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I think they'll stick to their guns. The Argentinian Union have been wielding their power pretty strongly the past 12 months in terms of selections. Of their star players in Europe, a lot of them are in their 30's and near the end of their career. Their best younger players seem to pretty...

Well not that they're short for wingers but he might have his eye on representing Fiji at the world cup. And if he does then he can't stay at the Waratahs under current contracting policy.

It'll be better for those players than it is now. The top Argentinians in Europe would all currently play over 30 games per season (if injury free). They play a long European season, then have a break in June (missing the June internationals - which Argentina have been playing with a 2nd XV...

Yes it is. It wasn't in the past but when Argentina joined the RC it changed so they would be able to access their players.

I would be surprised if the national coach doesn't also coach the super rugby side. They'll probably be something like 85% the same squad.

Some fan set up an NRC facebook page. It had thousands of followers and was posting all these links etc. Then it got shut down, presumably at the request of the ARU because it wasn't official. But they didn't replace it with one of their own.

The pricing is intentionally too high so that they don't disrupt themselves. If they offered it at a more reasonable price they'd lose a significant number of "all included" subscribers. I think it's the future though. They should disrupt themselves or in the long run they'll die trying to...

I think the best option is for them to play their home games in a couple of blocks. Would be too difficult if they have to keep flying back and forth every couple of weeks. For example, a schedule like this: 4 home games 5 games in South Africa 4 home games 2 games in Australia or New Zealand

I wonder whether they'll play all their games in one location, or if they'll try and be an all Argentina team with home games scattered throughout the country. With future expansion in mind I hope they are a Buenos Aires team rather than an Argentina team.

It will basically be a larger Pumas squad given they're only going to select locally based players for the test team from 2016. I guess the difference is that they'll rotate their players a bit more in Super Rugby. My understanding is that the Argentinian Union wanted to have only 1 team to...

I think they'll be a competitive team from the beginning. The Pampas squad that beat all our Super Rugby A sides last year to win the Pacific Rugby Cup was full of young players and will provide the majority of their team next year. They obviously won't attract all of their players back from...

No doubt the Romanian national team will improve as a result. Hopefully they get back to their 80's era level when they had several wins over 5 nations teams.

One positive is that the growing number of professional opportunities in rugby should make the game more attractive for elite juniors. The NRC will become a shop front for young players looking to pick up professional contracts all around the world. At the moment rugby league so often wins the...

The Romanian SuperLiga is a partly professional competition. Quite a few Tongans and other international players involved in it now. Sosene Anesi (1 cap All Black) is there for example.

Where do you think the money to invest in the grassroots comes from? It's a circular system - the grassroots and the elite both support each other. This is the same in every professional sport. But the grassroots isn't the only influence on the popularity of elite level sport. I don't think...

It is a lot more popular than when it was an amateur sport. The NRC is the same quality of competition you would have as the premier level of rugby (under test matches) in Australia. How would that reinvigorate the code or get it on FTA? In fact your alternative would probably be at a lower...

hoggy, you talk as if rugby union was this major sport in Australia before professionalism. But by pretty much every measure of popularity it was smaller than it is now. Expanding Super Rugby to new markets and developing the domestic structure - through the NRC can happen at the same time...

And SANZAR wouldn't have to spend money in the USA. It's not as 'green' as the West of Sydney is for the AFL. SANZAR would just have to open up their competitions to them. Investment would come from USA Rugby and private sources. I'm also not talking about senior players btw. By 2011 there...

With this attitude the AFL would never have expanded to Sydney or Brisbane, or now the Gold Coast and Western Sydney. Sometimes you have to dilute in the short term for long term gain. And it's not top down, it's circular. The grassroots supports the elite and the elite supports the...

Alright so this would be my plan: Short term: Formal alliance between SANZAR plus Argies and Pacific Nations Cup unions. Setting out a pathway for eventual integration into the Rugby Championship and in the short term, more matches between Rugby Championship and PNC (Pacific Nations Cup) teams. 2021: Creation of...