Roar Rookie
Joined August 2011
29.3k
Views
9
Published
206
Comments
Published
Comments
The best-of-three Bledisloe Cup format has never produced a grand finale blockbuster. Not once. Here’s the full list of years the format has failed…
The numbers are in. They don’t look great for the blazer brigade's plan to turn their backs on what the Australian rugby community want,…
If Australian rugby is to grow revenue and participation, beyond the resident New Zealanders, it must win the hearts and minds of 25 million…
After two rounds of Super Rugby Trans Tasman, the score is New Zealand 10 wins, Australia zero. Rugby Australia, we have a problem. With…
After Round 1 of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, it's evident we have a flawed tournament format. The Aussie teams play five Kiwi teams, while the…
Did you know Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada and Argentina played alongside teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the amateur-era rugby union…
Television coverage of rugby is a billion dollar industry yet the game is suffering from poor television coverage. Why do I say that? It’s…
The 2015 Super Rugby final in Wellington sold out in one minute. One minute. Fans love a winner-takes-all match as the historical success of…
As a rugby fan, my attention is spread across internationals, domestic and club tournaments as well as Super Rugby. Less frequently do I feel…
USA will host Rugby World Cup in 2031.
Little by little, NRL hype slowly catching on in America ... but it's still just rugby to them
If there’s one tournament which shouldn’t exist purely on money terms, it’s Super Rugby Pacific.
We learned from 2021 Super Rugby AU final that Australian domestic finals get bigger TV audiences than Bledisloe Cup matches. Problem is, Super Rugby had never delivered an all Australian final since its inception in 1996. Not once. Super Rugby AU did it twice in two years. Yet, RA killed off what Australian rugby fans want. We learned from Super Rugby AU that local rugby fans will turn up and buy tickets too.
The broadcasters will buy it if it’s packaged up properly.
Exclusive: McLennan urges RA to put Super team in Sydney's west with 'NRL's worst nightmare' Suaalii as marquee
Only 4 Australian pro rugby teams. It’s not enough opportunity compared to NRL.
RA needs to find a way to achieve 8 or 10 pro teams to create sufficient employment opportunity. The obvious place to start is with a good domestic tournament. Sadly Rugby Australia continues to invest in the Super Rugby Pacific tournament which was designed by NZR to tap into the lucrative kiwi expat market in Australia, and has come at the expense of Australian rugby…
Exclusive: Aussie sevens star signs with NRL club in 'huge blow' weeks after taking out game's top award
RA does need to make tough decisions. First, remove the Super Rugby noose from around Australian rugby’s neck. It doesn’t work for Australian rugby. Do not renew the Super Rugby Pacific contract.
Mate v mate. Australian rugby finals. An Australian champion every season. That’s what we want.
Go to the broadcasters with an Australian national rugby championship including a team in Western Sydney, and country NSW. Just get on with it…
Exclusive: McLennan urges RA to put Super team in Sydney's west with 'NRL's worst nightmare' Suaalii as marquee
This financial bind is also RA’s fault. They painted themselves into a corner with blind support for SANZAR. 28 years later RA has no money making options apart from things inherited from the amateur era: the Wallabies, The Lions, hosting Rugby World Cup.
Where’s Australia’s equivalent to the NRL or AFL?
We need our own national rugby championship.
'Start winning Super Rugby titles': Why RA has splurged on 64-player tour, and their 'pivot' to ward off NRL threat
Give up on Super Rugby already it’s a failure for Australian rugby.
A generation of Australian rugby players have limited knock out rugby experience. An Australian franchise hasn’t even played in a Super Rugby grand final since 2024. That’s ten years!
Compare that to NZ where they play NPC, Ranfurly Shield, and have two teams in the SR grand final every year.
For fans, compare it to NRL or AFL where we have an Aussie winner every year.
Super Rugby is a lemon. Face facts. Cut losses.
There’s one war to guarantee Australian rugby players play finals footy every year. Super Rugby AU!
Bring back Super Rugby AU!
'Start winning Super Rugby titles': Why RA has splurged on 64-player tour, and their 'pivot' to ward off NRL threat
Australia remains the only major rugby playing nation without a domestic national rugby championship. Even Japan and the USA have national rugby championships.
Anyway, which will come first?
a) Australia gets a national rugby championship.
b) Australia is no longer a major rugby playing nation.
