Gregor Paul: Time to give up on Force

Ben McCalman of the Force off loads during the Super Rugby match between the Highlanders and the Force. Photosport

The Australian Rugby Union is starting to be a danger to itself with its determination to save the Western Force.

It's kind of admirable that they are so driven to keep alive a professional team in Perth and build the game in Western Australia. Rugby is in a tough market across the Tasman and the bigger the footprint, the greater chance it has of thriving.

But there comes a point when determination transcends into something closer to obsession and that's dangerous. Dangerous because obsessive thinking is not rational or reasonable and is clouded by emotion.

And that transition has seemingly been made as later today there will be an announcement out of Perth. Western Australia premier Colin Barnett and ARU chief executive Bill Pulver are going to be there - and are supposedly going to reveal that Perth with host a Bledisloe Cup test, probably in 2019.

It will be furtther evidence that the ARU is determined to kep rugby alive in Western Australia. Come hell or high water, Australia is going to have it's fifth Super Rugby team.

Maybe in 10 years the ARU will be proven right to have battled so hard to save the Force. But right now, that's hard to believe.

The better option for the good of Australian rugby and Super Rugby, would have been to give it up. Australia isn't coping with five teams. They don't have the players or public interest to adequately support so many.

The highly paid consultancy firm Accenture reached much the same conclusion a few months ago - suggesting that one short term option for Super Rugby would be to blade at least one, if not two teams from the current set up.

The Force, with no money, dwindling crowds, receding corporate support in the face of a fading commodity boom, were the obvious Australian casualty.

It was a brave experiment taking Super Rugby to Western Australia. It was the right thing to do back in 2006 for both Australia and the wider Super competition. The money was there - all dressed up so to speak looking for some place to go - and Perth was such a good staging post for teams heading in and out of South Africa.

It all made sense and to begin with, it worked. The Force weren't so bad. Good Australians wanted to go there - maybe it was the money that lured them - but they still went.

But they could never quite make it beyond mid-table and as time went on, fewer leading players fancied settling so far from the Eastern Seaboard.

Without any obvious ability to push higher, locals lost some of their passion for it all and the cycle, once virtuous, was suddenly vicious and for the last few years, the Force have been cannon fodder.

Worse, they have diverted precious resources away from the other four franchises and last year, New Zealand sides destroyed Australian teams for fun.

In the 25 fixtures between New Zealand and Australian sides last year, the former won 22 and the average margin of victory was in excess of 20 points. That horribly one-sides statistic in itself should have been enough to convince the ARU to put their ego to one side and admit that the Perth experiment has failed. No shame in that - plenty of teams around the world in various codes go under.

The real failure now is that the ARU can't accept that. The time has come to get out, engineer some kind of semi-dignified ending. But obviously that isn't the way things are seen in Australia - they want the ultimate death of the Force to be gory and public.