Rugby News from unexpected places

[WorkingClassRugger]

Confirmation that the Georgian RESC team the Black Lions will also compete in the Currie Cup first division from next year. That does not mean they are leaving the RESC or that the project has failed. They have been very vocal about wanting to find more games in their schedule and the double round robin CC 1st division fits that objective alongside the RESC. As well as reports that SLAR are looking at some kind of interaction. A part of me would like to see the CC 1st Div, SLAR and RESC work together and receive WR (World Rugby) backing to create some kind of unified structure. Would be kind of cool.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Uruguay gave itlay a tough battle lost 17to 10 but with Uruguay last ditch held up over the try line to miss securing a draw. Reminds me of comment by commentator that Tonga have most per capita contribution to rugby..nz depth may challenge that but valid comment of countries with small populations punching above their weight. Urguay recent achievements impressive given rugby minor sport in that country and with population of 3m

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Chile won its series against Russia 2-0 last night with a comfortable 42-27 victory over the Bears. The RWC Qualifier series against the Eagles is looking particularly interesting if they can continue this momentum next year.

 

[Dan54]

Uruguay gave itlay a tough battle lost 17to 10 but with Uruguay last ditch held up over the try line to miss securing a draw. Reminds me of comment by commentator that Tonga have most per capita contribution to rugby..nz depth may challenge that but valid comment of countries with small populations punching above their weight. Urguay recent achievements impressive given rugby minor sport in that country and with population of 3m

I not sure why anyone so surprised about Uruguay going ok, they not that bad, beat Fiji in last world cup etc.
As for Tonga and Samoa having the biggest capita contribution per population, I not suggesting either don't have a lot of players, but in a rugby sense really a huge amount of them are actually part of either's population, but simply have decendants from said countries, and for some reason then get counted as a native. I remember thinking that in one WC when the comment was made about Samoa and how well they did, when most of team were NZ born and raised.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

I not sure why anyone so surprised about Uruguay going ok, they not that bad, beat Fiji in last world cup etc.
As for Tonga and Samoa having the biggest capita contribution per population, I not suggesting either don't have a lot of players, but in a rugby sense really a huge amount of them are actually part of either's population, but simply have decendants from said countries, and for some reason then get counted as a native. I remember thinking that in one WC when the comment was made about Samoa and how well they did, when most of team were NZ born and raised.

All legit though as if parents Samoan or Tongan whether not born or raised or not they have the right to be selected for country of their parents etc.

Yes Uruguay done well - more I googled their population size knowing mad soccer country and became even more impressed on their performances given very small number of registered rugby players (ie less then 6000).

 

[Dan54]

All legit though as if parents Samoan or Tongan whether not born or raised or not they have the right to be selected for country of their parents etc.

Yes Uruguay done well - more I googled their population size knowing mad soccer country and became even more impressed on their performances given very small number of registered rugby players (ie less then 6000).

Yep mate, I know if parents etc are born there they got right to represent country, just saying that to say a country like Samoa with a poulation of 200000 has done great (and they have) but is not really a true reflection as most of their players aren't really part of the population anyway? There is actually supposedly 182000 people in NZ that identify with being Samoan too, and they can represent Samoa generally is all I saying.
It's always been something that has amused me, same as reading in papers that a certain percentage of NZ's population live in Australia. Actually it's nil%, because once you live in Australia etc ,you actually no longer part of NZ's (or Samoa,Tonga etc) population!

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Yep mate, I know if parents etc are born there they got right to represent country, just saying that to say a country like Samoa with a poulation of 200000 has done great (and they have) but is not really a true reflection as most of their players aren't really part of the population anyway? There is actually supposedly 182000 people in NZ that identify with being Samoan too, and they can represent Samoa generally is all I saying.
It's always been something that has amused me, same as reading in papers that a certain percentage of NZ's population live in Australia. Actually it's nil%, because once you live in Australia etc ,you actually no longer part of NZ's (or Samoa,Tonga etc) population!

