National Rugby Championship 2014

[the coach]

Coach,
As you can see I was trying to cover everyone with gratuitous, unjustified stereotypes.
I think I got everyone and some people twice.

Yep, you done good!

 

[wamberal]

Yep, you done good!

"Played hard, done good" is the preferred cliche.

 

[Tigers Tale]

Any Sydney Uni supporters out there?

How seriously are Sydney Uni treating this Saturday's Aust Club Champ'ship v Bne Easts?

 

[Bruce Ross]

Any Sydney Uni supporters out there?

How seriously are Sydney Uni treating this Saturday's Aust Club Champ'ship v Bne Easts?

I don't think there is any doubt about Sydney Uni's commitment to this game. It will be treated as a serious fixture rather than as a trial. The best team available will be going to Brisbane. Tom Carter will not be going but will stay in Sydney to play a 2nd Grade trial against Penrith, but that is only because he is waiting for the birth of his first child.
.

 

[Kentucky]

According to the 'Black Falcons for National Rugby Championship 2014' (unlikely Adelaide team) facebook page. The ARU have advised the applying teams that the announcement of teams will be done on the 24th March

 

[kiap]

Thanks for the info. Would also tend to think Adelaide is a long-shot for the initial comp.

I'd like to see them get a side, though, should the NRC survive and prosper enough to perhaps expand to 12 teams.

 

[Train Without a Station]

I was in Adelaide yesterday, From the plane I could not even spot a single set of rugby posts. I'd put them at a million to one to get a slot.

 

[kiap]

I was in Adelaide yesterday, From the plane I could not even spot a single set of rugby posts. I'd put them at a million to one to get a slot.

Can I put on 2 cents? - Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

Obviously they play Victorian Rules there but the place is quite big for a country town and rugby does also exist. This includes some in the junior ranks that are beginning to develop quite well.

If they've got feasible backing to support a side then they should be given a fair shot.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Nice bit of Rumsfeld-speak there @kiap. Could well be a case of them knowing they haven't much of a chance but reminding ARU that they're still there.

 

[kiap]

Ta. The words are nicked, not from Rumsfeld, but from Bill Cowper. He was a Pommy bloke from a couple hundred years earlier who also came up with "Variety is the spice of life".

I doubt Adelaide will make the cut this time either, but they need to keep reminding the ARU they are there for next time.

 

[Joe King]

According to the 'Black Falcons for National Rugby Championship 2014' (unlikely Adelaide team) facebook page. The ARU have advised the applying teams that the announcement of teams will be done on the 24th March

Yeeeew

 

[farva]

Rugby is not big in Adelaide certainly, but it exists. There are a dozen or so clubs, and when I lived there the rugby pubs would be packed for bledisloe games. There are quite a few kiwis there and when that happens rugby will have a following.
It won't be able to support a pro team though.

 

[FTS]

Wouldn't be obviously able to support a pro team but the South Australian u20s side actually defeated NSW Country and QLD country at the recent combined state championships. ACT then put 100 on them haha, but two solid wins against ok opposition I think shows there is Rugby there!

 

[RugbyFuture]

Whatever happens the South Australian Rugby Union were willing to put their foot forward and rewards come from taking chances. It shows aspiration within that union and with all the dullness in rugby thats a great thing.

Guess we'll see next Monday, Can't wait!

 

[djeff]

According to the 'Black Falcons for National Rugby Championship 2014' (unlikely Adelaide team) facebook page. The ARU have advised the applying teams that the announcement of teams will be done on the 24th March

Its about time! I think we are all getting a bit wearisome of hearsay. On another note, why are we relying on an adelaide outfit to release news of upcoming announcement. WTF is wrong in the ARU? Too broke to release a press statement or to make a call to SMH????

 

[Battalion]

home straight. 5 more sleeps.

 

[RugbyFuture]

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...tional-rugby-championship-20140319-hvkde.html

Gary Flowers to chair North Harbour Rays bid to join the National Rugby Championship

