Scatter-gun or clustering―where is the logical location for Australian rugby’s fifth Super franchise?

[Summary: In considering locations for a fifth Australian Super franchise, the Australian Rugby Union appears to be neglecting the option of basing it in the heartland of Australian rugby―the inner city suburbs of Sydney. Both the ARL and AFL have the majority of their clubs located in the city in which their game developed.

Given that this week’s SANZAR board meeting was held in Dubai one should not expect too much respect to be paid to location theory in determining the next site for expanding the Super 14 competition.

Australian Rugby Union supremo John O’Neill has justifiably argued strongly for the fifteenth franchise to be granted to Australia, but where should such a team be based? Perhaps an examination of the location of professional teams in other football codes in Australia might be illuminating.

The Australian Rugby League has sixteen Premiership clubs. Nine of these (56%) are located in Sydney; four (25%) in other traditional rugby league areas; and three (19%) in what might be classed as expansion areas, namely Melbourne, New Zealand and the Gold Coast.

The Australian Football League also has sixteen Premiership clubs. Nine of these (56%) are located in Melbourne; five (31%) in other traditional Australian Rules areas; and two (13%) in expansion areas, namely Sydney and Brisbane.

It can be seen that in both of the major codes with which rugby competes the majority of teams are located in the city in which their game developed. By contrast Australian rugby has just four professional teams; one in Sydney where the game has its Australian roots (25%); one in Brisbane, a traditional rugby area(25%); and two in expansion areas, namely Canberra and Perth(50%).

John O’Neill has been quoted as saying that in choosing a location for the additional team “the Gold Coast, Melbourne and West Sydney boasted the necessary prerequisites, while also mentioning Gosford and Newcastle.” Let’s look at the logic of these five sites.

Starting with Gosford, its main attraction would appear to be that it has an underutilised stadium, apparently constructed by John Singleton in “Field of Dreams” mode. Well he built it but they didn’t come. The area lacks critical population mass, is devoid of major corporations to provide sponsorship support, and lacks an underlying club competition of anything remotely like an appropriate standard.

Newcastle would also seem to be deficient in terms of population, business support and strength of its club competition. In fact, a Newcastle team competed in the Sydney Club Premiership competition for a few seasons in the late 1990s but folded due to lack of support from the Newcastle public.

Placing a team in Melbourne would create many of the same problems faced by the Western Force, namely being in a city where the overwhelming majority of the population have no interest in rugby and don’t really know the difference between rugby and rugby league, and not having an underpinning club competition of anywhere near acceptable standard.

Giving a franchise to the Gold Coast, an area that supports just one team in the Brisbane Premiership club competition, means that the South-East Queensland conurbation, essentially Greater Brisbane, would have two Super 15 clubs while Sydney would have only one. Giving their relative populations, strength of their club football competitions and business clout, this does not make sense.

So that just leaves West Sydney―or does it? John O’Neill has, if I recall correctly, mentioned both Blacktown and Parramatta as possible locations, but where is rugby’s heartland in Sydney? It has always been in the inner city suburbs, basically clustered around the harbour.

Of the last fifty Sydney First Grade Premierships, twenty-three have been won by Randwick and ten by Sydney University. If we then add in those won by other harbour-side clubs―Norths, Gordon, Manly and Easts―45 of the last 50 Premierships or 90% have been won by rugby-heartland clubs. Only five or 10% have been won by clubs which could be regarded as part of West Sydney―three by Eastwood and two by Parramatta.

In addition the great bulk of the wealthy private schools which have been the major nursery for Australian rugby players are located in the heartland suburbs.

Club rugby has always struggled in West Sydney, and even the club which has enjoyed success in recent years, Eastwood, is facing a financial crisis partly due to a rapidly changing demographic unfavourable to rugby.

If we had a central Sydney team in addition to the NSW Waratahs where would it play? The obvious answer is the Football Stadium. Very few professional football teams own their own grounds; it makes much better economic sense to hire an existing facility.

