Where to for Twiggy Rugby?

[ForceFan]

Was reading in the Australian article quoting Brett Robinson on iprc and pending discussions today. Language very positive about getting resolution and considering iprc as gateway to post 2020 broadcast deal on assumption South Africa decides future is in Europe. Re 5 oz sides, 5 kiwi sides and 5 Asian sides to possibly form new super 15 comp.


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Am I the only one who considers it somewhat ironic that the EARU now take the IPRC concept (Perth team + 5 Indo Pacific teams) and attempt to merge it into something of their own. Do they really think that Minderoo will be investing in doing all of the hard yards only to have the EARU and NZRU jump in and call of the shots. AND after axing the Force with the justification that insufficient playing talent - in just 3 years time Australian rugby is good enough to return to 5 teams. The EARU is a disgrace...........

 

[ForceFan]

Was reading in the Australian article quoting Brett Robinson on iprc and pending discussions today. Language very positive about getting resolution and considering iprc as gateway to post 2020 broadcast deal on assumption South Africa decides future is in Europe. Re 5 oz sides, 5 kiwi sides and 5 Asian sides to possibly form new super 15 comp.


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Clearly the focus is on the EARU trying to salvage some positive press out of the way that they have stalled on making any worthwhile decisions about the Indo Pacific Rugby Championship. Welcome to the EARU new CEO. Wish you the very best of luck..... The EARU that has been so quick to make the wrong decisions and so slow to make the right ones.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Am I the only one who considers it somewhat ironic that the EARU now take the IPRC concept (Perth team + 5 Indo Pacific teams) and attempt to merge it into something of their own. Do they really think that Minderoo will be investing in doing all of the hard yards only to have the EARU and NZRU jump in and call of the shots. AND after axing the Force with the justification that insufficient playing talent - in just 3 years time Australian rugby is good enough to return to 5 teams. The EARU is a disgrace.....

What twiggy is offering with competition and getting oz rugby players involved in other teams plus other investments is building hopeful depth in oz rugby so in three years could support 5 teams. I suspect Twiggy's IPRC to be merged for future competition would give Twiggy a lot of power at the table and rightly so.... I understand the scepticism but I can't see Twiggy driving anything but a hard bargain at the negotiating table as certainly no fool. Having Force back involved in broader competition involving other oz sides I would imagine is key long term goal for Twiggy as well as WA rugby supporters. RA will try and drive a hard bargain but I note the recent debt forgiveness decision shows they will do the right thing under public pressure and there certainly is lot of support for WA rugby from general rugby supporters. I get there is a lot of rebuilding to do in WA given what has transpired as I was one of many who would have rather the Force did not get canned but at least there seems a viable option to get Force back in and stronger along with a stronger Oz rugby position with Twiggy's investment which he has stated is his broader goal. I get the scepticism you have towards RA and rightly so. I hope under Raelene Castle bridges can start to be rebuilt but yes probably need further cleanout of RA board to help with that.

 

[Tomikin]

Am I the only one who considers it somewhat ironic that the EARU now take the IPRC concept (Perth team + 5 Indo Pacific teams) and attempt to merge it into something of their own. Do they really think that Minderoo will be investing in doing all of the hard yards only to have the EARU and NZRU jump in and call of the shots. AND after axing the Force with the justification that insufficient playing talent - in just 3 years time Australian rugby is good enough to return to 5 teams. The EARU is a disgrace.....

Do you really think the ARU are going to let Twiggy run rugby in this country.. Basically with out there backing Twiggy could be up shit Creek.. What's he going to do world rugby told him he needs the blessing of the ARU...

Although I guess you would be happy as the force will be winning the comp year in year out.

They have too work together or they both will die..

P. S. I hated we cut the Force and should have been the Rebels or kept at 5, ..plus there be 6 Asian teams the Sunwolves.

