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The key quote from Carter Gordon in the release from the Titans was “I’m excited with the direction that rugby league is taking and the positive feeling around the game.” That's a fairly pointed comment I would think.

Shrinking to greatness off to a good start.

It could easily be a coincidence. You could just as easily say 'the decline in the Wallabies competitiveness correlates to not having the best flyhalf in the world' which is also true. There are several other factors that have influenced the decline of the Wallabies compared to the late...

If you were to ever have 2 pro teams in Sydney you'd potentially have North Harbour (Northern Beaches, North Shore and North West) and South Harbour (Eastern suburbs and Inner West) before a Western Sydney team. At least from the sense of 'fishing where the fish are' in terms of fans and...

I think there's just too many people in Australian rugby that think the only way for the Wallabies to get back on top is if we have 3 teams, because that was the case when we were on top 20+ years ago. None of the other context around that matters (for example, we likely outperformed in that...

Sad day. I hope the club (or a new entity Rebels) can survive in some shape or form and make a comeback at the professional level in time. I'm disappointed there's seemingly no appetite from RA to continue with them as an RA owned and operated club. Perhaps restructured for a time as a lower...

NZ Rugby could still have certain levels of control over any All Blacks, or potential All Blacks playing for Australian clubs, and vice versa (especially in terms of load management, availability for camps etc). But you're right that any changes would need significant buy in from NZ. They surely...

The argument is always that Australia only has enough talent for 3-4 Super Rugby teams and therefore we need to cut teams to strengthen the competition. But you could also just have 3-4 teams worth of Australian players spread throughout the comp. Or even 3-4 Australian dominant teams and 1-2...

I like the Southern Heineken Cup idea (probably more accurately Trans Tasman + Japan and maybe the Americas in time, especially if there's a 2nd tier 'Challenge Cup' as well like in Europe). But I think a Trans Tasman comp with only 3 Australian based teams is a bit silly commercially and...

I think there might be a little too much pessimism here. RA is going to make bank from the Lions and 2027 world cup and the professional game here will continue for a while yet. A couple of years ago RA were suggesting they'd have $100 million to invest post 2027. Even if that proves to be a...

As long as any threat of litigation is dropped (which the recent article quoting Leigh Clifford seemed to suggest) why wouldn't RA back the consortium? If they really do have $20-30 million of backing, then it at least guarantees the Rebels viability for a few years so why not give it a shot...

It would be interesting to know what the rough breakeven crowd figure is per game. Tarneit would obviously be much much lower than for AAMI Park. It wouldn't surprise me if they were currently losing money on most home games, whereas they wouldn't need very big crowds to turn that around at...

I think having the first 4 editions of this in Qatar is a pretty good way of killing it. I can imagine some pretty empty stadiums and not a huge amount of people traveling for it (especially after the first time). I'd stick to Europe to begin with.

Depends on the game plan and what Schmidt wants in a 10. Gordon is a better defender and has a better passing game than Lolesio/Donaldson/Lynagh. For many game plans that will outbalance the less consistent kicking, for others it won't. Also depends who's at 9/12/15 and if they can take up some...

I think Carter Gordon's goal kicking has improved a bit in the last couple of games. The couple he's missed were complete shanks but he made several hard kicks, and the Rebels also turn down a lot of easy chances at penalty goal that would help his %. He wasn't the primary goal kicker until this...

Maybe they'll aim to turn the Rebels into a Connacht style development team. RA owned, negotiate with RUPA to remove or significantly reduce the salary minimum for just that team, and try to Moneyball it.

I'm a little sceptical about the viability of an Asian Grand League given the distances, but HK and South Korea entering the Japanese league system could work. The HK union make a lot of money from the sevens so could probably fund a professional 15's team. Even if Japan is not an immediate...

Do you think Korea have any chance of beating Hong Kong in the 2027 world cup qualifiers? I've heard Asia will have a direct qualifying spot, which is understandable, but you'd hope Asian rugby can develop a few more competitive teams. Hong Kong were well beaten by Portugal and the USA in the...

It probably makes more sense to compromise the side in any position other than 10. Unfortunately, as you mention, all our potential goal kickers are 10's, other than Lonergan, who hasn't kicked much lately, and is in probably the next position you'd least like to compromise. I think I'm on to...

I agree with this, but it actually makes me think 10 is not the ideal position for a goal kicker. 10 is the most important and influential position in general play so it makes more sense to pick the 10 that's best in general play. Maybe we need to think about coaching more wingers and blind side...