The Pulverisation of Australian Rugby

[wamberal]

One obvious problem with the survey is that there is no guarantee that only genuine rugby people will respond.

 

[Strewthcobber]

One obvious problem with the survey is that there is no guarantee that only genuine rugby people will respond.

How many rugby games a year do you have to watch/play/check the score for to qualify as a genuine rugby person?

 

[Dave Beat]

One obvious problem with the survey is that there is no guarantee that only genuine rugby people will respond.

First survey I've been able to complete - so completed, and appreciated the opportunity.

 

[2bluesfan]

I just completed the survey and I also appreciated the opportunity to offer an opinion or two. It's a start by the ARU - let's hope they carry through and move to a series of nationally distributed focussed forums. And I hope they actually publish the results.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter]

A good initial move by the ARU finally . The test of a good management team will be the way they disseminate the results and themes gleaned from the respondents and how they engage with all tiers of the Australian Rugby community . One thing I would advise against would be the ARU coming out with its own grand plan just on the basis of the survey , it is only one stage in the process . Their are other factors in play such as sponsors , broadcasters , current infrastructure ( including grounds , player welfare , IT capability , coaching and training interactions etc ) ..... This hopefully will be the start of the ARU to finally get this broad church's house in order hopefully via a "top down , bottom up" thrust . Only when a clear course of action has been ratified by the stakeholders and those agreed actions enacted can we hope to consider growing the game past its organic roots down the track . I wonder if the moderators at GAGR have received the survey from the ARU for dissemination to GAGR members for reply back to the ARU ? ...a worthwhile endeavour perhaps ??

 

[RugbyReg]

It's on the front page of the blog.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Thanks Reg .... found it ! And surprisingly painless ...hope it works !!

 

[Marcelo]

My answers:

9. Please rank in order what success looks like for the professional game of Rugby over the next five years?

1 NRC growing into a thriving competition developing great players
2 Wallabies maintaining a ranking in the top three in the world, year-on-year
3 All of our Super Rugby teams being competitive, with each team making the finals at least once every 3 years
4 Increased positive media coverage of Rugby in Australia
5 Australian teams winning the Super Rugby competition
6 Sevens Team winning a medal at the Olympic games
7 Australia having the most entertaining Rugby teams in the world to watch, regardless of results
8 Wallabies winning the Rugby World Cup, ranking is irrelevant

10. Please rank in order what success looks like for grassroots Rugby over the next five years?

1 Increased participation of younger children in the game
2 Club Rugby across Juniors, Seniors (including Premier Rugby) and Women’s growing consistently
3 Growth in Secondary School competitions
4 More females involved in the game from players, coaches, match officials and administrators
5 Embracing the ethnic diversity of Australia and internationality of Rugby in growing the player base
6 New participants involved in non-traditional rugby (non-contact, Sevens etc)

11. Focusing just on the Wallabies, what is the most important measure of success for the Wallabies over the next five years?

1 Winning the Rugby World Cup
2 Being the #1 ranked team in the world
3 Defeating New Zealand at least once every year
4 Winning more games than we lose across all teams internationally
5 Being the most entertaining Rugby team in the world to watch, regardless of results

12. From the following options, what is the most important outcome for you over the next five years?

Successfull NRC

13. Broadly, in the next five years what is the most important thing to grow the game?

Investing in making Rugby a truly national sport and growing outside traditional states of NSW and QLD

14. What is the most important part of the game to grow?

NRC.

Please, everyone must vote in favor of the NRC. It should be clear that it's very important to the growth of the game

 

[Dave Beat]

14. What is the most important part of the game to grow?

NRC.

Please, everyone must vote in favor of the NRC. It should be clear that it's very important to the growth of the game

Agree, but i was looking at it differently, my thoughts was to grow grass roots (Clubs & Kids) because with that it simply elevates the NRC into a stronger comp through participation. These participating players may have a goal play, or they my simply be a supporter paying through the gate.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The Wobs committed to a Test vs the Brave Blossoms. Cash grab, or International development opportunity to grow the game, not that there is anything wrong with getting some money in the kitty. It could put an end to the annual ramp up of grass roots levy's.

When does Billy Pulver's contract end? Will both parties be seeking to extend?

 

[I like to watch]

I assume he signed a 3 year deal so it would be up early next year.
I'd classify the ARU as a work in progress,and would be confident that
A) he would be keen to consolidate the gains he has made.
B) The ARU are happy with his progress to date.
So yeah,extension would seem to be a likely scenario.

 

[Brendan Hume]

Winning (or highly competitive) Wallabies hide a lot of problems in the Aussie game. Cash is still the biggest issue and always is in a RWC year - Cheika has done a good job to have two teams that are capable of playing at the highest level so player burnout should be less an issue. I'd like to see it though as less a one off thing and more a relationship building process - annual home and away tests played against Japan to build some support there for the Wallabies come 2019, build some familiarity for the players and staff with the country which will be the most "foreign" of any RWC host, and hopefully build some improvement in the Japanese game a'la Argentina who have greatly benefited from regular rugby against the Big 3.

 

[Muglair]

Annual game makes a lot of sense to me. Obviously beneficial financially. However Japan now brings something different to most teams, accuracy in everything they do. Will be a good sharpening up exercise when the Wallabies play well. A tough test match when we turn up and play sloppy football. The way they played against Wales and SA would have tested quite a few Wallaby teams of the last ten years.

More games for the teams not part of the 2 big competitions (RC and 6N) against these top 10 are essential to lift the global standard. In the long run this is what will secure the future health of the game.