 

[TOCC]

Do you really think the ARU are going to let Twiggy run rugby in this country.. Basically with out there backing Twiggy could be up shit Creek.. What's he going to do world rugby told him he needs the blessing of the ARU.

Although I guess you would be happy as the force will be winning the comp year in year out.

They have too work together or they both will die..

P. S. I hated we cut the Force and should have been the Rebels or kept at 5, ..plus there be 6 Asian teams the Sunwolves.

Just to clarify, Twiggy won’t be up shit creeks if RA refuse to back him, he will be saving himself an enormous amount of money and heartache.

RA needs Twiggy more then he needs RA IMO

 

[brokendown]

Just to clarify, Twiggy won’t be up shit creeks is RA refuse to back him, he will be saving himself an enormous amount of money and heartache.

RA needs Twiggy more then he needs RA IMO

dead right ,TOCC--Twiggy has the money to lose-RA has none
the worm is slowly turning

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Just to clarify, Twiggy won’t be up shit creeks if RA refuse to back him, he will be saving himself an enormous amount of money and heartache.

RA needs Twiggy more then he needs RA IMO

Yes in many ways RA would save twiggy a small fortune if they don’t play ball. I agree RA has much more to lose here as you only get one twiggy in your lifetime.



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[Tomikin]

Just to clarify, Twiggy won’t be up shit creeks if RA refuse to back him, he will be saving himself an enormous amount of money and heartache.

RA needs Twiggy more then he needs RA IMO

Obviously I was talking about his rugby competition.. You know the thing this whole websites dedicated to..

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[TOCC]

Sure that’s what you meant, but not what you said hence I clarified.

Twiggy is to Australian Rugby what Alan Bond was to Packer IMO.




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[kiap]

Twiggy is to Australian Rugby what Alan Bond was to Packer IMO.

I don't think so, son (old mate Goanna called everyone "son").

Packer told Bondy to come up with a billion (or bugger off) and later bought the network back for a pittance. While Australian Rugby should be able to get onto a sustainable path out of this, unfortunately it's hard to see ownership of anything much by the end of it. Well, maybe we can be "spiritual owners" … if NZ rugby can be "spiritual guardians", then why not?

Really, it was Aus Rugby who was the bondman (bond villein?) to Andrew Cox. What a humiliation that was, and that story hasn't fully played out yet.

 

[TOCC]

I don't think so, son (old mate Goanna called everyone "son").

Packer told Bondy to come up with a billion (or bugger off) and later bought the network back for a pittance. While Australian Rugby should be able to get onto a sustainable path out of this, unfortunately it's hard to see ownership of anything much by the end of it. Well, maybe we can be "spiritual owners" … if NZ rugby can be "spiritual guardians", then why not?

Really, it was Aus Rugby who was the bondman (bond villein?) to Andrew Cox. What a humiliation that was, and that story hasn't fully played out yet.

I meant it more in a metaphorical sense that there is a once in a lifetime business opportunity for RA at the financial expense of someone else

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Sure that’s what you meant, but not what you said hence I clarified.

Twiggy is to Australian Rugby what Alan Bond was to Packer IMO.




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Bad analogy - packer was shrewd and wealthy...RA can claim none of those qualities


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[ForceFan]

The utterances of the EARU's new CEO go from bad to worse.

From FoxSpots today (in the article where she talks about the Karmichael Hunt situation):

Castle said she hadn’t yet spoken to Andrew Forrest, who wants to start an Indo-Pacific competition in 2019, though RA representatives had been in contact with the billionaire businessman.

“We’ve had constant and consistent dialogue and a lot of it has been fantastic,” she said.

The EARU continue to pull lines from Minderoo's song book:
"She felt Super Rugby needed to provide an entertainment experience, not just an onfield product, and wants to stem the flow of youngsters to rugby league and increase the amount of female and indigenous players."

O dear.......not getting a good feeling about the way forward.
(But it does sound as if minority groups will be looked after).

