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Yep, but it's only ever the Super Rugby part of that which gets criticised. As if Super Rugby is this impossible travel burden that players can barely endure. But the fact is it only involves about 3 weeks away from home for our teams. A lot less than the amount of time the Wallabies are away...

Do they all do that? Seems like an unnecessary expense for the teams. I can understand them staying in NZ for a week after a game if they play 2 Kiwi teams in a row, but why would they need to be there a week before the first game? Maybe the Brumbies, Rebels etc could save some money here and...

Oh come on. Australian Super Rugby players currently play 2 games a season in South Africa. The rest of the time they are in Australia and New Zealand. And they fly everywhere so the journeys aren't very long. It's really not that bad. There are many professionals, and in fact other sports...

A Super Rugby team touring country regions for more than 1 or 2 matches a season doesn't sound like a good idea to me. The NRC is a good level for that sort of team. Hutchison should focus on building up the Eagles before even thinking about a similar set up in Super Rugby. Melbourne is a much...

I doubt it. On top of 26 rounds of Top 14, the top teams play at least 6 more matches in Europe. Then there's finals in both competitions. Toulon played 37 matches last season (not including trials). Compare that to 16 games of Super Rugby, 15 from 2016. Plus either 8 NRC matches or 12-14...

One team wants to abolish the salary cap. Pretty much everyone else in English rugby has come out supporting the salary cap including the biggest club in the league, Leicester. Saracens just have an owner who's willing to lose millions every year. That's what European rugby comes down to. Some...

And I'm not debating whether European rugby is a threat, just that it's not quite as big or growing as quickly as what some people would have us believe. It's the same threat it's been for years. I think of those guys only Cooper and Folau would have any negative effect on the marketing etc...

This is true but the top players are still not getting paid 3 or 4 times more in French rugby than they are in Australia. Not all the teams even spend up to the salary cap because they can't afford to. And there are still only a limited number of places available. Test rugby plus Super Rugby is...

It's an impressive number. I wonder what the average figure was. Doesn't change the fact French rugby's broadcast deal is less than half of the NRL's, which is a much more significant competitor of Australian rugby. State of Origin 2 had an average audience of over 4 million this year.

Actually the Top 14 attendance numbers have been pretty much flat for about 5 years. They peaked in 2010/11. Yep, they all just signed new TV deals worth much less than the codes we compete with directly in Australia - including the one we directly compete with. By some of the rhetoric you'd...

Source? Most games get significantly less than that. Under a million from what I've read. Whatever the case, the broadcast deal for the Top 14 plus the French cut out of the Champions Cup deal is less than half what the NRL deal is per year. And the French deal is for both Top 14 and D2.

I think it's overstated how much bigger the club game apparently is in Europe. Yes, the Top 14 is popular in France, but its attendance and viewing figures (which are pretty stable in recent years) are smaller than the NRL for example. And Australian rugby has managed to survive against that...

Uruguay will basically play as a full time team next year in the lead up to the world cup. In a way, they'll have the best preparation of any team in the tournament as I think only 2 or 3 of their players are based in Europe. The rest have the following schedule: February - Vodacom Cup in...

Add Michael Leitch at the Chiefs and Male Sa'u at the Rebels. And Harumichi Tatekawa was at the Brumbies last season but didn't get any game time as far as I know. Not sure if he'll be there again in 2015. Tanaka is my favourite Japanese player. Surprised another team hasn't recruited him...

Serendiptious is not the word I'd use. All of Queensland Rugby's numbers - participation figures, Reds memberships, the bottom line - all of them have improved considerably under Carmichael. From the grassroots to the marketing of the Reds (as well a the two NRC teams for that matter) they...

My understanding is that it's locked in for Tokyo but after that there's no guarantees, and they'll actually decide its fate before Tokyo. So in that sense rugby has got one shot at it to make sure it sticks around. Wouldn't support the removal of the 200m and 10k. Don't care about the others...

If you think there is next to no chance then I'd guess you don't watch much sevens and haven't followed it for very long. If this year's series has taught us anything it's that results can swing very quickly! And there's only been 3 tournaments. One win over Fiji doesn't mean much in the...

Maybe the Brumbies should stake a claim in Adelaide. 1 game a year against a Kiwi team would have novelty factor if well promoted.

I think the ARU would benefit from bringing more administrators in from other sports. Too much confirmation bias in Australian rugby. Look at how well the Reds have done since Jim Carmichael came in! More guys from an AFL background might be a decent idea.

That's if they make it to Rio. I hope they do but it's no sure thing, especially if Argentina were to come top 4 in the current series. It's unlikely they'll qualify automatically, so they'd have to do it in the North American qualifier. That will essentially come down to a 1 off match against...