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Coleman the latest to join Rebels revolution
By Alex Fisher
Wallabies lock Adam Coleman is the latest player to sign a deal with the Rebels as the Super Rugby franchise continue their off-season preparations.
Coleman is the 11th former Western Force player to move to Melbourne after the former were stripped of their licence for the 2018 season.
Dane and Ross Haylett-Petty, Jermaine Ainsley, Tetera Faulkner, Ben Daley, Jono Lance, Matt Philip, Billy Meakes, Anaru Rangi and Richard Hardwick have all signed since the appointment of Dave Wessels as head coach.
Scrum-half Will Genia has also been lured back to Australia after a recent spell with Stade Rennais, and Coleman cannot wait to hook up with the new-look Rebels.
"I'm excited to get down to Melbourne and join up with the boys," said Coleman, who has signed a two-year contract.
"They have made some great signings, that have nicely added to the talented guys that are already there.
"There's a nice balance of experience and some great young players, so we'll be aiming to give Super Rugby a good shake next year.
"Obviously Dave was a big factor, but I definitely wanted to stay in Australian Rugby. I love playing in the gold jersey for the Wallabies and I think we're building something special for the 2019 Rugby World Cup."
Coleman has established himself as an important part of Michael Cheika's Australia side in the past 18 months, but would have found himself ineligible had he moved abroad.
With only 20 caps, the 26-year-old would have fallen well short of the 60 needed to be considered when playing outside Australia, but now looks in prime position to be part of the Wallabies' World Cup squad in 2019.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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