As the local mining community would no doubt agree, to find gold in Western Australia this week you have had to go looking for it. There is the odd Wallabies flag fluttering in the wind but blue and maroon have been the dominant colours in Perth, which staged the second State of Origin match last Sunday to considerably greater fanfare than that which greets the first Test between Australia and England on Saturday.
Maybe that should come as little surprise given the limited appeal of rugby union in these parts compared with the National Rugby League, but for all that starting the series on the west coast was a well-intentioned move to grow the game in that area, it jars that the Wallabies still haven’t arrived from their base on the Sunshine Coast.
