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Agreed, but is the guy who owns PRO looking for outside investment at this stage? The league owns all the teams right, will that remain the case when they expand next season? I'd guess there's less interest from investors to have a minority stake a league than to own and control their own teams...

Miami is a weird one. It's already got teams in all the major sports and on top of that has a pretty bad reputation as a sports city - in terms of support. A bit like the Gold Coast here. Anyway, seems inevitable to me that the US are going to be powers in the game sooner than later.

The 'marquee os mens players' from places like Fiji, Kenya, USA etc already get paid considerably less money to play rugby than our gold medal winning women, and it would likely cost less to attract them to such a competition.

Carlin Isles and Perry Baker would certainly bring some publicity.

The best, and most affordable pool of talent for a competition like this would surely be the islands, and particularly Fiji. When it comes to sevens everyone wants to watch Fijians, so there'd be multiple benefits to having a significant number involved in the league, spread around the teams...

I don't think you'd have many super rugby players involved. Most aren't suitable for sevens anyway. I'd imagine any tournament like this would involve sevens specialists (both Australian and international) and younger players on the fringe of super rugby.

Maybe, but not all sevens players are quick even at the highest level. DJ Forbes has had a pretty good sevens career for NZ and he's not fast. I doubt it discounts a significantly higher % of people than Aussie Rules for example. And the size of the field can be modified for different age groups...

I really don't like the extended format idea. You would get a lot of huge blow outs, 100-20 type scores and worse, with the game over very early. Also, the best players would be off the field for large amounts of time each match, and the intensity of play would drop. I think one of the best...

I think that commercial club or franchise sevens competitions would work best in sessions lasting 3 hours max (each team plays once), with say 3 competition days per week over a period of 4 or 5 weeks. It could be a pretty good TV product.

A Fijian team in the NRC would be cool. They'd draw crowds and viewers. They'd presumably have to be based somewhere in Australia during the tournament, with maybe 1 home game in Fiji workable. Not sure about the PI super rugby team. I'd love to see it, but it'd need significant backing and I...

This is apparently how the finals will work: QF 1 Winner Pool A v 2nd best 3rd place QF 2 Winner Pool B v best 3rd place QF 3 Winner Pool C v Runner Up Pool A QF 4 Runner Up Pool B v Runner Up Pool C Semis QF1 vs QF4 and QF2 vs QF3 So not a bad draw for the Australian men's team. If...

France hit form late in the world series though. I don't think there's much between the pools in terms of the top 3 in each. But it's definitely ideal getting in Brazil's pool. Once it gets to the quarter finals it'll be pretty awesome. Even 1 vs 8 won't be a given.

I think these games count towards world cup qualification so I think it's understandable they wouldn't play someone who has never played XV's before. And if Hayne has any shot of making the olympics he needs to be focusing 100% on his fitness at the moment anyway.

Surely it'll be Samoa or Canada, with Russia probably the only other semi-decent chance. Samoa did lose to Tonga in the Oceania qualifier but that was a Samoan team that played terribly, whereas they just won a world series event a week and a half ago. No idea who will go through on the...

It was definitely cool and unexpected to see Colombia qualify ahead of Argentina for the women's olympic sevens tournament. Has that participation growth also translated to improved results at youth international level?

There's been some new stories about the Pro 12 joining up with South Africa and possibly the Americas. Perhaps this could be a power play against French and English club rugby. The Celtic nations switch seasons and create a new European/South African/Americas Super Rugby division. Our teams...

Definitely looks like a saving face move so that he doesn't have to officially be cut from the NFL. But he was the best rugby league player in the world before he left. He's certainly got the skills for sevens. And he's got enough time to improve his fitness. I doubt he'll make the team but he...

Good post Highlander. I agree that in the long term Asia is a potential commercial rugby powerhouse, and this is where the ARU and SANZAAR have to hitch their wagon. We can't compete with Europe on our own, we need to generate larger and larger global revenues. For that Super Rugby and the Rugby...

I think a big reason is lack of control. In the NFL or the EPL for example, or even French rugby, the team owners in the league have so much power. The leagues are separate from the sporting governing bodies and they make decisions for the benefit of the league and the teams. On the other hand...

Argentina have added Moroni and Cordero to their squad, while Fiji have added a few French based 15's players to theirs - Nakarawa, Nayacalevu, Tuisova and Viriviri. Kunatani (who is now with Toulouse but has played several tournaments this season already) returns as well. Fiji at full...