Thanks Aussie teams

[PaarlBok]

@Tahdan thanks for sharing this to me. This way I'll understand better. I am fortunate to live in probably the richest rugby culture in SA but my sons play field hockey. So I sort of understand the situation very well. Field hockey have the 3rd most supporters in world sport but its a very poor sport in SA. However I am pretty much involve in the sport and know in this area its growing a lot since three years back. Firstly you need hockey Astros to start development and they don't come cheap. But I don't want to bore you lot with it. Doesn't matter the sport but if you want to grow it, you need to start at the very lowest level and work hard from there to get it healthy to the top. It take 12 years from grade 1 to 12 but once you get there, its very rewarding. If you are going to try and colour dress the top by poaching players it is very short term solution.

 

[Dan54]

Very trues Paarl, one of reasons the USA rugby have said they not buying in too many players, they have decided to develop the game from the school level.

 

[TahDan]

@Tahdan thanks for sharing this to me. This way I'll understand better. I am fortunate to live in probably the richest rugby culture in SA but my sons play field hockey. So I sort of understand the situation very well. Field hockey have the 3rd most supporters in world sport but its a very poor sport in SA. However I am pretty much involve in the sport and know in this area its growing a lot since three years back. Firstly you need hockey Astros to start development and they don't come cheap. But I don't want to bore you lot with it. Doesn't matter the sport but if you want to grow it, you need to start at the very lowest level and work hard from there to get it healthy to the top. It take 12 years from grade 1 to 12 but once you get there, its very rewarding. If you are going to try and colour dress the top by poaching players it is very short term solution.

Agree with that completely. Indeed, the ARU squandered its golden years in the period from the mid 90s to the early 00s by failing to understand the importance of development, often instead chasing big name NRL stars like Wendell Sailor or Lote Tuqiri (who wasn't a bad investment to be fair) when they should have been focusing strengthening the game's grass roots and increasing its public exposure by prioritizing FTA television deals. But instead they took the hard and fast cash from Murdoch and chased sugar hits.

 

[BDA]

A lot of talk about the viability of the Western Force this season. I actually don't mind the idea of completely relaxing the 'foreign player' rules for the Force - something they discussed on Rugby Live this week. They are always going to struggle with recruitment and another few seasons of terrible performance like this season and the club could just become a money pit for the ARU.

I support the theory that the more successful you are on the rugby field, the more fans you'll attract to your games. The Force need to start winning games and I think the best way to start strengthening their squad is by injecting expats. Long term it will benefit Aus rugby a lot more to have a profitable provincial side even if it means cutting down the spots available for Aussie players.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I certainly think that allowing us to import more foreign players, like the Rebels did in their early days, would help on the paddock. The pathways for the local (WA) players won't change and in a lot of respects they'll be helped. I'd be surprised if the ARU didn't go forward with this, because it's an easy change to make and they've already done it before.