Where to for Super Rugby?

[Quick Hands]

Re the Force, as an aside, an aspect of their survival or not that IMO has been under-covered in these threads is the way in which their supporters - and business viability - were betrayed by very poor, yet very critical, decisions made by WARugby in picking R Graham and then, almost worse, M Foley as HCs.

These demonstrably poor HCs (Foley's lamentable HC wares were on clear display at the Tahs) presided over sustained periods of awful Force w-l %s, dull to very dull playing styles, odd selections and generally uninspiring team performances (perhaps bar a short period in 2014).

These sequential down and yet more down periods unsurprisingly saw declining home Force crowds, major sponsors departing and weakening TV viewership (that, btw, fed through further to declining crowds for Wallaby Tests in Perth).

Ultimately, this all led to an expensive $3m++ bail out of the Force by the ARU and fears amongst some in the ARU that, rightly to wrongly, reviving the Force to a position of commercial and financial viability will be a huge, high-risk task.

If the Force are cut today, the Graham-Foley HC sequence for the Force will be a major contributing factor. The Force fans deserved much better in their team's leadership and, yet again, over-promoted, poor quality, insular RugbyWA board members made calls that took their charges on a downwards spiral, perhaps to their death.

That any club has been able to withstand Mitchell, Graham and Foley is a miracle.

As someone else pointed out, it was the ARU who installed Mitchell.

 

[Quick Hands]

Cutting anyone of the 3 mooted teams would be bad for oz rugby.
The reason?
Neither the tahs nor the reds are capable of picking the best players nor the best coaches and the only way to get access to the former is to have other provinces find them for them.

The Brumbies don't have the insitutionalised bureaucracy and sense of entitlement which pervades both the NSWRU and the QRU.

The people who run the ARU, NSWRU, QRU and SJRU are cut from the same cloth. The Brumbies are of different material altogether.

 

[RedsHappy]

That any club has been able to withstand Mitchell, Graham and Foley is a miracle.

As someone else pointed out, it was the ARU who installed Mitchell.

The ARU also may I note:

- strongly pushed McGahan to the Rebels in 2013 after it was clear Link did not want him at the Wallabies (and he had achieved zilch there)

- were heavily with and invited into the 'extensive global search and HC selection process' with the Reds in 2016 and that resulted in N Stiles being appointed as Reds HC for 2017

 

[Gnostic]

The Brumbies don't have the insitutionalised bureaucracy and sense of entitlement which pervades both the NSWRU and the QRU.



The people who run the ARU, NSWRU, QRU and SJRU are cut from the same cloth. The Brumbies are of different material altogether.

I wouldn't go that far, they have emulated the best parts with a certain property deal and then breaking the budget to pay out a CEO to keep it all quiet, with the resultant financial loss obviously his fault for talking out of school and being worried about insignificant things like potential breaches of law. In fact this little episode probably beats anything the NSWRU and QRU have done in their usual petty politicking.

 

[Gnostic]

I have watched about 30 minutes of Super Rugby in the last two weeks. I watched most of the Shute Shield game yesterday and a lot of the 7s.

As a formerly rusted on fanatical Rugby supporter its pretty depression that I just don't give a shit anymore. I honestly don't think I'd care if the announcement today is that the whole Super Competition is being shut down. Its a great pity I think that somebody who started every Monday counting down to the next Super game couldn't even tell you what the scores were or even who played this weekend.

 

[louie]

I wouldn't go that far, they have emulated the best parts with a certain property deal and then breaking the budget to pay out a CEO to keep it all quiet, with the resultant financial loss obviously his fault for talking out of school and being worried about insignificant things like potential breaches of law. In fact this little episode probably beats anything the NSWRU and QRU have done in their usual petty politicking.

That's not what happened.

 

[Quick Hands]

I wouldn't go that far, they have emulated the best parts with a certain property deal and then breaking the budget to pay out a CEO to keep it all quiet, with the resultant financial loss obviously his fault for talking out of school and being worried about insignificant things like potential breaches of law. In fact this little episode probably beats anything the NSWRU and QRU have done in their usual petty politicking.

That episode, while bad, was an isolated one in terms of Brumby history. Generally they just don't have the baggage that NSW and Qld have - sometimes it can lead to something like this, but mostly it means clear-headed decision making without having to pander to sectional interests and to those who feel entitled to be involved in every decision.

