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The Force receive word on their Super Rugby axing appeal
By Dejan Kalinic
The Force are still set to be axed from Super Rugby after their appeal to the Supreme Court of New South Wales was dismissed.
The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announced its intention to cut the Force from the competition, which is returning to a 15-team format, last month.
RugbyWA challenged the decision, arguing the ARU had broken a commercial contract which gave the Force a Super Rugby spot until 2020, but justice David Hammerschlag dismissed the appeal on Tuesday.
He ruled a renegotiation of the broadcast agreement meant the ARU could reduce the number of teams, while also saying the governing body had the authority because it owned the Force.
In a statement, RugbyWA said: "This now means the ARU have the ability to remove the Western Force from the Super Rugby competition.
"Based on previous correspondence we are expecting the ARU to confirm the termination of the Western Force's participation in the Super Rugby competition.
"We understand that the ARU intend to continue with the Perth Spirit in the National Rugby Championship.
"Since it was announced in April that one Australian team would be removed from the competition, it has been apparent that the ARU fully intended to discontinue the Western Force, a decision that disregards the nation's third largest rugby playing community and destroys rugby union's national footprint."
RugbyWA said it would consider appealing to the NSW Court of Appeal.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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