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Apparently the Moana Pacifica team (primarily Tongan and Samoan) would be based in NZ, but the 2nd team would be in Fiji. I guess they'd just be an extension of the Drua/Latui, but no doubt they'd need significant additional backing in order to bring back some of their European based players...

I'd have been fine with that, but if the rumour of a 12 team comp (5 Oz, 5 NZ, 2 Pacific Island) from 2022 is right then that sounds pretty good! It'll be interesting to see the format they go for. If there's still something along the lines of the 'Super 8' / Champions League concept in the...

I can't believe they're not pulling out all stops to bring in a 4th team. Argentina, already the weakest team, are going to be more undercooked than the Springboks would have been, and there's a fair chance they get smashed 4 weeks in a row to close out the tournament. An ANZAC Barbarians...

Yeah that was my thinking and I didn't think too long about it, but there'd be plenty of good options including the likes of McKellar and Robertson if available. I think an ANZAC Barbarians should be possible at short notice. Australia A would be a bit easier logistically, but that wouldn't be...

I like the idea of the ANZAC Barbarians side if South Africa pull out. They'd potentially be more competitive than the undercooked Springboks would be at the moment anyway, and the novelty would be cool. 15 players out of each squad, Brad Thorn as coach.

Why couldn't it just have restrictions based on test eligibility? i.e. X number of players (or even all players) must be capped or eligible for Samoa, Tonga or Fiji. How is this different to Australian or NZ Super rugby teams being restricted to mostly Wallabies or All Blacks eligible players?

How? That's a week short of 6 months. Surely the final for the TT competition needs to be at the end of June at the latest in a normal year. So what do you want to do, start in the 2nd week of January or have some mid-week games? I can't see the unions or the players going for it.

I don't think it would be possible to finish at the end of June/early July without basically playing throughout most of February or having mid-week games. And I can't find the article but there was a report not long ago about 3 or 4 models that NZ were canvasing with broadcasters and they were...

I'll be interested to see what length of season they are looking at. I don't think there's any chance of a double round robin but a single round is probably not enough games. They could have a 2 conferences model (play each team in your conference twice and each team in the other conference...

I found a lot of what he said convincing but not this point. I think there's a danger that if you look at everything through a cohesion lens that you'll just see it in everything and use it to try and explain too much. That back up 10, Urdapilleta still had the same amount of time together...

An objective criteria for guys who have never lived in either NSW or QLD could be something like in which of those 2 states did they first play a professional game. But we should probably just agree to disagree on this. I'm not that fussed whether the criteria is strict or a few players are...

The guys who perform well in NSW vs QLD would be playing well in a test match quality game, VIC vs WA would not be at that level so standing out at that level won't have the same significance. The people that post on this site or any other rugby forum are a pretty small % of rugby fans. How...

The problem with this is that you'd have a strong game and a weaker game and the players in the weaker game will be disadvantaged. I think I'd prefer just one really strong game or series. There aren't that many players with zero connection to either NSW or QLD, and for those few that fall into...

I was there and enjoyed it too, but it was free entry and still only had a crowd of 9,000 people. You need to build on natural or existing rivalries. No one but huge fans care about trial games.

Green vs Gold or some other All Stars game would probably work okay, but I don't think it will work as well as NSW vs QLD simply because people will actually care who wins the latter. NSW vs QLD will piggyback off the league SOO rivalry (especially for casual fans) which is arguably the biggest...

I don't mind the draft for unaffiliated players because I think it's better to include all the top players than it is to have 100% pure teams, but I think a blanket 'first club' rule isn't ideal. Rugby League has it right with the multiple criteria and eligibility is determined by whichever...

^ This And there's no harm in trying it. The risk/reward equation is pretty good IMO. Best case scenario is it attracts great crowds and ratings and rugby gets 2-3 big new events every year, worst case scenario is it probably attracts okay crowds and ratings for a couple of years before being...

I think SOU is very unlikely to include any teams other than NSW and QLD. How many of the top 50 or so rugby players in Australia have no legitimate connection to either NSW or QLD (i.e. not born in either state and never lived in either state)? I think they'll just make the criteria pretty...

Whatever happens next year will be based around our 5 current Super Rugby AU teams. Easiest thing to do would probably be a 6 team competition including the Drua/Latui or 1 new Sydney based team. 3 games per week on Friday and Saturday nights plus Sunday afternoon would be great. You could...

We know that most of their top players have moved to Europe. But the Jaguares had a big squad and a lot of them are still in Argentina. They sent their reserve/fringe squad members to South Africa last year and dominated the Currie Cup First Division. And their u-20's are competitive every year...