Would there be sufficient support to sustain two teams in the one city? Apart from the obvious examples from the ARL and the AFL, English cities such as Liverpool and Manchester, both much smaller than Sydney, have dual soccer clubs as well as numerous other clubs clustered nearby. The proximity of rivals seems to promote fierce tribalism and increased interest in the sport.

In discussing a new Australian franchise John O’Neill spoke about the possibility of a “’hybrid team’ including Pacific Islanders, Australia expats and league converts.” Ignoring the wisdom or otherwise of sourcing players in this way, why might there be a deficiency of professional standard rugby players in Australia? Precisely because there are so few opportunities for rugby players to ply their trade in their own country.

As mentioned above, there are sixteen fully professional clubs in both the ARL and the AFL. By contrast there are only four Australian Super 14 clubs. In broad terms this means that there are four times as many opportunities for rugby league and Australian football players to play professionally here as there are in rugby. Given time, the additional demand for players created by a fifth franchise will produce the necessary supply. That process will take much longer than it should because, with a few notable exceptions, player development has been grossly neglected by the administrators of rugby in Australia.

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Daniel Vickerman rates MyoQuip strength machines as "absolutely fantastic"

Dan Vickerman is recognised as one of the top lineout forwards in world rugby. Born in South Africa, he has the unusual distinction of having represented both South Africa and Australia at the Under-21 level. In 2002 he made his debut for the Wallabies against France, going on to make 55 Test appearances. He played Super Rugby with the ACT Brumbies from 2001 to 2003 and the NSW Waratahs from 2004 to 2008.

Having been forced to study online throughout his first degree, a Bachelor of Financial Planning through Open Universities Australia (RMIT), he responded to the opportunity to study at Cambridge by suspending his international rugby career to enjoy the luxury of full time study. He is now reading for a degree in Land Economy at Cambridge's Hughes Hall.

At 204cm, Dan's limb geometry is unsuited for exercises such as the squat. Not surprisingly he acknowledges that "I have suffered from back injuries in the past due to the nature of some exercises in the gym." In fact, a very high proportion of professional rugby forwards avoid squatting because of back problems.

Fortunately, for the past four seasons both in the Waratah's gym and at Camp Wallaby at Coff's Harbour, Vickerman has had access to the MyoQuip ScrumTruk which he describes as "an asset to me during my rugby career." Recently, when forced by injury to take a break from national representation after the Super 14 Final, he went back to his club, Sydney University, to undertake rehabilitation with strength and conditioning guru Martin Harland. At the Uni gym he made extensive use of both the ScrumTruk and the HipneeThrust lying leg press before setting off for Cambridge.

"For me the two machines, the ScrumTruk and the HipneeThrust, have been absolutely great," Vickerman says. "The use of these machines gives the ability to build strength without putting strain on one's lower back. As a forward the strength gained transfers well onto the field due to their practicality and specificity to what we do during the game."

(The Sydney University gymnasium has now replaced its ScrumTruk and HipneeThrust machines with the more advanced MyoTruk and MyoThrusta)



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The essence of rugby

Rugby football is a game I can't claim absolutely to understand in all its niceties, if you know what I mean. I can follow the broad, general principles, of course. I mean to say, I know that the main scheme is to work the ball down the field somehow and deposit it over the line at the other end, and that, in order to squelch this programme, each side is allowed a certain amount of assault and battery and do things to its fellow-man which, if done elsewhere, would result in fourteen days without the option, coupled with some strong remarks from the Bench.

P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves, 1930
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Rugby scrum mechanics, technique and strength training: links to articles

[Summary: Here is a collection of links to articles, posts and web pages about rugby scrum technique and strength training. Arranged alphabetically by title, each of them conforms to the commons principle by being freely available for viewing without payment and by not being password-protected.]

