.

“At this stage they are well set up to present a professional team,” Whitaker said.

“As they would have been doing in Global Rapid Rugby, so there’s been no requests or exchange of ideas round that.

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“They feel that they are well serviced with the squad they have got.”

Coached by Tim Hampson, the Force squad contains 35-year-old former All Blacks lock Jeremy Thrush, ex-NSW Waratahs fanker Chris Alcock, ex-Queensland Reds hooker Andrew Ready and veteran hooker Heath Tessman.

Other players include skipper Ian Prior, Marcel Brache, Kieran Longbottom and Brynard Stander.

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M
Mzilikazi 19 minutes ago
How England reverse-engineered unlikely attacking change

Thanks, Nick, not only for this fine article, but for all the others during 6N 2024. I really enjoyed this 2024 tournament, and felt it was one of the best for many years. That final match in Lyons was really good. England were certainly unlucky when that speculative hack by Ramos lead to a French try. It could just so easily have landed in English hand.s, and they score at the other end. I did think though that the French played some great rugby, and some of their driving play in the forwards was just fearsome. I watched Meafou with interest, and he has a good start to his career. It is interesting to compare him with Will Skelton. Lot of similarities, though so far Meafou has not shown any offloading threat. All credit to Borthwick for being prepared to change, and what great result, even if that last game was lost at the death. I feel they are a real chance to cause the AB’s problems this winter/summer. Finally a comment on Ireland. I thought their last game was their worst, and they did not look like the world’s No 2 side at all. What really worries me is that the loss to England was, in my view, down to poor decision making by the coaching group, and ofc Andy Farrell wears that. It was a big mistake to move JGP away from scrum half. Murray should have been the one to go to the wing. And the “finishers” should have been on the field earlier. And this is the second time this has happened. The RWC Qf against the AB’s, and not getting Crowley onto the field was a huge mistake. Finally, finally, watching Italy play was a joy. How wonderful that they are no longer the punchbag of the 6 N.

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