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Western Force's success shows alternative pathway to Super Rugby
There is every chance that Western Force are in a stronger place now without being in Super Rugby as they rammed home their power in Saturday’s National Rugby Championship grand final win over the Canberra Vikings.
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The Force are thriving just two years after Rugby Australia’s announcement that they were being axed from Super Rugby, while the rest of Australian rugby continues to battle for relevance.
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest jumped on board to back the Force and he has created Global Rapid Rugby for them to compete in against teams from Fiji, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Samoa, and Singapore – and it has proved a success.
The Force also dominated the 2019 NRC season, winning the minor premiership and then backing that up with an emphatic 41-3 grand final victory at UWA Sports Park on Saturday against Canberra.
The win was secured by a five-try second half as the Force held the Vikings scoreless after leading 7-3 at halftime.
Lock Fergus Lee-Warner won the Phil Waugh Medal and was one of the try scorers – having been set up by hooker Heath Tessman, who scored a double himself.
Halfback Andrew Deegan capped off his superb grand final, in which he finished with 11 points, with a brilliant kick to set up a try for Jonah Placid.
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Coach Tim Sampson couldn’t be prouder as his breakthrough arrived with the NRC crown.
“Winning this NRC title was a monkey off my back too,” Sampson said.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B32Wy9vgVU7/
“It’s so hard to make a grand final and this year’s tournament was pretty even but I’m going to celebrate this.
“Our guys appreciate all that support, whether it’s the Forrests and Minderoo (Foundation) or the supporters.
“They respect them so much. They are the guys that drive us as well, it’s a two-way street. It’s not one-way traffic.”
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“Absolutely, whether he’s on contract or not, that’s a conversation for after the World Cup final."#WALvRSA #englandrugby #RWC2019 https://t.co/mozPQTjesE
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 26, 2019
But in Perth there’s a bigger picture and Sampson is more than happy to be on board.
“It has been a huge achievement for the club to be in the position it’s in now, but the best lies ahead for the Western Force,” he said.
“It is a slow build in general and 18 months ago when a lot of us came together.
“It is a slow build but we are going to get there.”
Japan’s convenience stores have a range of sandwich options available – which one contains the most boomfah?:
Comments on RugbyPass
The URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to comments