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Joined May 2020
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It is beyond belief that SANZAAR can schedule this week's round of the Rugby Championship on a Saturday. They must have known that doing…
At the time of writing, the most recent article the ABC online had published online relating to rugby was from Wednesday, May 27. I…
I don’t think that it did. I think the record shows that South African teams consistently underperformed. They struggled in Super Rugby as they had to do considerably more travelling than Australasian based teams.
The same issue would exist with a single team on the west coast of the USA. They would be required to do more travelling than most other teams. I appreciate that South African teams are accumulating frequent flyer miles in the URC too but significantly and it is an important distinction to make.
They are playing in the same time zone. This is one of the reasons that South Africa decided to relocate north. Match times are audience friendly both for European audiences and South African.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
Why not go for it ??? Because it won’t work. That’s a good reason. It’s an absurd fantasy. World Rugby if it wants to waste money it could do so more effectively in any number of other ways. They could help subsidise the telecast of Japanese One Rugby around the world as it did last year on it’s Rugby Pass streaming service. They could subsidise youth development in the less mature but rapidly growing markets of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Iberia. If you follow American Rugby you would already be aware that the “tyranny of distance” is a major problem for the MLR. Super Rugby can’t even sustain a team in Melbourne, a city of over 5 million people in our own backyard and you expect that an American Super Rugby team travelling a minimum of 14 hours is sustainable. I spent over two hours in March of his year just trying to get through US Immigration. Please !! It’s time to get real.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
I know what I will be watching and it won’t be the State of Origin.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
I appreciate what you are saying and I appreciate I am in the minority in Australia or at least NSW but I have weened myself of League altogether and all the BS hype that surrounds it. I have found that if you don’t subject yourself to the trash that is traditional media in this country you begin to forget that League exists. I have watched one game of League all year on Anzac Day and that’s only because the NZR are too stubborn to schedule a Bledisloe cup on that day, and guess what, I don’t miss it. I won’t watch the State of Origin. It’s a tired concept full of fake tribalism that is rammed down your throat every year. I imagine that by now all the talk is about who will be playing in the blues jersey ? ha ha !! too funny, Who cares ???? People aren’t restricted to traditional media these days. Thanks to technology the worlds a smaller place than it has ever been and there is way too much Rugby to watch to care about what happens with the Nine networks precious Rugby League contract.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
A pot of gold for the debt collectors.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
So True. They are so short sighted. To quote Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. “Money never stops pal”. Yet RA and NZR still believe that a model based around the National Teams that play as few as a handful of games a year is sustainable. It’s not and was never going to be as soon as the game went professional in 1995. The World Rugby calendar is increasingly based around National competitions, whether you like it or not. The Wallaby’s and All Blacks are part time teams. That’s all they are and all they ever will be and yet, even on talk back Rugby shows in Australia and NZ that’s all they seem to be obsessed with. The Success or otherwise of the National team. Sure, they are a lightening rod for development but for Rugby to grow and be sustainable it needs a weekly diet of entertainment to galvanise support. Last year, in the heart of winter in August there was one professional game of Rugby played. Just think about that for a moment. How is that kind of scheduling going to attract a following ?
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
I agree with you Brendan. For a start it wouldn’t be such a money pit as what they are proposing here. World Rugby should be funding a few more under 20’s competitions for the likes of Canada and the USA. The men’s world cup is scheduled for 2031. This would mean that any potential Eagles under 20 now would be broadly speaking at the peak of their player potential. ie 26 or 27 come 2031. All this talk about Super Rugby is absurd, desperate and frankly a bit naive. The MLR already struggles with the “tyranny of distance.”
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
I agree. Totally misguided. There are no mutual benefits. The MLR already struggles to field teams on both sides of the USA in a manner that is fair, sustainable and balanced. The MLR is heading in the right direction. Perhaps not fast enough for World Rugby’s liking but the future health of Rugby in North America resides there not in the South Pacific.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
It makes NO SENSE. It’s a lousy idea. I follow the MLR weekly and they already have an East/West divide in the country that makes the national competition problematic. To expect to transplant a team to the South Pacific at least every second week is naive in the extreme. If World Rugby sought to subsidise a Canadian team as they do Anthem in the MLR for example that might make a little more sense but this, this is nonsense. Surely, no more than click bate.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
What’s wrong with these people ? Talk about putting the cart before the horse and idea’s of grandeur. Super Rugby struggles to stand on its own two feet as a competition in part because of New Zealand’s obsession with the All Blacks and they want to run off to the USA. Talk about desperate. Get the USA involved in more youth development programmes and competitions and let them strengthen the MLR. Anyone that follows the MLR already knows that USA Rugby struggles with the East/West divide. Why would they wish to extenuate that problem by joining a failing competition 12,000 km away.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup
The hypocrisy is staggering !! 😂
Three Kiwis, two Aussies and ONE bolter named in Lions squad as coach snubs son for Wallabies tour
The Options already exist. They are called the MLR, the Japanese One League and Suda America Rugby. Why would these competitions want to attach their mast to a competition at the other end of the world. As one of the regular Guests of MLR weekly, John “Bradshaw” Layfield put it last week. Who cares about Super Rugby ? I haven’t watched a game of Super Rugby. BOOM !!