A very different twist from the impressions from this side of the continent.

The EARU's Deputy Chairman, Brett Robinson, and his negotiation team are obviously filling her head full of absolute BS.

The reality???

+ 4 pages of unreasonable demands from the EARU;
+ EARU reneging on previously agreed positions;
+ WA based players having to ask to be selected for the Wallabies on a case-by-case basis; and
+ the Minderoo team supposedly walking out early from the last meeting before Christmas.

I'd rather she kept her powder dry and made no comment until she had actually checked the situation herself.
After all - she's not expected to be on top of everything as Pulver was still there and it's been Christmas/New Year......

But still we should keep that pathway to the West open open so that she can at least pay us a visit and hear the RugbyWA and Minderoo side of any discussions.
THEN I MAY be interested in what she has to say about the WA situation.

 

[Rebels3]

Come on mate, give her a chance. So only started employment yesterday.

Now im not saying she will be good or bad, time will only tell but it's extremely harsh to comment on her after a press release on day 1.

"I'd rather she kept her powder dry and made no comment until she had actually checked the situation herself." If she didn't comment on the situation out West in the press conference, people would of been up and arms about that as well. Time will tell, hopefully she does some amazing things for the game nationwide and through that the West gets some amazing results from it, which fingers crossed is a professional team that you all deserve.

 

[oztimmay]

She even said the first few weeks weeks will be more listening, less speaking. Exactly what someone should be doing at that level in their first few weeks.

 

[half]

FF (Folau Fainga'a)

You need to give her time and you may well be right. However the TR concept does not fill me with confidence about the future as it does not even attempt to solve the national domestic competition.

Also, sports fans of all codes and rugby will be no different do not take kindly to an individual running a code look at the fallout in soccer today as a perfect example.

 

[dru]

It’s not Twiggy’s job to solve the national game. He has undertaken to support the WA state game. The National game treated WA like shit and turfed them, followed by reprehensible “kick them while they’re down” actions.

Castle needs to tread carefully if WA is not immediately at the top of her agenda. Issues of the ARU’s (recent) making should be front and foremost.

 

[amirite]

Come on mate, give her a chance. So only started employment yesterday.

Now im not saying she will be good or bad, time will only tell but it's extremely harsh to comment on her after a press release on day 1.

"I'd rather she kept her powder dry and made no comment until she had actually checked the situation herself." If she didn't comment on the situation out West in the press conference, people would of been up and arms about that as well. Time will tell, hopefully she does some amazing things for the game nationwide and through that the West gets some amazing results from it, which fingers crossed is a professional team that you all deserve.

But you don't understand, whenever a WA rugby person put's 'EARU' in their post it's a clever, poignant statement.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Hopefully get an update on Twiggyball soon. This is the biggest opportunity Rugby in this country had in a long time with the sort of investment Twiggy wants to make in Rugby and help grow the game across Asia Pacific (with WA / Force at forefront0 which would benefit Australian Rugby and of course ensure all the good work done to grow the game in WA not lost.

Hopefully Castle soon visiting WA like she said she would. Early days for her and lot of learning and listening for her as new kid on the block that I think at this juncture everyone should at least give her a chance before casting judgements. We demanded change and at least got a change with a new CEO out of traditional mosman / shore old boys fraternity so time to get behind Castle. I truly hope she embraces Twiggyball and WA rugby and at this point have no reason to believe otherwise.

 

[ForceFan]

But you don't understand, whenever a WA rugby person put's 'EARU' in their post it's a clever, poignant statement.

Not clever and poignant - just a fact of life when viewed from the WA perspective. In June 2016 Pulver advised the WA rugby fans that: "From an Australian Rugby point of view, it’s not only essential that we continue to support RugbyWA and the Western Force but to ensure the game remains strong at the community level in Western Australia and that the Super Rugby team is given the best opportunity to succeed." Can you point to a single action since that time which supports this assurance that was given some 18 months ago?