 

[Blue]

I have been a supporter of the idea of the of SA leaving the comp and Aus / NZ joining into a comp with whomever else.

After watching the Stormers v Chiefs game I could not help but feel that it will be a damn shame to now see SA teams play Kiwi teams.

What a bloody game. Had everything. Great skill levels. Seems the Stormers are practicing catching and passing.

I really don't know what the answer is but there is hope for the SA teams. The Lions, Sharks and Stormers are trying to play rugby and are starting to look like they are taking small steps forward.

 

[Dan54]

I was told it was because it guaranteed (more or less) a couple of home SA finals.

Yep and that Aus would get a home final!

 

[Quick Hands]

Yep and that Aus would get a home final!

That would indeed be an optimistic demand Dan.

 

[Quick Hands]

I have been a supporter of the idea of the of SA leaving the comp and Aus / NZ joining into a comp with whomever else.

After watching the Stormers v Chiefs game I could not help but feel that it will be a damn shame to now see SA teams play Kiwi teams.

What a bloody game. Had everything. Great skill levels. Seems the Stormers are practicing catching and passing.

I really don't know what the answer is but there is hope for the SA teams. The Lions, Sharks and Stormers are trying to play rugby and are starting to look like they are taking small steps forward.

Perhaps a two tier competition would be the answer. The top 9 from this season in one competition and the bottom 9 in the other. Won't happen though, the decision has already been made (awaiting announcement).

The Kings and the Force are showing that two of the lower teams can put on a good display of rugby when they play each other. (Unfortunately this can't be applied to either the Waratahs or the Reds, sigh)

EDIT: and on current form 4 Aussie teams would be in the bottom 9 with the Sunwolves and the Kings, plus three others.

 

[Gnostic]

That's not what happened.

Really......

 

[moa999]

Just have 3x6 with a Conf Champ. Guarantees an SA v SA game.

Guess we will find out in a few minutes

 

[Omar Comin']

I really don't think it's a problem keeping all 18 of the teams, the 3 new teams have all improved considerably this season. The Force have usually been reasonably competitive but they've been boring, at least this year they're playing a far more entertaining style. More can be done to improve the Force and Rebels (increased imports being the obvious solution), no need to dump one of them.

The format just needs to be better and make sense, and the best teams need to qualify for the finals. 3 * 6 would be perfectly fine, either with 10 games in conference and 3 against the other two, or 8 in conference and 4 against the other 2, with a simple and fair finals format. Cutting teams will just piss a lot of people off and lose fans.

It's going to look pretty unnecessary if they announce the Kings and Force are being cut immediately after they play such an entertaining game.

 

[moa999]

Well done the Force

 

[Twoilms]

God i want the ARU to do something positive but i dont know if they are capable of it.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[The torpedo]

I have watched about 30 minutes of Super Rugby in the last two weeks. I watched most of the Shute Shield game yesterday and a lot of the 7s.

As a formerly rusted on fanatical Rugby supporter its pretty depression that I just don't give a shit anymore. I honestly don't think I'd care if the announcement today is that the whole Super Competition is being shut down. Its a great pity I think that somebody who started every Monday counting down to the next Super game couldn't even tell you what the scores were or even who played this weekend.

Ditto here

 

[The torpedo]

F5 mode - activated

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I have watched about 30 minutes of Super Rugby in the last two weeks. I watched most of the Shute Shield game yesterday and a lot of the 7s.

As a formerly rusted on fanatical Rugby supporter its pretty depression that I just don't give a shit anymore. I honestly don't think I'd care if the announcement today is that the whole Super Competition is being shut down. Its a great pity I think that somebody who started every Monday counting down to the next Super game couldn't even tell you what the scores were or even who played this weekend.

there was the Ross Turnbull/ken Elphick effort at concord in the 80: Ken Elphick was the chief executive of NSW Rugby Union at the time that Turnbull was chair and when the Concord Oval plan was established. Elphick was found guilty of extracting funds between February 1984 and July 1987 from two related companies - Rugby Ground Administration Pty Ltd and Homan Pty Ltd - through false invoices and secret commissions. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail. Turnbull says the oval history is lengthy and complicated, "save to say I was one of a distinguished committee and the first Rugby World Cup's Sydney games took place at that oval": http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/03/1041566224415.html
And there was some odd loan last year: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...-legend-loan-controversy-20161103-gsgz0w.html

 

[The torpedo]

That would indeed be an optimistic demand Dan.

Not that it would really matter anyway........