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By any fair criteria, the 2020 Brumbies are a superbly coached team. And the shackle of being a ‘maul only’ team has categorically been broken. This 2020 team are all-court, fine ensemble players with excellently balanced attacking and defensive patterns.

Give me Optus for ‘21 if that guarantees to rid us of these appalling Foxtel commentators. They have deteriorated over recent years from the typically mediocre to the simply dreadful.

RA could well soon enter a 'will we survive this or not?' phase. If so, I will assess their competence in dealing with this possibility in terms of the quality and viability of RA's 'survival and how we stay viable in 2020+ plans'. IMO, it's very likely RA will have to act faster than...

All good and sensible points A84. But of course this IMO is a somewhat idealised view of government's likely purity of policy decision-making. The NRL has deep and influential tentacles in State and Federal Govt, the mainstream media, and so on, it will leverage them relentlessly when and if in...

FWIW, my read of his statement is: 'Here is the first none-too-subtle salvo in my NRL's soon-to-come request for Govt bail-out, assistance, loan, whatever, to save the NRL from financial disaster'.

Well, be that as it may, nonetheless this is a rugby site and it’s perfectly sensible and logical that some of us here are commenting on what the latest COVID-19 status in Aust might mean for this particular code’s immediate viability and economic fate going forward. Doesn’t for one moment...

There’ll be the usual howls of derision when I say this, but, given the latest financial outlook for Aust rugby in 2020, approaching Twiggy as Chair of RA and to have him financially save the code here is not now a piece of fantasy. Scenarios could well emerge whereby there are few other...

If Super Rugby top 8 was frozen today, even if Brums lost today they’d be the sole Aust team in it.

Certainly RR the State RUs will now be under massive cost pressures. If I was the QRU as one action I’d be pleading with Members not to request a part-refund of their season passes - actions like this will be needed for sure to preserve a minimum viable rugby playing base in 2020.

Animal trials are already advanced and underway for Covid-19 vaccines, human trials will start in weeks. Around 20-30 labs worldwide aiming to be the first to produce a viable vaccine, there’s very little doubt one will be developed and current best estimates for mass availability are 12-18...

RA will surely be holding various emergency board meetings in the next days; it will be interesting to see what comes out of them and what level of ‘crisis management’ competence is on display.

2 relevant legal variables here are bound to be: (a) what is the bare minimum RA has to deliver to retain Foxtel’s broadcasting $s for the rest of the season and, closely related, (b) can Foxtel contractually get out of paying RA if no Super and RC games are on? These variables will have a big...

The biggest questions of all are: when will a viable, mass-manufacturable, vaccine arrive and ditto a safe anti-viral drug to significantly reduce the negative effects for those that acquire the virus. Everything else is just holding back the volume of cases until these two points of arrival.

I see some media speculation this morning that SANZAAR hopes top 8 teams as of tonight might be able to play a finals series of sorts in June, subject to the virus-driven status as it evolves.

Yep. But, quite seriously, subject to RA’s insurances (if any apply to pandemic impacts), if this continues through the 2020 Test season, RA could require an Aust Govt bail out Whether it gets one or not - another matter

GeoRob rightly starts to assess economic implications (as of yesterday’s status, it’s now much more severe) of changes to Super Rugby crowds policies for Aust RUs https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/the-3-million-hole-coronavirus-will-blow-in-reds-waratahs-budgets-20200313-p549wy.html

That surely has to be it for Super Rugby 2020

See Beth Newman tweeted RA has confirmed all Super Rugby and SWR matches behind closed doors from Monday on + RA says no restrictions as yet on Super Rugby teams' international travel

dru, you can bet SANZAAR will be anxiously checking everyone of its insurance policies and media rights contracts in these eventualities. If these bans on crowds and/or matches go on right into the winter Test season, the financial impacts on any thinly capitalised national RU (eg esp RA and...

.......and can't really see pro rugby played with face masks ;)