National Rugby Championship: Ambitious plans begin to take shape
DateFebruary 6, 2014 - 7:52PM
THE BREAKDOWN
The architects of the National Rugby Championship are cooking up an audacious 10-team proposal for Australian rugby's long-awaited national third tier.
The Breakdown has learnt that the final structure of the NRC will almost certainly include a whopping five teams from Sydney and NSW, two teams from Brisbane and Queensland and one each from the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia.
The tender process is still open for another week but already the administrators driving the ambitious project appear to have identified the 10 most likely entrants in the new competition.
From the Sydney area alone it is understood four alliances have put together what look to be viable bids.
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Premier Rugby powerhouse Sydney University will join with cashed-up suburban club Balmain; Randwick will deepen their alliance with the University of NSW and link with Eastern Suburbs; Gordon, Manly, Northern Suburbs and Warringah appear to be ready to link up as a combined Norths outfit, and a Greater Sydney team will be drawn from a merged Parramatta-West Harbour-Penrith-Eastwood and Southern Districts entity.
A NSW Country team has also submitted a convincing bid and, in music to the cash-strapped ARU's ears, appears close to locking in some powerful financial backers.
North of the Tweed River, the Queensland Rugby Union has already declared it will spearhead two bids – one for a Queensland Country team and one for a Greater Brisbane outfit.
And the newly set up NRC Commission, a panel of more than 12 stakeholders that will rake through the bids, expects to grant tenders from the ACT, Rugby WA and the Victorian Rugby Union.
A major sticking point with the smaller provinces continues to be the distribution of Super Rugby players.
The ARU will mandate that every available Super Rugby player not representing the Wallabies must play in the NRC. It is understood each NRC squad will be "given" about 15 Super Rugby players, with the remainder of the squad to be filled by emerging club players.
That means the Rebels, who could conceivably be left with a squad of 25 or more after losing their Test players, could send 15 to play in the Melbourne-based NRC team, while the remaining players will be split up between the Sydney NRC teams.
The Breakdown understands both the Rebels and the Force are fighting to keep all of their squad members, an understandable standpoint for two franchises trying to deepen their community roots, not spread them more thinly.
NRC Commission chairman John Boultbee defended the move, telling the Breakdown it was necessary to ensure an even spread of Super Rugby talent and also space for club players to be seen.
"That's a major part of the objective: to give Super Rugby players more games of quality but also give the next group of emerging players an opportunity to play in a better competition," Boultbee said.
But back to the money.
Player payments – a colossal part of the ARC hangover – will be slashed to a fraction of the salaries earned in the 2007 competition.
Some Super Rugby players were earning an additional $100,000 to play back then. It is not clear what payments Super Rugby players will attract compared with emerging, non-professionals, but the ARU has made it clear the sums will be modest.
There remains a high degree of scepticism about whether a competition that did not work seven years ago will work now, despite an agreement with broadcaster Fox Sports – a financial commitment the ARC did not attract.
But the NRC does appear to be more than a reincarnation of its failed forbear, which was spectacularly shut down after costing the ARU about $5 million in its first season.
It is understood that almost all of the hopeful tenders have aligned themselves with universities in deals that provide more than just playing fields and gyms, but cash as well.
In that regard the new competition has dipped into a third-tier model proposed a year ago by sports administrator Greg Harris, who heads the Rugby Union Players' Association.
His vision was to have each team closely aligned to a tertiary institution.
There is much work to be done before the final structure of the competition is decided and the successful tenders are announced.
But with an inaugural season less than seven months from kick-off, there is justifiable excitement – even within Sydney clubland – about what the future holds.
Read more:http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/national-rugby-championship-ambitious-plans-begin-to-take-shape-20140206-324ht.html#ixzz2sX3HIuif
Brisbane is basically a country town isn't it?I really don't see all this love for "country" teams. Like in an idealistic way, yes it's great. NSW and QLD Country have long proud histories.
Is there not a hearts and minds aspect to it?
We are on a religious crusade to spread the word of the game they play in heaven.
. i don't know the SS well enough to give an accurate appraisal but can sydney/nsw really sustain 5 teams, i'm talking financing not playing numbers
If I'm a player living in Melbourne and paying rent in Melbourne, etc. I'm probably not going to be much of a fan of it.