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Split the games between Parramatta, Penrith, Belmore and Campbelltown.

That's great. I wonder if it'd be possible to join up with Germany as well and really push for a higher level of professionalism.

Good article on the development of Dutch rugby: http://tier2rugby.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-impressive-ambition-of-young.html. The Netherlands now have more u-20 players on pro contracts than any other tier 2 country except Georgia. Based on that it seems pretty likely that they'll reach tier 2...

While I think it might happen eventually, I believe we're still probably at least a decade away from the European clubs having the power to force a reduction in the length of the test season. Given all the constraints (the length of the test season, finances, NZ and SA priorities, RA's high...

During the Rugby Championship they could at least play home and away against the Maori All Blacks or All Blacks A if the NZRU were interested. Barbarians would probably be the next best option. They could also probably play tier 2 nations whose players are primarily based outside of Europe like...

Well the NRC has already been consolidated quite a bit since it first started so if you take out the best 25 players from it now you'll just be adding back the sort of guys who've been there before. Teams to play would include the Pacific Islands, tier 2 nations and tier 1 A teams during the...

Yeah, this is right. I think it's just really difficult to get people to care about a 2nd competition that's seen as 3rd tier. But it's clearly important for development etc. Maybe we should bring back Australia A and they can play 6-10 games a year or something from July-September. If they're...

Well it'd be cool to see it happen. Mexican rugby would obviously benefit a lot from it. Actually the Mexico test team should benefit from MLR even without a local team. There's surely a few players in the MLR already that are eligible for Mexico through parents or grandparents and that will...

Yeah the global population of professional rugby players is going to increase pretty substantially over the next few years. I think it'll have a big impact on the competitiveness of a number of tier 2 and 3 countries and is part of the reason I would like to see the world cup grow to 24 teams in...

That's interesting, though I doubt they'll expand into Mexico when there are so many more lucrative markets in the US and Canada. Boston would be good, seems they'll go from no teams in the North East to 4 within a couple of seasons. I think that's smart. Having teams clustered together in...

I think this could be good, but the two problems are cost and time. If you start with the NRC it can't go for very long (maybe 10 weeks), and you need to pay a lot of players proper wages to ensure it's a decent standard. Revenues probably wouldn't be very high. And RA always prioritise high...

My thinking is more that if Super Rugby becomes shorter and more concentrated then the NRC can develop into something a lot better because it'll have a larger window and more resources could go into it. Let Super Rugby be a short, high quality test preparation and selection tournament for a...

Geez I just saw on google that Orange County's population alone is over 3 million! Not sure about the name LA Coast, but good luck to them. It's pretty exciting how much interest there is for teams.

I can see RA being open to cutting another team, especially if they can do so through a Brumbies and Rebels merger. I doubt 4 teams are sustainable with crowds of under 10k on a regular basis. And for the reasons Braveheart has given I don't see them moving away from the current season model, so...

Yeah okay that makes it a lot better. Does the new LA team have a name yet? And are you still hearing that Austin will fold/give up their license before the start of next season? I'd read that Dallas were a shot of coming in next year, guess that's not happening now unless they're taking over...

Given they're planning on starting in late January it'll be a tough start for New York and Ontario assuming they'll have to play their first several matches on the road.

Fiji is the obvious choice but I worry they wouldn't be able to access their best players. I know there's a release window for the RC but I think many players would make themselves unavailable in order to keep their contracts in Europe. I doubt they'd be able to make enough money playing for...

Yeah I wonder what the format would be in this case. If you add Japan and the US do you just play a straight round robin like the 6 Nations? That would mean 5 games for each team and just 2 at home every 2nd year. I think the unions would want to guarantee at least 3 home matches like they get...

If the US can maintain or better their recent improvement over the next year or so I wonder how soon we might see SANZAAR looking to add them to the Rugby Championship. If they (and Japan for that matter) can show they're roughly on par with Argentina surely it would happen given those markets...

Well their pack matched and at times bettered Georgia's on Saturday. At the last world cup their scrum had periods of dominance against both us and England. If you look at their current squad the only position they don't have tier 1 professional level players is hooker. I think their biggest...