Search results

Depends how much money is backing their competition - and I think it's quite a lot given it's all the same corporations involved in the current Top League. If there's enough they might have ambitions of making their league the best in the world. I doubt they will be interested in making it a 2nd...

Sounds great. But in 2022 the Japanese are going to start a new 3 tier professional competition that will be a successor to the current corporate Top League. I think they're more likely to boost that league and allow their teams to recruit more top international players than they are to finance...

I think this is possible but would be better with 6 teams each - add the Drua/Latui to the Australian league and the Pacifica team to the NZ tournament. So you'd have 10 rounds in the domestic tournaments followed by a final, and then a 6 week TT tournament where every Australian team plays...

The Argentinians would be cheap relative to the quality of player. If we end up needing to go full domestic I think we could quickly start a new team or even 2 that's made up primarily of overseas players in order to avoid disrupting the existing 5 too much. But I do think it would be better...

Both teams would be in the same position regarding preparation and it'd be interesting to see how they adapt. You could have a weekend of Australia vs NZ games. Maori AB's vs Australia A, a Women's match, Schoolboys and u-20's, maybe some sevens games.

I think it would have the potential to be the biggest ANZAC day sporting event and a guaranteed sell out every year. But mainly I believe it would be better to avoid dead rubber games so whether you play a Bledisloe game on ANZAC day or not it would be good to have at least 1 during the Super...

10-12 teams, 18-22 rounds, 2 Bledisloe Cup games held during the season (1 on or around ANZAC day) with the 3rd played as part of a single round Rugby Championship including Japan and Fiji. That way even if the Bledisloe series is 2-0 the 3rd game won't be a dead rubber, and if it's 1-1 the 3rd...

Maybe that could work. But to me it just seems too complicated for anything other than a very short competition. Is there another professional sports team in the world that operates with several 'home' grounds scattered over massive distances? I think it's a big advantage having a consistent...

I think the minimum to start with would be 6. But this would only be sustainable if you had a separate TT or Asia Pacific Cup competition after it or alongside it that guaranteed every team another 4+ games. But even with this structure I think 8 teams would work better.

I doubt whether two country teams would really work as professional teams. They're either not going to have a true home or you'd be better off calling them Newcastle and Gold Coast (or Townsville or wherever you base the team). But I really think it would be better to build cross town...

I think it's a big assumption that all those European based players would come. Especially the Argentinians who've only just signed with the European teams - I could easily see a lot of them prioritising their new employers. When you add the 2 week quarantine to the length of the tournament it...

A lot of the Argentinian players have signed for European teams. How likely is it that they'll make themselves unavailable for the RC given the time commitment?

Agree with a lot of the talk about commentary. It often feels to me as if our commentators view the game like a lot of rugby league supporters do and are way too negative about it. The commentary should celebrate the unique aspects of rugby and the greater strategic complexity of the game. When...

It's the accommodation costs that I think would be the main difference. With an all NZ competition they could probably even avoid accommodation costs entirely. I'm not saying there's nothing to gain either, I just think it's definitely an option for NZ to go full domestic. Brent Impey's words...

The All Blacks drive the vast majority of the NZRU's revenue. What they do beneath it can run at a substantial loss and still be sustainable. The new deal with Sky (of which Super Rugby is only 1 piece alongside the All Blacks and ITM Cup) is also far in excess of what Fox Sports will pay in...

They said a 5 team model is unsustainable. But 6 teams would provide a 50% increase in the number of matches each week.

Perhaps New Zealand could legitimately consider even a 6 team domestic competition. Home and away for 10 games per team is only 1 less than Super 12 was. If they don't want to mess too much with their current balance of teams the 6th side could be made up of say 50% Pacific Islanders. Add on the...

Not all viewers are equally valuable to advertisers and therefore broadcasters. The unfortunate reality is that South Africa is a poor country, while Australia and New Zealand are wealthy. Australia's GDP per capita in US dollars is $57k, New Zealand $42k and South Africa $6.4k. I doubt the...

This is a key point. Surely it would be easier for the Australian teams to sign a handful of PI players each (thus strengthening our squads) than to fund a whole new PI team. Add some Argentinians and Australia could hope to field 5 teams competitive with the NZ teams.

If NZ do play hardball or decide to go their own way it will be interesting to see what sort of private investment interest there is in Australia in funding new teams or a new Australian professional competition. I think an 8 team competition with our players plus a decent number of...