REACTION: 'Records are going to happen' - Schmidt won't 'bury' woeful Wallabies after Santa Fe shocker
With Tazzano and McReight we’ve now got two better sevens than the All Blacks; unless they move Ethan Blackadder to seven….
Gutsy Wallabies snap eight-match losing streak in TRC to break Argentina's hearts with last-minute penalty
Carter Gordon our biggest loss to league in a generation…
Gutsy Wallabies snap eight-match losing streak in TRC to break Argentina's hearts with last-minute penalty
Bring back Super Rugby AU / ARC. FFS.
Actions over words: Why Schmidt went with Wilson as new Wallabies skipper, 15th debutant confirmed
Carter Gordon was a massive loss.
If only we had an Australian National Rugby Championship to keep local rugby players meaningfully employed…
Actions over words: Why Schmidt went with Wilson as new Wallabies skipper, 15th debutant confirmed
Harry Wilson is an excellent choice as Wallaby Captain.
In my opinion he’s the long term Captain. It was obvious to me even during the Rennie days that he had the qualities to eventually assume this important position.
Go Wallabies!
Actions over words: Why Schmidt went with Wilson as new Wallabies skipper, 15th debutant confirmed
Rugby Australia hang your heads in shame.
Carter Gordon's shock code switch: Wallabies No.10 announces NRL move
The Super Rugby lemon should never have been revived post-pandemic especially not after the super success of Super Rugby AU.
We need an Australian national rugby championship. We need Australian teams playing each other in finals matches mate v mate every season. We need an all-Australian grand final every year. We need an Australian rugby champion every year.
Super Rugby Pathetic can not deliver. Terminate it with extreme prejudice.
The Aussies can't win it and the Kiwis don't care. It's time to bin rotten to the core Super Rugby Pacific and start over
Yes. Super Rugby is the vehicle that brought us here.
And Super Rugby has killed the game in New Zealand too. The Warriors are now New Zealand’s most popular club rugby team.
That Rugby Australia has not bitten the bullet and invested in an Australian rugby championship is hugely disappointing.
Rugby’s administrators have no leadership or vision for the game. We have lost the Rebels and have no team in Australia’s second biggest state. I don’t think the game comes back from here if I’m honest.
REACTION: 'This is real now' - Rebels in tears as 14-year journey ends in sudden death
Super Rugby is failing Australian rugby. Since the tournament began in 1996 there hasn’t been a single finals match where two Aussie teams faced each other. Not once. We haven’t even had a team in the grand final since 2014. It’s a lemon.
Now the Melbourne Rebels are gone. Australia’s biggest city will be without a rugby team. That’s a tragedy.
Think back a few years to Super Rugby AU, where the Rebels were competitive, and Australian teams played against each other mate V mate every weekend and in a series of finals matches culminating in the 2021 Queensland v ACT Brumbies grand final at Suncorp played in front of 42,000 people and a TV audience bigger than that year’s Bledisloe Cup. Things were looking great when we had our own tournament without the kiwi teams.
What went wrong?
Rugby AU in their wisdom killed of the super successful AU and resurrected the red duck Super Rugby Pacific, and here we are.
REACTION: 'This is real now' - Rebels in tears as 14-year journey ends in sudden death
“We know that winning teams generate commercial return, we know that that creates heroes and captures hearts and minds of boys and girls and we start to see the waterfall effect at community level because they start to see, aspirationally, where they would like to be and how they would like to end up…”
If you want to ‘capture the hearts and minds of boys and girls’ you need Australian teams playing and winning finals footy every season like AFL and NRL, agree?
Reminder: zero Australian franchises have played in a Super Rugby grand final since 2014.
Our eggs are in the wrong basket.
In comparison two years of Super Rugby AU put four Australian teams in a grand final. SuperW, is also great tournament for Australia.
These are the facts of the matter.
RA open to Super salary cap increase, NRL stars, but says 'focus' is on grassroots as CBA announced
The Giteau handbrake is a self-defeating policy. It has inadvertently created an incentive for overseas clubs to recruit Australians (less likely to be called up for test duty). It has hamstrung Wallaby selectors and made the Wallabies test results worse. (Wallabies were ranked 5 before GL was introduced and and are currently ranked 8). We still lose at Super Rugby.
Reality is, some players will seek employment overseas because we only have professional 5 teams. There simply aren’t enough rugby employment opportunities in Australia. And with RA struggling financially, if we can still pick those players for international duties, it’s a bonus when overseas clubs pay Australian players salaries.
