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There is speculation Fox Sports will not support the domestic Super Rugby competition, but would prefer to broadcast Sydney and Brisbane club rugby, which would provide the pay TV network, which has its own financial challenges, with cheaper content to drive subscriptions from the rugby...

Except that now everyone stands around with their hands on their hips while the referee, TMO and ARs all look at endless replays on the big screen.

You could be right, although it would depend on the value of the SA teams. The games held in SA might not rate highly here but maybe NZ v SA games held in NZ would be of more interest to NZ viewers than NZ v AU games? Other than the Wallabies, I'm not so sure that there's that much value in...

“This has been a huge wake-up call globally [on] the fragility of the sports system. It is totally dependent on broadcast rights. Sports have not built in many cases a fortress to protect themselves from major downfall. The classic example is the NRL. And it’s not only the sport itself – I think...

Sports that have relied primarily on Foxtel may be facing a reckoning. Rugby, the rights of which expire at the end of the 2020 season, will be the canary in the coal mine which almost all sporting codes will be watching. While it is less reliant on the Australian market than other sports – the...

I admire your optimism and hope you are correct. The Wallabies are the big trump card, but the layer below is the weak link. Not sure in the current climate where the value of sports broadcasting rights is declining that it's possible. In 2018, the Australian Football League (AFL) was the...

The removal of the needless duplication is essential. In the larger states there's really no reason for the NSWRU and QRU to channel funds from RA to clubs or regions. RA should be directly funding, in either cash or kind country regions and district clubs. That way for example RA could fund...

I like the removal of the scrum option after penalty or free kick. How many times do we see a couple of scrum resets, the ref finally loses patience and give a free kick only for the team to elect for another scrum. There also should be a 'use it' call once the ball reaches the No 8 and from...

Yes, I realise that.

I can provide a similar example from not so long ago. When my son was a little younger he used to go to rugby camps in the school holidays. One was in the Easter holidays and the other in the June holidays. One was run by NSWRU and the other by the then ARU, but the staff at each camp was...

When Peter V'Landys took over Racing NSW he undertook a review and made redundant a similar percentage of middle managers and he's in the process of doing the same at the NRL. I suspect that many professional sporting bodies have employed people in roles which are luxuries rather than...

I stand corrected. :)

Let's hope so, although we are in a very weak negotiating position in an environment where broadcast rights across the board are of less value than they might have been 5 years ago.

Great constructive comment. Troll

It sounds like you're much better at statistics than I am, so you're welcome to spend your time on a much deeper analysis. I'm not sure what your point is, but go for it. The years when NZ and Aus had the same number of teams were the worst years of Australian performance and the best years...

An illustration of this hoggy comes from a look at 24 years of completed Super Rugby seasons: 2 Aussie teams have never played in an Super Rugby final (2 NZ teams have played in an Super Rugby final 5 times i.e more than 25% of the time - 98,99,03,06,15) (2 SA teams have played in an Super Rugby final 2 times - 07,10) 2...

I can't see how 3 or 4 teams or even 5 teams is going to be financially viable. Shrinking the number of teams to the bare minimum doesn't seem to be a way of generating sufficient revenue to keep pro-rugby alive. If they aren't already, alarm bells should be ringing loudly at this. The...

If they aren't already, alarm bells should be ringing loudly. The current $57m a year broadcast deal with Fox Sports looks like a river of gold that is about to dry up. There is speculation Fox will only pay $10m to $18m a year or even put rugby on a performance-based deal, and these rumours...

If they aren't already, alarm bells should be ringing loudly. The current $57m a year broadcast deal with Fox Sports looks like a river of gold that is about to dry up. There is speculation Fox will only pay $10m to $18m a year or even put rugby on a performance-based deal, and these rumours...

Unfortunately I think that you are right and what we are going to get is the slow train wreck. One day there will be a domestic professional rugby competition in Australia (or we won't survive as a Tier 1 nation). The only real question is whether or not it is done now with the imminent...