Search results

Well Hong Kong is pretty well off and has a bigger population than half of this year's world cup participants! Surely a 2nd Asian team in the tournament, even if it's Hong Kong, would be beneficial for growing the game in Asia.

Well they're advertising revenues aren't going up yet they're paying (a lot) more for sport. Seems like declining benefit to me. It's also fact that younger people are switching off FTA at a much higher rate than older people. Having people watch sport is all well and good but they need people...

I'm not so sure about that. Their current business model doesn't make money. It's useless having this advertisement heavy sports model if it keeps costing you more with declining benefit. The anti-siphoning laws will come under continuing pressure and keep getting chipped away bit by bit. I...

But they're all struggling, their audiences are flat or falling and yet they're paying more money for rights. Something's going to give at some point. The advantage they had is a lack of competition. You can't just go and start a new FTA channel to compete with 9 or 7. But once IPTV really...

I was clearly misinformed about the US then. I was going by what I'd heard. In the UK, if you're a sports fan and you want to see more than just the national teams play (and a trickling of other stuff like FA Cup) you need Sky. But I don't think the current FTA channels have much hope in...

True, but North and South America actually have separate regional unions (Central American unions sit within one or the other). South America is the only regional union in the world without its own qualifying spot. I think it would be more farcical for Asia to lose its automatic spot for an...

In a few years everyone will have an apple tv or similar device and we'll be watching rugby games (and everything else) through some app or another. I think these recently announced big AFL and NRL deals with FTA networks may be the last of their kind. You don't see much sport on FTA in places...

Well South America don't even have an automatic qualifying spot (the only region without one) so they are surely first in line to get one if you're serious about growing the game around the world. Assuming Georgia beat Namibia and qualify then I think they'll take away the European repechage...

The way I see it, the longer term goal for Super Rugby should be separate conferences in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South America and maybe North America. Then you could have 2 divisions (Pacific and Atlantic) each with 3 conferences. There'll obviously need to be some...

If it was on Channel 9 rather than GEM the ratings would be a lot higher. But stuff the FTA networks. They're all screwed in the next 10 years anyway.

I wouldn't. It's an Asian world cup. You can't take away Asia's automatic qualifying spot for an Asian world cup, especially when Japan has guaranteed there will be just 12 automatic qualifiers and not 13 (if they'd have come 4th or 5th in the pool they still would have been there automatically...

Does that include people that record it and watch it later in their own time (and not the scheduled replay)?

There's no doubt WR (World Rugby) will see the huge opportunity in Japan given those ratings. Hopefully they really invest significantly there leading up to the next world cup. Speak to the likes of Eddie Jones, Robbie Deans etc work out the things that need to be fixed in their structures and then provide...

Well the Pampas were/are a development side for younger Argentinian players. This Japanese team will hopefully have a core of established Japanese test players as well as foreigners. The Argentinian Super Rugby team will be made up entirely of Argentinian players and is effectively the Pumas...

It's a separate franchise operated by the JRFU. It'll be a mix of national team players and imports. Not sure what, if any relationship it will have with the Companies involved in the Top League. Hopefully they're not hostile to it. And the Singapore Stadium has a roof so should be fine in...

Haha I don't mind the name! Something different. Not so sure about the logo though. And pretty sure it's just 3 games in Singapore. Only 3 in the draw anyway.

Yeah that's more realistic in the shorter term and could be a bridge to separate South American and North American conferences. However, I believe US Rugby is looking to start their own competition rather than push for Super Rugby inclusion. Nigel Melville said they were keen on entering Super...

If SANZAR really does succeed in tapping into the global growth of rugby in the likes of Asia and the Americas then our share of that revenue would filter through to our game locally. Better investment in the grassroots for one, but I think more importantly player salaries would go up quite a...

Sounds like the commercial constraints are greater than anything else and that the player development is coming along really well. I had this thought that in 5+ years there could be a South American conference featuring say 3 Argentinian teams and a team each from Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. I...

Great to hear! I really like having Argentina in the RC, adds something different and it's been nice to see the team playing a more 15 man game recently and picking up a couple of wins. Best jersey in rugby too! In the longer term how many Super Rugby franchises do you think Argentina could...