Japan are being drawn into the Super Rugby and presumably eventually will become part of the RC. What about the other Pacific Cup nations? In my view the ARU owes it to the pacific nations to provide greater help. Their tours here in the 70s are considered by many to have enabled Australian Rugby to make ends meet.

I do not know what we do about Europe, it is hard to think that the 6N will be so broadminded to promote more challengers. Italy has not gone on with it, largely I suspect to the relief of the traditional powers. Would countries like Georgia and Romania still be bumbling along after 20 years at a rate of one win per year?

 

[Omar Comin']

If Super Rugby does okay in this next expansion then I'd guess one of the next teams will be the privately owned Asia-Pacific Dragons that almost got in this time.

And I think you can be sure that if it was Spain or Germany making the same sort of strides that Georgia are then they'd be invited into the 6/7 Nations. Georgia's coach Milton Haig makes the point that while Georgia is small itself, their addition would help open up the overall Eastern European market.

I can understand the home unions wanting to keep the 6 Nations their own little club, but I think it'd be great if they had a genuine European Championship every 4 years between world cups. Perhaps in place of the 6 Nations for that year (thus the 6 Nations would be played 3 times every 4 years).

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Annual game makes a lot of sense to me. Obviously beneficial financially. However Japan now brings something different to most teams, accuracy in everything they do. Will be a good sharpening up exercise when the Wallabies play well. A tough test match when we turn up and play sloppy football. The way they played against Wales and SA would have tested quite a few Wallaby teams of the last ten years.

More games for the teams not part of the 2 big competitions (RC and 6N) against these top 10 are essential to lift the global standard. In the long run this is what will secure the future health of the game.

Japan are being drawn into the Super Rugby and presumably eventually will become part of the RC. What about the other Pacific Cup nations? In my view the ARU owes it to the pacific nations to provide greater help. Their tours here in the 70s are considered by many to have enabled Australian Rugby to make ends meet.

I do not know what we do about Europe, it is hard to think that the 6N will be so broadminded to promote more challengers. Italy has not gone on with it, largely I suspect to the relief of the traditional powers. Would countries like Georgia and Romania still be bumbling along after 20 years at a rate of one win per year?

If the ARU go down the route of an annual game against Japan then they should just push for them to enter the RC now. I actually preferred the one off format this year. We can still have our Bledisloe Cup games so we'll have 5 games. With Japan in the RC I'd like to see Chile given their seat in the PNC (Pacific Nations Cup). Most people don't really give them enough consideration but with a solid player base and strong economy and comparable population in which to grow they are the next Argentina.

Looking at the RWC Id also wouldn't mind to see Fiji running about in the RC and the big three committing to playing both Samoa and Tonga on a rotating basis every year.

Europe is much trickier. I honestly cannot see the 6N expanding. What I think needs to happen is another closed shop championship with the top 6 or 7 most promising Unions given the time and investment. Either that or World Rugby really needs to get involved in developing the likes of the Division De Honor in Spain to foster new pro leagues as a means of growing the overall competitiveness on the continent and forcing the issue in the future.

 

[TOCC]

I can't see the game versus Japan been an annual one..
Especially when you have teams like Fiji, Tonga and Samoa also crying out for matches against the tier 1 nations.

 

[Quick Hands]

Winning (or highly competitive) Wallabies hide a lot of problems in the Aussie game. Cash is still the biggest issue and always is in a RWC year - Cheika has done a good job to have two teams that are capable of playing at the highest level so player burnout should be less an issue. I'd like to see it though as less a one off thing and more a relationship building process - annual home and away tests played against Japan to build some support there for the Wallabies come 2019, build some familiarity for the players and staff with the country which will be the most "foreign" of any RWC host, and hopefully build some improvement in the Japanese game a'la Argentina who have greatly benefited from regular rugby against the Big 3.

I think that's right. Japan has the added advantage of being roughly in the same time zone as eastern Australia which means that a live telecast would be in prime time.

 

[Quick Hands]

I can't see the game versus Japan been an annual one..
Especially when you have teams like Fiji, Tonga and Samoa also crying out for matches against the tier 1 nations.

I've suggested more involvement by Australia in playing matches against these three countries in the past. It's usually been dismissed by many of the naysayers on these threads because they see the PI nations as "impoverished 3rd world countries."

It doesn't need to be an either/or scenario.

 

[TOCC]

I've suggested more involvement by Australia in playing matches against these three countries in the past. It's usually been dismissed by many of the naysayers on these threads because they see the PI nations as "impoverished 3rd world countries."

It doesn't need to be an either/or scenario.

I can't say i remember people making those posts, if they have i would suggest just dismissing their opinion in the future.

The issue about involving test matches against the PI or Japan is when they will fit in the calendar, i think this years All Black test against Samoa has laid the blueprint for how these need to occur. Mid-week test matches, resting the key stars but still providing players of test quality.

Edit: If the economics of the project are flawed then perhaps WorldRugby needs to throw in some financial support and use it as an investment in the code in the region.

 

[Quick Hands]

I can't say i remember people making those posts, if they have i would suggest just dismissing their opinion in the future.

The issue about involving test matches against the PI or Japan is when they will fit in the calendar, i think this years All Black test against Samoa has laid the blueprint for how these need to occur. Mid-week test matches, resting the key stars but still providing players of test quality.

Edit: If the economics of the project are flawed then perhaps WorldRugby needs to throw in some financial support and use it as an investment in the code in the region.

I absolutely agree. I think that the improvement of Fiji under John McKee show what can be done. More Tier 1 level competition can only improve the standard of play in these countries (provided good coaching and governance are in place)