Hahaha
This is the unpopular opinion thread, not the jokes thread
Amazes me how so many people have forgotten the basic points of all this situation and how the ARU have yet again been played like the bunch of spineless suckers they are. The whole original point, as deemed by SANZAR, was that the SA and AUS conferences were too weak because of too many teams for the available talent and that the teams should be reduced to make the remaining stronger. Yeah, right, everyone knew SA has been trying to join Europe for years and this was just a neat way to move 2 teams from Super Rugby to Pro12 (14). The ARU swallowed the bait and were suckered into destroying some of the growth of Rugby in Australia while the SA conference will remian just as weak as they have still the same number of teams - just in different comps.
Hahaha
This is the unpopular opinion thread, not the jokes thread
Amazes me how so many people have forgotten the basic points of all this situation and how the ARU have yet again been played like the bunch of spineless suckers they are. The whole original point, as deemed by SANZAR, was that the SA and AUS conferences were too weak because of too many teams for the available talent and that the teams should be reduced to make the remaining stronger. Yeah, right, everyone knew SA has been trying to join Europe for years and this was just a neat way to move 2 teams from Super Rugby to Pro12 (14). The ARU swallowed the bait and were suckered into destroying some of the growth of Rugby in Australia while the SA conference will remian just as weak as they have still the same number of teams - just in different comps.
Couple of things. The ARU needs to be responsible for the situation they put themselves by agreeing to a ludicrous competition format. Super 12/14 worked. Play everyone once, 4 team finals. Simple. Even the Super 15 format was better but still not ideal as Aus and NZ buckled to SA request of having to play only four of each of the other two conferences (comp should have run for two extra weeks to ensure everyone played everyone at least once).
The decision to expand the competition to include Japan and Argentina was only announced a month after Clyne became the chair of the board (he was a member for 2 years prior) and due to our financial state one we pretty much had to take. There was a clear decline in performance and viewership in Australia prior to this however it absolutely fell of a cliff after. Once this was realised and the additional broadcast money was eaten up things had to change.
However the Force too need to take responsibility for their poor financial management. This point has been missing in the discussion for sometime. Anytime a finger gets pointed at the Force it turns into a mudslinging match "well the Rebels got more" or the "tahs/Reds were bailed too" but that doesn't change what has happened to them or the situation we are now in.
The Force have been around for 12 years and Twiggy has only been a sponsor of Hodgo's jersey through FMG for $50k over a couple of seasons. Why has it taken until now for him to get behind them? Its a fair point. I have some hesitation in putting blind trust into a billion dollar business man when at this stage the only thing Twiggy has done is run a hate campaign against the ARU gaining free publicity by feeding off the Wests distrust of the East. Throwing around $50m commitment comments where we have no idea of the caveats attached.
I am a rugby person and I want to the game to grow outside the traditional areas. The Force have done a great job in their short life and needed longer to develop. Both sides have to take blame for the current situation. The situation isn't nearly as easy as its being portrayed nor as one sided. I honestly believe Clyne in that if Twiggy had of been apart of the discussions 18mths ago things would be a lot different.
Parse on another note, good comment. I am glad there is still places for decent rugby chat. People who have different opinions can voice them without being personally bagged.