Exclusive: Super Rugby considering USA expansion as World Rugby gets edgy over looming World Cup
It doesn’t !!
Exclusive: Super Rugby considering USA expansion as World Rugby gets edgy over looming World Cup
500m potential audience and zero interest.
Exclusive: Super Rugby considering USA expansion as World Rugby gets edgy over looming World Cup
ABSURD !! It’s a joke right !! The MLR is finding its feet. The Rugby is getting better week in week out. Why would they want to join a competition on the other side of the world. I understand World Rugby courting the USA but can’t help but think that they would get more bang for their buck courting Spain, South America, Eastern Europe and Japan. The Japanese One League attendance is exponentially out performing “Super Duper” Rugby. Long may it continue. Rugby’s future lies there not in the South Pacific.
Exclusive: Super Rugby considering USA expansion as World Rugby gets edgy over looming World Cup
That’s so true. You even hear that narrative being played out on the Rugby talk shows. That’s all they are concerned about the bloody Wallaby’s and All Blacks. This is such a tired old story. They were talking of a U.S.A team back in the 1980’s but can’t even sustain one in Melbourne a city of over 5 million in our own backyard. “Tell them their dream’n”
Exclusive: Super Rugby considering USA expansion as World Rugby gets edgy over looming World Cup
Exactly, Rugby League has known for years that they have an issue with concussion but have kept sweeping it under the bed. Litigation isn’t a thing to be concerned with in future years. Its reality is here, now !! They probably welcome a bit of overt outrage because perversely they can then claim that they are managing it when in truth they have put profit ahead of player welfare for years and are not managing it very well at all.
The Bunker is out of control - but players and coaches are just as responsible as the refs
I feel vindicated that post Anzac weekend Wallaby great Morgan Tirinui is calling also for an ANZAC test between Australia and NZ. This broke on NZ tv no less. I think that the penny is beginning to drop that New Zealand Rugby needs the Australian Market as much as they need a “high performance” programme for the All Blacks. The market has spoken. I hope they are listening.
The NZR is 'weak and short-sighted' to allow All Blacks to play in Europe - and they're damaging Super Rugby
“Cannon fodder in soup”. Interesting analogy.
When the world could have been treated to an Iconic
Rugby Test this ANZAC weekend, YOU supported a series of mediocre
games of park rugby. At least the Europeans put their money where their
mouth is.
The NZR is 'weak and short-sighted' to allow All Blacks to play in Europe - and they're damaging Super Rugby
That’s too funny !! The AB’s really are such a great reflection of the broader community. No wonder the game is struggling in the Shaky Isles or whatever it is called this week.
Super Rugby at last has an identity - but it's still living in a world of delusion
I know what you mean AndyS. I was always against the Wallaby’s and All Blacks playing a third test and I agree, there is a limit to how many times both teams can play “Exhibition” games in Chicago and San Diego, Hong Kong, etc but I can’t help but think this is a perfect fit, given the origin of the term Anzac. The NRL have played New Zealand before at this time but it does not carry the same weight as a Bledisloe cup fixture at least, as you say, until it isn’t the “real” Wallaby’s but that I fear is a discussion for another day.
Super Rugby at last has an identity - but it's still living in a world of delusion
Rubbish !! An Anzac Day test would be ICONIC. I have a choice now to watch the Anzac Rugby League event at a packed Sydney Football Stadium vs Super Rugby. What do you think I chose ? and What do you think I would have chosen had Australia vs New Zealand been on the table. An ANZAC Rugby test is something that the Australian Media could not ignore and is more in keeping with the spirit of the occasion than any of the alternatives on offer including anything that the AFL could deliver.
Super Rugby at last has an identity - but it's still living in a world of delusion
The Simple answer is no NRL or AFL doesn’t have the gravitas that Test Rugby has. A Bledisloe Cup on Anzac Day is a marketing wet dream. Instead of confronting the NRL directly on ANZAC day with a product that is not only World Class but as appropriate a sporting occasion as ANY sporting code in the country could conceive of, they give us a few games of park rugby. The mind bogles at how these people hold their jobs.
Super Rugby at last has an identity - but it's still living in a world of delusion
It would also get media traction that a regular Super Rugby game simply just doesn’t get. The benefit of that added media attention is difficult to qualify and the benefit might not necessarily be immediately calculable but an Anzac Day test would certainly grab attention and much needed revenue of course. Surely, that’s a good thing for a game that struggles to attract attention in an ultra competitive market place much of the time.
Super Rugby at last has an identity - but it's still living in a world of delusion
So true….. The All Blacks and Wallaby’s are part time teams. That’s all they are and all they ever will be. The revenue growth is increasingly dominated by the French and the Japanese domestic leagues. There unions are never going to support anything other than a narrow International window. RA and the NZR would do well to understand this paradigm. I have said it before but it deserves repeating. Can you believe that in the height of winter last year, in August there was one professional game of Rugby played in this region. It beggars belief. How can a sport expect to develop their supporter base when supporters are treated with such contempt.
'Huge potential': Wallabies great backs ambitious idea to take Super Rugby to US ahead of home World Cup