If another national semi pro comp ready to replace nrc sure scrap it but otherwise why on earth would you do that as read all the super rugby threads and people wanting a national domestic pro comp. At this point the nrc is only thing remotely providing such a concept!
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My interpretation is that the posters on here (a tiny proportion of rugby fans let alone sports viewers) think the uninitiated public would be more likely to watch an essentially domestic comp than supe.
No evidence - surveys etc - is cited in support. Si, it's at best a hunch and at worst an assumption.
The NRC is the trial of a national domestic comp: it does not appear to me that it has been successful in recruiting fans on TV or at the ground.
Therefore such evidence as there is does not suggest a domestic pro comp will arrest declining interest in the game.
If we detach from NZ and, to a much lesser extent, SA we risk becoming an anachronistic backwater - the North Korea of rugby without any missiles.
We have to suck it up in the short term, rebuild the base - leaving the private schools to do their thing - and leverage off the comparative popularity of the city grade club comps.
These comps and their better resourced successors are the only viable way to provide hard week in week out competition by which to sort the players.
I was a fan of the NRC initially but I have come to realise that it's substantial mirroring of the NPC cannot work here because of the size of the country and the lack of strong rugby provinces densely populated with rugby players and fans.