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Exactly and it's not like we'd be giving up the whole international element of rugby. The Wallabies would still play 12+ matches every year. And we could still have some international teams in our competition - so long as they're in our time zone, competitive and not costing the ARU anything.

No one is saying it would improve our standard of play. Though if you're referring specifically to the Wallabies it might if we just picked the best players no matter where they are based. What we're saying is it would help spread rugby throughout Australia by giving more people in more places...

Is it so important it's worth letting our teams be invisible for 15% of the season in our highly competitive sporting market? Is it worth us not being able to have any significant presence in many of our large population centres? Why isn't it important for us to regularly play European club...

All good points. But overheads (for the ARU at least) wouldn't necessarily have to go up if more teams are added as those teams could be privately (or community) owned. And the costs of running such a competition (in terms of travel and accommodation in particular) would be significantly...

Agreed, but I think we have to stop talking about the Trans-Tasman or Australasian competition as the NZRU have repeatedly said it's not what they want. I still think they'd go for it if their choice was that or a competition with primarily South Africa, but we need a plan that assumes they're...

You'd have to consider costs along with revenue. But the bigger question is whether a national competition would try to retain all our Wallabies or not. Would we continue with central contracts or just pick players from overseas (or maybe it could be both, with a smaller number of centrally...

It seems pretty clear that the NZRU's views around competition structure are primarily based on how to best prepare All Blacks and not about how to build a great competition in and of itself. It doesn't really matter for them, they have 5 teams that cover all NZ's major population centres...

But we always hear about how important it is for NZ and SA teams to play each other in the regular season so surely they'd both be quite happy for Australia to leave Super Rugby (or have its own closed regular season conference) while staying involved in TRC? You'd be able to have a lot more of...

Have they said what time of year their season will run? Hopefully it's in a similar block to Super Rugby. $12.50 a month would be pretty prohibitive for casual or potential new fans though. It's more than a netflix subscription. It'd be fine if they can also get some occasional TV coverage on...

Get yourself firmly with us believers in side B because the side A argument has an easy counter - if there isn't enough depth in Australia for 5 teams recruit more players from overseas. Why should the fans, participants, volunteers etc in an entire region have to have their team wiped away...

Signed as well. RUPA need to get the players to share that thing out on Facebook and Twitter. Especially the big name guys with thousands of followers.

Why should we continue going down a path that works for New Zealand but doesn't work for us? The Super Rugby model is failing here because the sport is up against much more competition than it is in NZ - and all the competing sports provide more content and have more reach into more regions...

Well the NFL is the richest sporting league in the world and it has a more complex conference structure (though it is more symmetrical than the current Super Rugby set up).

If necessary it could even be doable for next year if we had to with just a 6 team conference (including the Sunwolves) with everyone playing each other 3 times. That'd be 15 games, same as now. Then the top 2 could go through to the Super Rugby quarter finals (along with the top 6 from the...

Yeah I believe you are right on that, but Phil Kearns was talking about calling their bluff on a Trans-Tasman conference or regular season competition. This is the structure the ARU has preferred since before the last broadcast deal but couldn't happen because the NZRU wanted to play South...

I like that he said the ARU should call the NZRU's bluff. I've been saying this for a while. It's the best way to get a Trans-Tasman comp in the short term because a NZ/SA competition or regular season conference wouldn't work too well for NZ fans. The ARU should suggest if they're not willing...

Maybe someone that reads or posts on this forum with a fair bit of rugby clout could start an online petition demanding the ARU veto any plan to cut an Australian team? A widely recognised former player or coach would be best, otherwise someone with a fair bit of involvement in the game. The...

Well that's been the trend for the past 10 years so why will it stop widening? Rugby is going from strength to strength in Europe, with well set up, full length club seasons that focus on local rivalries and which attract significant private investment. The 6 Nations continues to grow revenues...

Well you'll never get any of these people back by cutting their teams. And you'll lose a whole lot more people that have stuck around. The causes for Rugby's decline are obvious for anyone to see. It's a combination of performance and the sporting market here becoming a lot more competitive...

So then when the gap in salaries between here and overseas widens further and 4 teams spreads the top Australian talent too thin do we go back to 3 teams? And then 2? And then 1? Is keeping our Wallabies based domestically worth losing fans and hindering grassroots development? Because that's...