Former Australian Rugby Union chief executive Gary Flowers is stepping back into the rugby fray as chairman of the North Harbour Rays bid to join the National Rugby Championship.
On the eve of an ARU board meeting that will decide the fate of the proposed new third-tier competition, it has emerged Flowers, who created the defunct Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) in 2007, will chair a board to oversee one of the NRC's most impressive and unlikely alliances.
World Cup-winning former Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen is also poised to join the venture between fierce Shute Shield rivals Manly, Warringah, Norths and Gordon as an independent director.
The proposed appointments come as the NRC commission, chaired by ARU chief executive Bill Pulver, prepares to take its final proposal to the ARU board on Friday.
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Fairfax Media understands it will recommend the NRC go ahead this year, with nine or 10 teams and an August kick-off date, despite concerns in Queensland and NSW among some of the tenderers that the hastily put together competition will put financial pressure on Premier Rugby clubs.
Crucially, the ARU has also secured the conditional support of the Rugby Union Players' Association, whose chief executive, Greg Harris, was one of the NRC's original architects.
"Undoubtedly we have reservations about running ahead with it in 2014, but at the end of the day, the ARU has the responsibility to run the game and, having been in support of the concept from day one, we will not obstruct it," Harris said.
Sports administrator John Boultbee, who is overseeing the competition's development, said finances were the major factor in the success or otherwise of the 11 groups that submitted tenders, but he was confident it could go ahead at minimal risk to clubs.
"We are at pains to ensure that the ARU, the Super Rugby teams and the Premier Rugby teams will not be put at any financial risk," Boultbee said.
It is understood that while Randwick raised serious concerns about the competition's potential impact on already heavily burdened clubs, their preference is still to be involved if it goes ahead this year. That sentiment is echoed across the board, with all groups opting to stay in the race for inclusion if the competition gets the green light this year.
The ARU has already secured a $1.5 million deal with broadcaster Fox Sports, which will show at least one game live each week, potentially on a Thursday night to lead in or out of its panel show Rugby HQ.
A number of the tenderers have also secured new funding for their bids, including the Rays, who will name Macquarie University as their major sponsor if the competition goes ahead.
Norths president Tony Crawford said the four clubs had also agreed to each commit a modest sum.
"It is not a lot, but when you multiply it by four, it's a good start," Crawford said.
The NSW Country bid is also understood to have secured significant funding, with seven backers believed to have put up somewhere in the vicinity of $50,000 each.
The University of Canberra Vikings, the proposed team to be based out of Brumbies headquarters in Canberra, have come up with an innovative ownership model that will see the financial risk spread three ways between the Super Rugby club, the University of Canberra and the Tuggeranong Vikings.
Brumbies general manager Simon Chester said the Vikings would be created as a separate entity and current Brumbies assistant coach Dan McKellar named head coach.
Chester said the group submitted a conservative business plan with their bid, built around crowd estimates of 1000 people.
"This isn't going to make millions of dollars and prop up the Brumbies," he said. "But it is going to create an opportunity for our local guys to become Brumbies and, in turn, Wallabies. When a David Pocock falls over in future we will be able to look to our NRC program for a guy who is ready

and

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...ck-off-in-august/story-e6frg7o6-1226859581912

With players union on board, new rugby competition to kick off in August

THE Rugby Union Players Association has pledged not to oppose the proposed National Rugby Championship in August.
Australian Rugby Union chief Bill Pulver tomorrow will put a formal recommendation to his board over which teams should be part of the long-awaited, so-called third-tier competition intended to provide a stepping stone between club rugby and Super Rugby.
Even at this late stage, with the ARU expected to formally announce the new competition early next week, it still has not been determined whether the NRC will involve eight teams or 10.
However, John Boultbee, chairman of the commission set up to investigate the viability of the proposed competition, denied the main sticking point was lingering concern over whether the relative “giants-minnows” bids of Sydney University-Balmain and Randwick-University of NSW was no more than flimsy camouflage for effective stand-alone club teams.
“No, the issues are mainly to do with the financials,” said Boultbee, who insisted he was “very positive” the NRC would come into being shortly after the Super Rugby final on August 2.
“The tenderers in the main have done a magnificent job.”
Most impressive of all, apparently, is the combined bid put together by Gordon, Norths, Warringah and Manly to form the North Harbour Rays.
It will be chaired, appropriately, by Gary Flower, the former ARU CEO who so courageously championed the forerunner to the NRC, the Australian Rugby Championship, that ultimately it cost him his job.
It is understood the Rays already have attracted $200,000 in sponsorship from Macquarie University, $150,000 in cash, the remainder in kind, and will play out of either Brookvale Oval or North Sydney Oval. The Rays intend to draw players only from the geographical area covered by their four component clubs, with no outside coaches to be brought in.
That means the Rays rugby adviser, World Cup-winning former Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen, could have a difficult choice to make between Manly’s Phil Blake, the former rugby league international who became Robbie Deans’ defence coach on the Wallabies staff, or former Wallaby Scott Fava, the Norths coach.
Intriguingly, it is understood Eastern Suburbs have entered into a consortium with NSW Country and instead of being confined to one “home ground” may play out of a number of country venues.
Queensland still is committed to providing two teams with the expectation being that Reds head coach Richard Graham’s two assistants, Nic Stiles and Steve Meehan, will split the Reds squad between them and supplement those professionals with the pick of Brisbane Premier Rugby.
The Queensland Rugby union, while supportive of the NRC, is believed to have some reservations about the long-term economic sustainability of some of the Sydney franchises but will almost certainly take part in the new series, believing the NRC would have no credibility without a strong Queensland presence.
The QRU’s hesitancy mirrors that of RUPA which this week resolved not to stand in its way.
“We’ve been lobbying for a long time for this competition so we’d be hypocritical to put in place any roadblocks,” RUPA boss Greg Harris told The Australian.
“We still have our reservations but the ARU runs the game and we’re not going to stand in its way.”
One of the issues that has troubled RUPA is its fear that Pulver is pushing ahead quickly to get the NRC in place this year so as to access the $1.5 million Fox Sports has committed to the new competition.
Pulver, however, was unapologetic about trying to get his hands on the money - and not just Fox’s $1.5 million but the additional broadcast revenue the ARU would earn if it has a fully operational third-tier competition in place - similar to New Zealand’s ITM Cup and South Africa’s Currie Cup - before the new broadcast deal is negotiated, hopefully before the end of this year.
“When you review some of the financial challenges we have in Australian rugby, the number one opportunity for a positive impact is broadcasting rights,” said Pulver. “It’s a very important issue and we have an obligation to try and create quality broadcasting content.”

 

[Battalion]

9 or 10 teams. there you have it.

 

[TOCC]

Still too many

 

[Highlander35]

9 seems right to me. 4 home and 4 away games per team. Single bye. 4 teams in finals.

But I don't know enough about Sydney demographics to make an informed statement.

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