"Andy Sheridan - an aberration or is prodigious strength the future of rugby?" Bruce Ross
"[Andy Sheridan's] example suggests that players with appropriate genetic endowment can achieve massive strength specific to the demands of their sport through the long term application of strength training techniques. However, in order to do so, these players currently have to almost defy the rugby world's orthodoxy in relation to strength and conditioning."
MyoQuip Blog

"Assessment of scrummaging performance" Stuart Mills and Paul Robinson
"with the new era of professional rugby and an increased scientific approach, rugby clubs should evaluate the validity of the physical tests they currently use and consider adopting rugby specific tests that measure scrummaging performance directly. This would increase confidence in the validity of the test data and result in the real weaknesses being addressed, thereby improving the preparation of players for competition."
Coaches' Infoservice

"The attacking scrum" Angus Baker
"the scrum, if applied correctly, becomes an essential attacking platform to the modern game and maximises attacking options."
www.rugby.com.au

"Body height in the rugby scrum: the value of equal hip and knee joint angles" Bruce Ross
"an optimal configuration of body position and limb alignment on engagement involves hip and knee angles each set at 90° with both trunk and shank being parallel to the ground. During the scrum, hip and knee joints should move synchronously so that their angles remain equal."
www.myoquip.com.au

"Building the scrum" Graham Smith
"A dominant scrummage ... not only provides your team with excellent possession, but it is also a vehicle which can exhaust the opposition pack, and demotify and dispirit the opposition backs, for they will always be on the back foot, always under pressure."
www.coachingrugby.com

"The guru and the scrum
"No foot in the scrum should move from its starting position. The way your feet are before you actually engage is the way they must stay so you do not get a destabilised scrum as players try to readjust their feet."
Rugby365.com

"Introducing the ScrumTruk rugby strength builder" Bruce Ross
"In exercising with ScrumTruk, the lower spine adopts moderate curvature necessary for effective pushing and avoidance of lower back strain. This
position also triggers isometric contraction of the stabilising muscles of the pelvic and abdominal regions."
MyoQuip Blog

"The mechanics of the scrum and implications for the role of the tight head prop, right lock and right flanker." David Docherty
"An important aspect of scrummaging is understanding the way in which the scrum will tend to move or wheel and how it can used to advantage or needs to be resisted."
Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union

"Prop-specific strength training at the shove" Conrad Comer
"It cannot be over-stressed how important it is for players in such a vulnerable position to train through the full range of movement."
www.community-rugby.com

"Scrum mechanics, technique and problem solving - or, helping the 'girls' understand the 'dark arts.'" Mark Calverley
"In this article I am ... trying to apply mechanics to the scrum, but without using biomechanics jargon."
www.community-rugby.com

"Scrums - have we got it right?" Andrew Beattie
"about 8.3 minutes of a game of Rugby Union is devoted to scrums."
www.rugby.com.au

"Static neck stretches"
"simple exercises ... will develop the neck muscles and help against the chance of doing irreparable damage during a game or training."
www.nswrugby.com.au

"The scrum" Martin Hynes
"Squat weight-lifting principles are very important in scrummaging and a player's basic technique can be checked in weight training ... or simply by getting the player to hold a stick across his shoulders so that he can demonstrate his squat style/technique."
www.community-rugby.com
www.nswrugby.com.au

"The Scrum" Matt Ryan
"it is my belief that you should not be coaching Rugby Union unless you can coach a safe scrum collapse procedure. This is an extremely dangerous part of the game."
Singapore Rugby Union Technical Director

"Tight five
scrummaging - it's all about body shape" Mark Bell
"This discussion paper will address the role of the tight five and identify how good body shape and correct scrummaging can significantly reduce the fatigue caused to players by scrummaging."
www.rugby.com.au

"Total impact method: a variation on engagement technique in the rugby scrum" Doug McClymont
"The principle of conservation of momentum ensures that the pack that is moving faster at impact will apply a greater force, and that pack will tend
to maintain its position rather than being moved back."
Coaches' Infoservice

I would be grateful for any suggestions of other articles that could be added to this list or for any comments on any of the articles.

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Strong glutes for the 'horsepower' factor

Kelly Baggett is an Arizona-based "performance consultant" who specialises in "increasing raw explosiveness, acceleration and jumping ability." In an article on his site Higher-Faster-Sports.com titled "The plague of the mediocre athlete; no glutes equals no results," he claims that the main difference between average and good athletes is in "the functionality of the feet, as well as the strength, development, and function of the glute musculature."

