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I'd actually expect that a referee in love with his whistle would matter least in the US - so long as there's still some decent action between the stoppages. Baseball and NFL are both very stop start, and NFL is refereed to the letter of the law. Basketball is obviously a lot more continuous...

A part investment in a MLR team would be chumps change for Cuban, he's worth $3.7 billion. What would it cost him, $1 million? Hopefully his decision criteria isn't too strict given he's supposedly a big fan of the game and his influence could make a significant difference. Are any other new...

That's awesome, having a guy with Cuban's profile involved will be a huge PR boost to that team and the league in general. Good to see such a strong presence in Texas too, hopefully a strong rivalry develops between the 3 teams there. Looks like Seattle are already too big for their stadium.

Yep. I think most likely it'll be to go back to 3 teams in the next deal. Brumbies will play some games in Melbourne. Can't see the ARU moving away from prioritising high performance programs and concentration of talent given the Wallabies are the cash cow. They'll simply argue that Australian...

The board don't want anyone that will challenge their thinking. I've seen Phil Waugh on Fox a few times in the last year or so and he seems very much a business as usual kind of guy. Was very supportive of getting rid of the Force and was very unsupportive of any kind of fundamental reform of...

Wow, that's truly disgraceful.

My point is just that it doesn't necessarily matter if you have one team that's named X and another that's part of X. There's many examples of it. And it's not like the Waratahs have focused much on Western Sydney, or regions outside of Sydney. Everyone knows where they play and where the...

It's also possible that the ARU could keep the regular test players / big stars, but lose the guys around the fringes of selection. They'd still be able to pay big bucks to the core Wallabies guys through central contracts, but outside of the top 15-20 players, the next 20-30 best guys would...

Is it any different to the A League having Sydney FC, and then introducing another team within part of that city, the West Sydney Wanderers? There's lots of examples like that in world sport. The Waratahs fan base comes primarily from the eastern suburbs and north shore/northern beaches of...

Well hopefully Gosper is right and it's just delayed. It's pretty positive that China just qualified as a core team for next year's women's world sevens series. And they did it pretty comfortably, beating South Africa 31-14 in the final. Women's sevens is probably the lowest hanging fruit in...

I think the Waratahs and Reds are entrenched enough as club/franchise teams that if we went the domestic route it'd be better to keep them as they are. Along with the Brumbies, Rebels and Force they would form the basis of a new national competition. They haven't been state rep teams for a long...

What I'd like to know is what would happen if it turned out a player had previously been cleared by WR (World Rugby) in the past, but incorrectly.

Sounds like Romania are screwed, Spain is more likely to be okay, but not out of the woods. I think it'd be good for the sport if they are fine. Spain is a pretty promising tier 2 nation and playing at the world cup would be a huge boost for the sport there. And then at least you'd have a...

I agree with you, because like you I think Folau's belief is hateful, made up garbage. But put yourself in his shoes. If you believed, as Folau does, that homosexuality is sinful and to avoid hell required someone to repent or seek redemption from Jesus/God, then you would believe the best...

World rugby have finally made a statement. https://www.worldrugby.org/news/324233?lang=en Basically they were in favour of replaying the Belgium vs Spain match, but given all that's come out since around potential player ineligibility they are convening a disputes committee to look into it...

Why should Folau or anyone else be free from hearing others say that their beliefs are wrong? Society doesn't progress without criticism of bad ideas and wide debate over controversial topics. Homosexuality wasn't even decriminalised in Australia until the 1970's - that change, and the advances...

I'm not saying it's a majority view, especially among modern day Christians in the western world (it was close to a universal view for many centuries though). Perhaps mainstream was the wrong word, particularly in an Australian context, but the belief that homosexuality is sinful, and that gays...

As ridiculous and wrong as I think his comments are it's a pretty mainstream view in Christianity and other religions. As someone who's not a believer I'm sure he would say I'm also on my way to hell. But I don't believe in hell, so I don't really care what he thinks or find it particularly...

Makes sense. Even if MLR can survive its first few years it wouldn't be surprising to have a team or 2 fail. And I guess you can't be sure which areas teams will do well in anyway. I remember with Pro Rugby it seemed weird they'd have a team in Ohio, yet that team was relatively well supported.

Hopefully they can sort it out. I do quite like their branding as it's a bit different and the colours stand out. Has New Orleans got much of a rugby scene? I don't follow US rugby as closely as you do, but I've never really heard it mentioned in relation to rugby over there before this team...