Rennie shouldn’t have to argue in order to select Australia’s best players. Rugby Australia should have to justify why he can not.
'We’ll sell a case': Dave's RWC Giteau Law target revealed, coach reflects on year from hell, gives Thor update
That’s right. But you could rotate the hosting rights annually. That means Australia, NZ and Japan hosting the entire tournament at home once every 3 years. The good thing about this is that local fans aren’t constantly tapped to buy tickets (poor old Crusaders fans playing multiple finals in little Christchurch every season; meanwhile in Melbourne…) Once every 3 years keeps it fresh.
I think the ideal tournament format actually takes the home ground advantage out of the equation too: like Rugby World Cup (apart from the host nation obviously). Host the tournament in one country. This improves the integrity of the tournament by creating a more level playing field where travel is not an unevenly distributed factor.
Most sports specify their final location in advance: NFL, NRL, AFL, RWC, football World Cup. In fact, I struggle to think of any tournaments apart from Super Rugby where you earn the right to play your knock out matches at home?
And you could look at hybrid hosting where pool hosting rights are shared around the nations (including PI) and the final venue is known in advance to be played in Tokyo, say, so fans can organise to get there well in advance like they do for the RWC final; whether their team is playing or not it’s a celebration of rugby.
So many good possibilities with this mini-RWC format.
League One final gives pause for thought about Japanese links to Super Rugby
That SRP would be impacted by pandemic travel restrictions was entirely predictable. Heads should roll at Rugby Australia.
Also, SR AU kicked TT’s butt last year with bigger crowds and a record TV audience. It was a better tournament too, engaging sports fans right across Australia.
It’s actually unbelievable RA canned AU. Hopefully the pandemic will force them to do the right thing for a third season.
Carn Queensland!
NZR boss gives update on Super Rugby Pacific as COVID threatens schedule
Whomever was the genius at Rugby Australia who pushed to have SRP and no SR AU ought to have their resignation letter ready.
NZ border call sparks concerns over Super Rugby, NBL, A-League seasons
I think the “Told ya so” timing is pretty good about now.
Let’s quickly look at the 2022 draw announced last week.
Round 1.
Brumbies can not enter NZ to play MP in Auckland.
All other games should be OK to kick-off and all teams should be able to get to Melbourne for Round 2. Then the fun begins.
Fijian Drua and MP players who are not NZ citizens who leave NZ can not enter NZ again until 1 May.
Pablo Matera and other foreign players, if they leave NZ, will not be able to return to NZ until 1 May.
Round 3.
Chiefs, MP, Hurricanes, Crusaders, have to spend 7 days in home isolation upon return to NZ. Their games will struggle to kick off as scheduled (and the team’s can’t train during the week as it stands).
Round 4. Force can not enter NZ to play Chiefs.
Etc.
I suppose it’s manageable, with a lot of disruption and weakened teams, but it’s not ideal is it?
It’s a headache of their own making.
Had RA started 2022 with SR AU like everybody wanted, they would be looking good now and relaxing over the Xmas break…
SR AU was the smart move.
NZ border call sparks concerns over Super Rugby, NBL, A-League seasons
@Armtiwister, the Wallabies have not won a best of 3 BC series since it was introduced. It’s not a lack of imagination. It is a mismatch. Time to put an end to it.
Bledisloe Groundhog Day: Is it time for changes?
RA need a plan to make rugby popular even when the Wallabies are losing. Seriously.
Any administrator can look clever when you’re team’s winning. The trick is to build such a great product that fans follow you even when you’re not winning. Otherwise, if sport’s your popularity relies on results, what is it that you are bringing to the table?
One way to manage the risk of Wallaby losses is to invest in an Australian domestic tournament; which is inevitably won by an Australian team; ensuring Aussie rugby fans have something to celebrate every season.
Bledisloe Groundhog Day: Is it time for changes?
Super Rugby is hard going for Australian rugby fans. Hopefully we can get a team in the SR grand final for the first time in more than a decade. More than a decade! No Aussie team in the grand final! No wonder fans are drifting off.
Unfortunately, for all the positives, Super Rugby has never put two Australian teams in the grand final to play against each other like AFL and NRL do every single season. Except for the Super Rugby AU which was massively popular but mysteriously killed off by Rugby AU. And now unsurprisingly a $40m loss.
Lipstick on a pig…
Echoes of 2014: Is it time to finally buy into the Tahs?