Baggett argues that the glutes are mainly responsible for the 'horsepower' factor and does not believe that an athlete can have too much glute strength. He maintains that "due to their natural strength and the leverage advantage they have over your legs, the glutes should always be the primary muscles that drive lower body movement.

Inhibited glutes and overshadowed glutes

In extreme cases the glutes may be inhibited to the extent that they don't contract when walking, standing or even playing sport, but the more common problem for the athlete is having "overshadowed glutes":

Here the glutes DO fire correctly, but are not as strong as other lower body muscles (like the quadriceps), thus the body will use other muscles to do what the glutes SHOULD be doing, resulting in inefficient
performance and often some type of pain or injury over the long haul. Whenever you perform a movement such as a squat, lunge, deadlift, jump, sprint, or any exercise that involves several different muscle groups, the majority of work will tend to be done by the strongest of those muscle groups.

People who don't have superior glute activation patterns and whose glutes are not naturally stronger than their thighs perform exercises in the weightroom that should be strengthening their glutes but typically end up with most of the strengthening occurring in the thigh muscles. Then "when you throw them into an athletic environment the body will naturally use the strongest muscles to control movements, so now their quads and other muscles will want to do what the glutes should be doing." People who tend to easily develop massive quadriceps are usually not very impressive athletically:

A person with overly developed quadriceps and lack of hamstring and glute development will tend to be a heel to toe runner and have trouble gliding, planting, and getting off on the balls of their feet. ... Even if the posterior chain is developed, in someone that has massive quadricep development, they will still struggle with ideal movement patterns because their body will try to do things that favor the stronger muscle groups.

Extensor dominant movement for speed

In another article, "Squats and speed development?" Baggett suggests that blazing speed derives from "extensor dominant movement." He advises:

for speed development you get away from focusing on exercises where you "bend your knees" and focus on exercises where you extend your hips. So, get away from squatting and focus on extending, where the focus is high RPM strength, which I truly believe a person can never have enough of. That means everything on the backside of your body becomes more important.

Hip-joint-specific strength apparatus

MyoQuip's latest release, the MyoHip, provides a biomechanically efficient means of exercising and strengthening the hip extensors - glutes and hamstrings - without activating the knee extensors. In addition it is very effective in strengthening and enhancing the functionality of the hip flexors, which are the antagonists of the hip extensors.

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World champion rower uses the MyoThrusta and MyoTruk for strength training

Dual world champion sculler Bronwen Watson has been making extensive use of the MyoThrusta and MyoTruk machines installed at Sydney University's athletes' gymnasium. Watson who won gold in the Lightweight Women's Quad Scull at the 2007 World Rowing Championships at Munich, Germany repeated the achievement at the 2008 Championships at Linz Ottensheim, Austria.



She had 'retired' from rowing after winning bronze at the 2003 World Championships, then took it up again socially in England in 2005 before coming back to Australia to take up a Head Coaching position as a Sydney girls' school, but "I found sitting in the speed boat a really frustrating way to be on the water so started doing a bit of paddling. Before I knew it I was spending more time in lycra and training 6 days a week!"

Now aged 31, she intends to continue rowing for a few more years:

Rowing is a sport where you are continually trying to find the perfect stroke and the perfect mental approach - which all takes time and a lot of determination. I guess that's part of the reason some of the great rowing athletes have endured for so many years - it's a sport of patience and perseverance. So, even though I have been around for a while and developed a good base, I still think I have a lot to improve on!

Rowing training is particularly gruelling, with long sessions on the water supplemented by hour-long ergometer rows, heavy gym training and bike rides that extend for hours. Lower lumbar injuries are an extremely common problem for elite rowers, making it difficult to continue doing the traditional lower limb multi-joint extensor exercises such as the squat and deadlift. Having access to equipment that creates maximum tension in glutes and quads without appreciable spinal loading is a huge benefit.

During the second half of 2008 Bronwen had commenced a new career, working as Executive Assistant to Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness Executive Director, Rob Smithies, but the move was short-lived when she was given the opportunity to take up a full-time scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport.
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