Recent content by Omar Comin'

Yep, wouldn't surprise me if Samoa lose to Chile in the next 2 weeks, but then have a significantly strengthened team for the final qualifying tournament (with European based pros) and win it easily. If Samoa beat Chile, then I think the final spot is harder to predict, with Namibia, Belgium...

That's true but the US is so big that there's still more rugby players there than there is in Ireland. Basically they already have enough to be a good team (and develop players in the high skill positions) even with the sport being super niche. The main difference is the level of play that the...

We'll see, but I don't think rugby is the biggest mountain to climb in the landscape of international sport. The main barrier is how closed the sport is at the top. Ireland have been one of the best teams in the world for the last decade despite a small population and player pool (and the...

In the long run, if all were run and equally well, you'd probably expect the US, Canada, Japan and most of the European and South American tier 2 nations to be ahead of Tonga and Samoa more often than not. And all have higher potential ROI. Samoa and Tonga are important rugby nations and should...

Argentinian fans are next level, they bring heaps to the comp and now have a world class team. Terrible timing for South Africa and New Zealand to screw with the Rugby Championship just as it's becoming the best competition in the world. Wallabies were poor for most of the game, but brilliant...

You could do West Coast as well given there are direct flights, and there's a lot more commercial opportunity there. If it could work for the Jaguares it could work for a Californian team. Maybe a couple of other teams could play a 'home' game in the states somewhere so that the American team...

I guess a more realistic option could be the remaining MLR merging with Super Rugby Americas to become the North American conference. Or having a shorter combined cup competition in addition to the MLR/SRA to extend their calendar a bit. Then they might still be viable with 6 or 7 teams.

California Legion and Seattle Seahawks to Super Rugby; Old Glory DC, New England Free Jacks and Chicago Hounds to URC?

Both, plus some players that already do or could qualify on residency in the next 2-3 years, plus obviously the cream of the domestic players. You don't need the depth of the top nations, just 30-40 guys capable of getting to a tier 1 standard with a few years of high level coaching and regular...

Yeah it's not like for like. Japan benefits a lot from the higher level of player that becomes eligible for them through residency, because of their pro league. The MLR attracts 2nd tier players in comparison (though these can still be very useful players that help improve the player pool). But...

Lets say at a level where they would be a legitimate chance of making the world cup quarter finals, with the ability to pull off an occasional upset against a top 5 team (similar to a country like Fiji now). You could fully professionalise the US national team so that they play ~25 games a...

The short cut for rugby getting bigger in the US would be for the men's national team to become competitive with the top nations. This would cost less than $250 million.

Still targeting a 2026 launch according to this: https://www.sportspro.com/news/r360-league-world-rugby-launch-delay-vote-september-2025/

Pretty sure we don't need their permission due to reg 9. Will be up to JOC (James O'Connor), and surely he won't knock back playing 10 for the Wallabies in a Bledisloe series over a couple of extra games for Leicester. I doubt they're paying him huge money either.

I think it'd be dead in the water if they did this. If it starts as a joke it'll never recover. I could imagine a scaled back 4-6 round tournament in cities where they can hype it enough to draw an 'event crowd.'