No different to lot of rugby players born and raised here who go onto to play in nz / represent all blacks.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Yep mate, I know if parents etc are born there they got right to represent country, just saying that to say a country like Samoa with a poulation of 200000 has done great (and they have) but is not really a true reflection as most of their players aren't really part of the population anyway? There is actually supposedly 182000 people in NZ that identify with being Samoan too, and they can represent Samoa generally is all I saying.
It's always been something that has amused me, same as reading in papers that a certain percentage of NZ's population live in Australia. Actually it's nil%, because once you live in Australia etc ,you actually no longer part of NZ's (or Samoa,Tonga etc) population!

You could say same for players who are born and raised in Australia with kiwi parents etc who go to nz to play rugby / represent ABs.

 

[RugbyReg]

This is interesting. An actual transfer fee being paid.

SuperSport

supersport.com

 

[Wilson]

This is interesting. An actual transfer fee being paid.

SuperSport

supersport.com

If it's the rumored amount (5 million Rand = ~$450K or ~€280K ) it's not exactly a huge sum for a player of Nyakane's stature with 2 years left on his contract. Not sure how I feel about rugby going down this path, I feel like it just entrenches more power with the richest clubs/competitions, particularly if the salary gap between Europe/Japan and the rest gets any wider.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

On the 7s side of things. There are two 7s League's in the works in the US as well. The first ran it's proof of concept event a couple of weeks back in Memphis. Premier Rugby 7s featuring both men's and women's teams. The idea is of a touring league with teams not specifically from a city but loosely aligned to a region. Kind of. Something they've committed to is pay parity which is cool. The event was fairly good. Lot's of US 7s talent involved. They released some numbers and have stated they plan to run their first full season next year.

The 2nd concept is run by a group going by the RFL (not to be confused with the RFL in England) and will be called...US 7s Rugby Major League. I suspect this is the same group that's been trying to get something like this off the group for at least 12 years. They had planned to launch pre-Covid with an international tournament offering a $1m USD prize and what they've briefly outlined in the sanctioning statement on the USA Rugby site is essentially the exact same. They intend to run a tournament next October featuring 4 US based squads playing a range of international teams before launching their structure in full in 2023. A couple of interesting things here/ First of all, sanctioning. While not 100% required it makes things easier for each organisation. Now PR7s received sanctioning for the highest level of domestic 7s. While it hasn't been made overly cleared as to the sanctioning of the the RFL.

They've mentioned some fairly ambitious plans including growing to 17 events and 16 US based franchises. Which would suggest they are also a domestic set up. Which would put them into direct competition with PR7s. Will be interesting to see how things flesh out. The RFL is looking to link the series to some kind of gaming (which again lines up with the group that's been pushing this idea for a long time so it's probably the same group) which is dubious at best. I'll wait to see if anything happens here as they've been making these noises for ages and nothing has come of it thus far.

I would probably lean more toward PR7s due to their commitment to developing both men's and women's sides of their concept.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

A couple of tidbits.

The RE Super Cup is reaching its finals stage. The East looks the stronger of the two with the winner likely to come from there. Though it's tough to tell where Lusitanos and Iberians stand. But what's interesting is the potential entrants from 2023. Both Poland and Czechia in talks to enter teams in the future. Poland has two groups. One being the Union and the other the three Tricity teams from their national league. Czechia is the Union.

The second one is the Japanese league structure. The League president has come out and stated that it is open and willing to engage teams from Asia within their structure specifically mentioning Hyundai Clovis and the South China Tigers. He mentions 2025 as the likely date but part of me thinks that if one or both could sort out the details entry into the 2nd Div (the 3rd Div is set to remain the semi-pro Corporate league) sooner should be considered.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Confirmation that the Georgian RESC team the Black Lions will also compete in the Currie Cup first division from next year. That does not mean they are leaving the RESC or that the project has failed. They have been very vocal about wanting to find more games in their schedule and the double round robin CC 1st division fits that objective alongside the RESC. As well as reports that SLAR are looking at some kind of interaction. A part of me would like to see the CC 1st Div, SLAR and RESC work together and receive WR (World Rugby) backing to create some kind of unified structure. Would be kind of cool.

Interesting esp the concept of China team joining Japanese league given historical animosity between 2 countries. Korean team makes sense given rugby has decent footprint in that country. Good for the global game that Japanese league open to this. It also would probably make more sense for hk team to also join. Especially given I think safe to say probable forests global rapid rugby seems dead.

