Future of Super Rugby

chibimatty · Mar 10, 2018

I always thought, at the very least, there could be a one-for-one transfer system between the original three nations.

robbieando · Mar 10, 2018

im_a_lazy_sod said:
I’ve always thought that was a strange rule. Long term open movement is better - sometimes a fringe player needs more opportunity

Players have been going to France, England and Japan in the numbers they have to get more opportunity for years, the fact that money is also there helps. The Wallabies opened up selection to those players who moved overseas who had 60 caps. Being able to compete with League that have twice the salary cap is going to be a challenge regardless if national selection in closed or open

The problem with such an idea of open selection within Super Rugby is that as long as it would benefit Australian Rugby in improving on the field, New Zealand Rugby would block it as they don't need to open up their Super Rugby teams anymore than they already have.

If you look at world football, the best players tend to stick to playing in the best domestic competitions - even if it’s their own nation by default. And funnily enough the last three European World Cup winners (Germany, Spain and Italy) all had most of their best XI coming from their own domestic leagues.

All Rugby World Cup winners can point to the same thing, their players come from their own domestic clubs.

Scotland · Mar 10, 2018

If SR allowed free movement of players it would benefit NZ the most.

They have 5 teams, so they have 5 starting scrum halves, 5 starting fly halves, 5 starting full backs etc. competing for spots in the All Blacks XV.

The 6th best Kiwi is going to be better than the 3rd or 4th best Aussie in many positions, so we'd see a few Aussie players being dropped back to club rugby so the Aussie SR teams can field Kiwi players, so some guy who is playing 10-20 minutes a game for the Crusaders will instead be getting 60-70 minutes for the Reds and able to show the All Black coach what he's got.

Hap Hapablap · Mar 12, 2018

wow forrest wants to play against the rebels sh*t move

chibimatty · Mar 12, 2018

Hap Hapablap said:
wow forrest wants to play against the rebels sh*t move

Yeah, I'm not too keen on that either, considering Wessels and a bunch of Force guys will have to come here and play as our opposition. Having said that, I also have misgivings about the Crusaders game, it would be a shame to see the new Force and their fans, after all they've been through, getting booed at home yet again by the local NZ-expat community.

But hey, I can't just poo-poo everything; sometimes things aren't perfect

fumbler · Mar 12, 2018

chibimatty said:
Yeah, I'm not too keen on that either, considering Wessels and a bunch of Force guys will have to come here and play as our opposition. Having said that, I also have misgivings about the Crusaders game, it would be a shame to see the new Force and their fans, after all they've been through, getting booed at home yet again by the local NZ-expat community.

But hey, I can't just poo-poo everything; sometimes things aren't perfect

Why did they decide to go with Pacific Nations and not Singapore, Philippines, UAE, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong (China) and Japan (not Sunwolves)?

chibimatty · Mar 12, 2018

3121 premiers said:
Why did they decide to go with Pacific Nations and not Singapore, Philippines, UAE, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong (China) and Japan (not Sunwolves)?

Well we are going to play the Hong Kong national side, and like Hong Kong, the Pacific sides were looking for "test matches" to add to their season as they've been out of the loop this year. I also believe that because we weren't getting a test match this year, they wanted to hit the ground running by bringing recognised rugby nations with name value to Perth, in essence letting us see four "test" teams instead of our allocated none. Also, Hong Kong and those three Pacific Island teams were part of the proposed IPRC plans from it's inception.

Note too, that there is also one "to be confirmed" opponent to round the season off before the NRC starts. Rumour has it, that it may be a Japan Top-League team or a French club. We also may look into a South African team of some sort, one of the provinces or an U-23 or an "A" team. However, there has been talk that this last fixture might be the "surprising opponent" that was touted last year, some have thought it may be the Barbarians, New Zealand Maori or the full Japan national team. One thing I will say, we've never ever seen France play in Perth, so that would be something special indeed if he managed to pull that off.

robbieando · Mar 12, 2018

chibimatty said:
Well we are going to play the Hong Kong national side, and like Hong Kong, the Pacific sides were looking for "test matches" to add to their season as they've been out of the loop this year.

But none of these matches are "Test Matches" nor are you getting Full Strength sides for all of them (you certainly aren't for the Fiji and Tonga games with their European players not available for selection) and besides giving Fiji and Tonga a look at their home grown depth, Hong Kong and Samoa are still playing in World Cup Qualifiers until June with the prospect of more later in the year. That isn't out of the loop.

I also believe that because we weren't getting a test match this year, they wanted to hit the ground running by bringing recognised rugby nations with name value to Perth, in essence letting us see four "test" teams instead of our allocated none. Also, Hong Kong and those three Pacific Island teams were part of the proposed IPRC plans from it's inception.

Thats a fair point, you do need to hit the ground running this year for the start of IPRC/WSR next year and regardless of the teams you play this year and their strength (or lack thereof), your marketing games at the Perth market to say that the Force is still here and will be bigger than ever next year.

Note too, that there is also one "to be confirmed" opponent to round the season off before the NRC starts. Rumour has it, that it may be a Japan Top-League team or a French club. We also may look into a South African team of some sort, one of the provinces or an U-23 or an "A" team. However, there has been talk that this last fixture might be the "surprising opponent" that was touted last year, some have thought it may be the Barbarians, New Zealand Maori or the full Japan national team. One thing I will say, we've never ever seen France play in Perth, so that would be something special indeed if he managed to pull that off.

Its August it won't be a Test team from the North, its outside the European Test window and about a fortnight before the start of the club season. The BaaBaa's would be a good shout and so would a French Club (Racing 92 and Toulon have both played friendly games against New Zealand teams in Hong Kong during the 6 Nations break in the past few years if you want to link things), the others don't really match up as much.

chibimatty · Mar 12, 2018

robbieando said:
But none of these matches are "Test Matches" nor are you getting Full Strength sides for all of them (you certainly aren't for the Fiji and Tonga games with their European players not available for selection) and besides giving Fiji and Tonga a look at their home grown depth, Hong Kong and Samoa are still playing in World Cup Qualifiers until June with the prospect of more later in the year. That isn't out of the loop.

Well, I did write "test matches" in inverted commas