Waratahs Should Develop Men Of Steel, Not Buy Scrap

Sun Herald

Sunday June 27, 2004

SALLY LOANE

IT'S no secret I've been underwhelmed by the wooing of Andrew Johns by a faceless group called Friends of the Waratahs.

I believe rugby should grow players from within its own ranks, not throw buckets of money at someone who's injured, too old, too expensive and a complete novice to the game.

One of my listeners reckoned rugby fans didn't want Joey because he's the son of a coalminer from Kurri Kurri. What antiquated, misinformed, class-ridden rot.

While detractors denigrate the code as an enclave of private school rah-rahs, the reality is that Australian rugby would not be where it is today without the state school educated sons of miners, migrants, farmers, cane cutters and publicans from Nick Shehadie to Mark Ella to George Smith and Mark Gerrard.

In NSW, there are 208 state high schools playing rugby, including the champion Prairiewood High team whose First XV boasts kids from 14 different ethnic backgrounds.

Journalist Peter Charlton, who played rugby at his Newcastle high school, emailed me: "My father was a train driver, his father a coalminer, and his father, also a coalminer, led the ALP after the 1916 split. My rugby club was full of blokes who worked in the steel industry. Ron Burns, the hooker, was a fitter and turner at BHP.

"He was rostered to work on Saturday but took a sickie to play. That day, Burnsie scored his first try in a decade of playing and got his photo on page one of the paper. He was called in by his foreman and suspended, without pay, for two weeks.

"I often think of Ron Burns when I read of the salaries being paid to today's players."