Wallabies representative Christian Lealiifano's surprise addition to the Tuggeranong Vikings for Saturday's John I Dent Cup grand final has drawn a mixed reaction from the Canberra rugby community.
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The Vikings received an unexpected boost in their quest for a fifth straight title when Lealiifano was made available to face the Canberra Royals after he was left out of the Wallabies squad for Saturday night's Bledisloe Cup clash with the All Blacks in Sydney.
It will be just the second game Lealiifano has played for the Vikings this season after he turned out for them against the Gungahlin Eagles last month.
Easts coach John Ross said the addition of Lealiifano for the grand final was a "bad look for Tuggeranong".
"You get a Test quality player coming back to play a club-land final, realistically that's just Tuggeranong," Ross said.
"It's really hard done by on the guy who's been dropped for him, but he'll understand because Christian's a great player and a great bloke, so no one will have a problem with that.
"It's hard on Royals because all of a sudden the goal posts got a little bit further away by putting a Test-quality footballer like Christian out there.
"It's good for Christian, good for Australian rugby, but it's a bad look for Tuggeranong and doesn't help Royals' chances at all."
The Vikings will field four of their five Brumbies-contracted players – Lealiifano, flanker Jarrad Butler, outside back Nigel Ah Wong and flyhalf Rod Iona.
The Royals will have hooker Siliva Siliva, lock Tom Staniforth and winger Lausii Taliauli.
The Brumbies' high performance unit allocates the club's 35 contracted players across the seven John I Dent Cup clubs according to what will be the best fit for both parties.
Lealiifano has a long relationship with the Vikings stemming back to before he joined the Brumbies.
Vikings coach Brad Harris said Lealiifano would fit straight in after playing in a match against Gungahlin last month.
"He started at our club as a young bloke straight out of school and he loves playing with a lot of his close mates that he's got there," Harris said. "His communication and the level he prepares at rubs off on the other boys.
"It's a real shot in the arm."
Gungahlin coach Dan Atkins said he had nothing against Lealiifano lining up for the Vikings, but suggested the rules around player eligibility needed to change.
"I think there needs to be a rule in the system where any player needs to have played a minimum number of games to be able to play in the finals," Atkins said.
"If we made the grand final, we could have had Ita Vaea, Josh Mann-Rea, Rory Arnold and James Dargaville.
"What it does for a cohesion of a team is not good because you build that knowledge and experience with all of your players playing together the whole year.
"Then to have four quality players come in at the last minute, it's not always a good thing."
Wests president David Bensley said he had no problem with Brumbies players being eligible for the John I Dent Cup finals despite how many games they had played in the regular season.
"We want the best and brightest playing in the competition and we want to legitimise the John I Dent Cup," Bensely said.
"Wests have been a bit hard done by in the past few years with our Brumbies allocation, but there were a couple years before that where it worked for us.
"If we want to have a strong competition, we need to have the best playing."
Royals officials declined to comment.