 

[kiap]

Interesting esp the concept of China team joining Japanese league given historical animosity between 2 countries.

South China Tigers is the name of Hong Kong team that played in Global Rapid Rugby.

That was a time when the HKRU (and Hong Kongers generally) were on board with the "one country, two systems" concept – before Beijing cracked down on the second part of that idea.

So, yes, it is nominally a "China team" and more increasingly bound into China. But the HKRU is still largely an expat organisation, for now.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Interesting esp the concept of China team joining Japanese league given historical animosity between 2 countries. Korean team makes sense given rugby has decent footprint in that country. Good for the global game that Japanese league open to this. It also would probably make more sense for hk team to also join. Especially given I think safe to say probable forests global rapid rugby seems dead.

As Kiap mentions the Tigers are Hong Kong. Could even just switch out South China to HK if they wanted to.

He mentions China as a possibility in the future alongside Malaysia. But in terms of naming teams he only mentions Hyundai Glovis and the Tigers. South Korea would offer an opportunity for both nations. SK compete off a pretty shallow base and have needed something to provide the impetus to grow. A team in the League One structure could be just the catalyst required. It could also kick a few of the current corporate teams in Korea into gear in order to compete with Hyundai. The Korean system is remarkable similar to that of Japans.

For Japan it's another wealthy market in which to tap. One that's easily accessible.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

As Kiap mentions the Tigers are Hong Kong. Could even just switch out South China to HK if they wanted to.

He mentions China as a possibility in the future alongside Malaysia. But in terms of naming teams he only mentions Hyundai Glovis and the Tigers. South Korea would offer an opportunity for both nations. SK compete off a pretty shallow base and have needed something to provide the impetus to grow. A team in the League One structure could be just the catalyst required. It could also kick a few of the current corporate teams in Korea into gear in order to compete with Hyundai. The Korean system is remarkable similar to that of Japans.

For Japan it's another wealthy market in which to tap. One that's easily accessible.

Oh yeh forgot that. That hence makes much more sense re hk rather then China for initial target alongside Korea not withstanding HK now Chinese territory. You could probably throw Sri Lanka as well as Malaysia in the mix.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

A couple of tidbits.

The RE Super Cup is reaching its finals stage. The East looks the stronger of the two with the winner likely to come from there. Though it's tough to tell where Lusitanos and Iberians stand. But what's interesting is the potential entrants from 2023. Both Poland and Czechia in talks to enter teams in the future. Poland has two groups. One being the Union and the other the three Tricity teams from their national league. Czechia is the Union.

The second one is the Japanese league structure. The League president has come out and stated that it is open and willing to engage teams from Asia within their structure specifically mentioning Hyundai Clovis and the South China Tigers. He mentions 2025 as the likely date but part of me thinks that if one or both could sort out the details entry into the 2nd Div (the 3rd Div is set to remain the semi-pro Corporate league) sooner should be considered.

Hyundai Glovis have publicly stated they intend to enter the Japanese system from 2025. Not sure as to which level they'll enter. Whether it'll be the semi-pro corporate league 3rd division or the professional 2nd Div with ambitions to in time compete for promotion to the 1st division.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

On Korean Rugby. It appears to have grown since I last checked. Several years ago there were only 1500 odd registered players. Now there's a little over 2500. The national competition which has for a long time has only had 4 teams is also looking like growing to 6 with two new teams (there are 65 clubs in Korea and there's actually a Expat league as well that doesn't compete in this league) and an initiative between OK Financial Group (who are one of the new teams entering) to spread the game into Korean schools. Interesting.

Korea over achieves considering their small base. If Hyundai entering the Japanese system as well as the above national league growth and school initiative prove sustainable it could do wonders for their scene. WR (World Rugby) should really be targeting the likes of Korea as a potential growth market in Asia.

 

[wamberal]

So, yes, it is nominally a "China team" and more increasingly bound into China. But the HKRU is still largely an expat organisation, for now.

They are heavily dependent on the revenue from the Hong Kong Sevens.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

They are heavily dependent on the revenue from the Hong Kong Sevens.

Which prior to the pandemic put them in a pretty envious financial position in the region. I don't know how likely there involvement would be but it is clear that those behind League One would be interested if they put their hand up. It might happen but it might not.