Rugby-World Cup workload policy under fire in Super Rugby

Resting eight Wallabies and making 12 changes to their starting 15, coach Stephen Larkham fielded virtually a 'B' team against Western Force and were beaten 34-19, snapping a 14-match winning streak against the Perth side. Once in line for a top two finish at the end of the regular season - which would give them home ground advantage through to the semi-finals - the Brumbies are now third and will likely need to win two playoffs in New Zealand to claim the title.

The humbling of a second-string ACT Brumbies team in Perth has not only dented the Canberra side's Super Rugby Pacific title hopes but also fired up debate about the integrity of a competition playing second fiddle to national team interests.

With New Zealand leading the way, workload management has become a feature of Super Rugby every four years as teams are told to make sure World Cup selection candidates are given enough time to rest and recover. The theory goes that All Blacks and Wallabies players will have less risk of injury before the World Cup and may even be "fresher" for it, thereby boosting their nation's hopes of lifting the trophy.

In practice, however, it has become a major bugbear for Super Rugby fans and pundits, who see games stripped of star players and lopsided results as understrength teams get dismantled by opponents. "But it is not just the fans who are insulted," rugby writer Wayne Smith fumed in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday. "It’s the competition itself, which is distorted out of all proportions by weird results."

For the Brumbies, the policy may have jeopardised their hopes of winning their first Super Rugby title since 2004. Resting eight Wallabies and making 12 changes to their starting 15, coach Stephen Larkham fielded virtually a 'B' team against Western Force and were beaten 34-19, snapping a 14-match winning streak against the Perth side.

Once in line for a top two finish at the end of the regular season - which would give them home ground advantage through to the semi-finals - the Brumbies are now third and will likely need to win two playoffs in New Zealand to claim the title. Larkham denied the Brumbies had disrespected the Force by thinking they could beat them with a second-string team.

"It wasn’t the Force, it was the six-day turnaround (between matches) and the length of the travel," he told reporters. The Brumbies also rested a raft of players earlier in the season for their away match against the Canterbury Crusaders and were duly smashed by the defending champions.

Larkham said such decisions were not made on the fly but were planned last October-November. "That’s where we mapped out the season knowing that we had to, you know, the Wallaby load management," he added.

KILL MOMENTUM The Brumbies are not the only team to trip up due to the policy.

The Wellington Hurricanes did their title hopes no favours when they rested two of their best All Blacks for their match over the weekend. Beating the table-topping Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton would have been tough enough for a full-strength side so there was no surprise when they fell 23-12 without talismanic captain Ardie Savea and outside back Jordie Barrett.

The result pushed them out of the top four places that earn home advantage in the quarter-finals. Winning their last two matches of the regular season may not help them make up the ground. After winning four successive games to qualify for the playoffs, the sixth-placed New South Wales Waratahs have the luxury of resting some players in the last two rounds against the Crusaders and Moana Pasifika, given they have no hope of reaching the top four.

After beating Fijian Drua last Saturday, Waratahs coach Darren Coleman said he would not rest players "en masse" but conceded there would be some rotation to freshen up before the quarter-finals. He denied he would be under pressure from Wallabies coach Eddie Jones to give test players a break and said there was no "hard and fast rule".

"He’s not going to try and kill our momentum going into the play-offs."

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