The coach of the Australian rugby team, Michael Cheika, believes that the Queensland County young players will be very much benefitted from playing with rugby legend Brad Thorn.
The 41 year old former All Blacks lock Brad Horn has decided to come out of retirement to play for the Queensland County against the Western Sydney Rams at the Concord Oval. This match is part of the National Rugby Championship in the country. He will be playing in top level rugby after a gap of one year.
Cheika says that Thorn’s inputs to the team will be very valuable. He did not feel that the young players will suffer due to the return of the Queensland County assistant coach into the playing arena. There will be no problem with that and all that is needed is to enter a game with a perfectly balanced team. There are a lot of new players coming up and you do not find anyone saying that they are being held back. The stage is there for everyone to make use of the opportunity that they get and to show that they belong to this league.
Australia has featured nine new players this season and there could be a couple more that could make the cut by the end of this rugby season. It is all about embracing the opportunity that is given to a player and to make full use of it. In fact, players must make full use of the chance to play with legends and to learn more from them. The National Rugby Championship is not a tournament that is held to promote emerging youth and it provides the youngsters a chance to learn a lot from players like Thorn on the field.
If the tournament must be focusing only on youths, then it must be made an under-20s tournament and not an NRC.