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Exactly. The lets leave Super Rugby and create our own NRL type domestic competition sounds good but it's not feasible. I can only see it happening if either a billionaire willing to lose a lot of money decides they want it to happen, or if the code truly does go broke and the only option is a...

There's talk of a world club championship being played in that July period after world cup years.

Happens all over the world in different sports though. In rugby you have the Anglo-Welsh Cup for example. The English and Welsh teams play in this competition under the same names they play in the Premiership and Pro12. Doesn't seem to harm or devalue their brands. Same with NBA teams and the...

I think one problem is that there's just too many brands. At least in the states where there's 1 NRC team and 1 Super Rugby team I think it'd make more sense to just use the same name. Even in QLD and NSW, where you need to have new team names, it'd be more of a drawcard for say the Sydney Rays...

Agreed, but is the guy who owns PRO looking for outside investment at this stage? The league owns all the teams right, will that remain the case when they expand next season? I'd guess there's less interest from investors to have a minority stake a league than to own and control their own teams...

Miami is a weird one. It's already got teams in all the major sports and on top of that has a pretty bad reputation as a sports city - in terms of support. A bit like the Gold Coast here. Anyway, seems inevitable to me that the US are going to be powers in the game sooner than later.

The 'marquee os mens players' from places like Fiji, Kenya, USA etc already get paid considerably less money to play rugby than our gold medal winning women, and it would likely cost less to attract them to such a competition.

Carlin Isles and Perry Baker would certainly bring some publicity.

The best, and most affordable pool of talent for a competition like this would surely be the islands, and particularly Fiji. When it comes to sevens everyone wants to watch Fijians, so there'd be multiple benefits to having a significant number involved in the league, spread around the teams...

I don't think you'd have many super rugby players involved. Most aren't suitable for sevens anyway. I'd imagine any tournament like this would involve sevens specialists (both Australian and international) and younger players on the fringe of super rugby.

Maybe, but not all sevens players are quick even at the highest level. DJ Forbes has had a pretty good sevens career for NZ and he's not fast. I doubt it discounts a significantly higher % of people than Aussie Rules for example. And the size of the field can be modified for different age groups...

I really don't like the extended format idea. You would get a lot of huge blow outs, 100-20 type scores and worse, with the game over very early. Also, the best players would be off the field for large amounts of time each match, and the intensity of play would drop. I think one of the best...

I think that commercial club or franchise sevens competitions would work best in sessions lasting 3 hours max (each team plays once), with say 3 competition days per week over a period of 4 or 5 weeks. It could be a pretty good TV product.

A Fijian team in the NRC would be cool. They'd draw crowds and viewers. They'd presumably have to be based somewhere in Australia during the tournament, with maybe 1 home game in Fiji workable. Not sure about the PI super rugby team. I'd love to see it, but it'd need significant backing and I...

This is apparently how the finals will work: QF 1 Winner Pool A v 2nd best 3rd place QF 2 Winner Pool B v best 3rd place QF 3 Winner Pool C v Runner Up Pool A QF 4 Runner Up Pool B v Runner Up Pool C Semis QF1 vs QF4 and QF2 vs QF3 So not a bad draw for the Australian men's team. If...

France hit form late in the world series though. I don't think there's much between the pools in terms of the top 3 in each. But it's definitely ideal getting in Brazil's pool. Once it gets to the quarter finals it'll be pretty awesome. Even 1 vs 8 won't be a given.

I think these games count towards world cup qualification so I think it's understandable they wouldn't play someone who has never played XV's before. And if Hayne has any shot of making the olympics he needs to be focusing 100% on his fitness at the moment anyway.

Surely it'll be Samoa or Canada, with Russia probably the only other semi-decent chance. Samoa did lose to Tonga in the Oceania qualifier but that was a Samoan team that played terribly, whereas they just won a world series event a week and a half ago. No idea who will go through on the...

It was definitely cool and unexpected to see Colombia qualify ahead of Argentina for the women's olympic sevens tournament. Has that participation growth also translated to improved results at youth international level?

There's been some new stories about the Pro 12 joining up with South Africa and possibly the Americas. Perhaps this could be a power play against French and English club rugby. The Celtic nations switch seasons and create a new European/South African/Americas Super Rugby division. Our teams...