In a few months it will be 3 years since readers were asked to submit their solutions.

Besides the Melbourne Rebel and some more foreign players, has anything changed?

In what sort of receptacle was the report placed at the ARU? Did someone place it in a circular one by chance?

P

cheers
kyle

- Free tickets to poorly attended games passed to rugby clubs for dispersion eg Australia A Games, Waratahs Trials etc.
- Using their largest resource, their players, to visit clubs and fly the flag, a number already do but I would love to see a community involvement obligation clause in there contracts.

I know a schools Phys Ed coordinator who has given up trying to get rugby players to visit her school, but has quite easily got AFL and A-League players there and the kids love it.

John O’Neill would do well to spend a Saturday morning on the sidelines at an Under 8′s match, a schoolboys match at lunchtime and Saturday afternoon at a NSW Suburban match talking to the volunteers of the Club/School and their players to fully understand where the full future for Rugby is coming from instead of just the next crop of 30 players and coaching staff for the next world cup.

I would also like to know why the ARS teams were not included in the Mazda ( most of ) Australia rugby Championships. The hunter is not represented so again, why should I care? At least it will be on free to air, I just hope it is at a suitable time, like 5.30 on Friday nights when we can go to the rugby club and watch after work ( something we have not been able to do since Foxtel raised its prices beyond the reach of any club without a dozen poker machines) instead of 3pm Saturday when most rugby fans I know are already at the local ground watching a live match.

It’s at the real “grass roots” level that the bush is being neglected. The ARU/NSWRU would have a bunch of stats to support whatever view they wish to express but the problem is that they are competing for a share of a market and at the moment they are well short of where they should be in comparison to other codes.

We do need a 3rd tier, and this is a start. It just seems like it was made ( in NSW at least) by people who could not find thier way north of the Hornsby or west of the Blue mountains without the aid of a native tracker.

Love your articles, but the dire images of the bush being left to whither on the vine cut deeply. It’s not only the outer suburbs of Sydney who suffer from lack of development/recruitment officers, but the country as well.

With Rugby, it’s a case of the ARU/NSWRU, etc walking among the already converted, possibly in ever diminishing circles!

I was going at some future time, around grand finals time, send in a piece about the 1979 Brisbane Grand Final, between Qld Uni & Brothers.

Well, make that grand finals plural. Without giving too much away, both teams had to play 2 grand finals plus extra-time to decide the winner. That’s 200 minutes – Wow!

About half of the players on the field, were either present, past or future Wallabies. Indeed, opposing captains Mark Loane (Qld Uni) & Tony Shaw (Brothers) both captained the Wallabies that year. Nine players involved in these matches made the historic inaugural tour to Argentina. Additionally, another former Wallaby captain, Geoff Shaw, who had played a one-off test against the ABs that year, was also in the Uni side.

Rightly or wrongly, in the future, the ARC or its equivalent will take the place of club rugby. It’s in the ARC that you might see a repeat of the above, where maybe 15 present, past & future Wallabies take each other on.

Club rugby will still have its place. You can’t play for the Wallabies without appearing for a S14 side. It’s unlikely you can play for a S14 team without appearing in the ARC. And you must begin life with a premier club side to make the ARC.

Of course, you might have the odd miracles who go straight from school to S14, like Lyons & Beale. But generally, the path will be – high school to premier club to ARC to S14 to Wallabies.

The satisfaction is still there to watch some 18-19 year old run around for your club, who will one day be a test great.

Back in 1982, I took the trouble to get to the SCG early for the Wallabies-Scotland match, to watch the curtain-raiser between the Aussie & NZ U/21s. David Campese, playing at fullback, carved up his Tasman foes, scoring 2 tries, setting two up, & mesmerising everyone who saw his performance, in a 32-12 blitz.

That night, Campese was chosen for his first tour in Wallaby colours, to NZ, where he made his test debut. But back to that afternoon, I reckon I was part of history, witnessing a future great announce himself.

The ARC might help, but for up and comers and journeymen the lift is measuable as is the interest from “grassroots” supporters.

Maybe this is part of the issue, I can’t afford $100+ to go Tests or $70+ to go to S14 but I can and do spend the money Saturday afternoon at ‘Rat Park’. Why does the ARU forsake these supporters?

Sheek – interesting your comment on the infrequent nature of elite players appearing at club level. In NZ, when not needed for Super or All Black rugby the elit players are encouraged to play at provincial and club level. I attended a game last year in Milton, South Otago, a town of about 1500 people in South Otago, and who should run on as hooker for the home team, Tokomairiro, but Anton Oliver (his dad, Frank, was a Milton boy and Anton has retained links to the area). Over the last few years I have seen many ABs playing at club level and I firmly believe it is great for the game. It means “ordinary” Kiwi’s (a mythical beast, much like the “ordinary Australian” that John Howard drones on about) have frequent contact with the elite players, and it means that club players can reasonably expect to play with or against a current AB at least once in each season. It also means that the pinacle of Rugby in NZ is heald forever in sight of those playing at the formation levels. Fantastic.

We realise the need for publicity but is Lote the sort of guy you want to spearhead your PR campaign. When he is given a ridiculous amount of money to play the game on one hand and then the country zones are having their funding cut with the other you can hardly blame country rugby supporters for losing interest in the Waratahs.

Where I come from the Brumbies are far more active in trying to develope junior talent than the Waratahs…Maybe the rugby community in this part of the world would be better served being aligned with the Brumbies?

The ARC is an admirable initiative from the ARU but they need to do more for the game in the country…the profile has to be raised, we can only fight the agressive advances of league, AFL and soccer for so long without REAL support or identity.

Agree about two Sydney teams sheek – perhaps the third (your EA team) could have been for players originating outside metro areas? Like the Cockatoos and QLD Country Heelers… Next team from Adelaide? Got my vote – was there recently and nearly fell over when I saw a rugby oval just up the road from our digs. People forget that when the Adelaide Rams got going in the SuperLeague, they were one of the best-attended franchises in the competition. Perhaps its because South Australians are desperate to get noticed, or that it plays on their need to show the eastern states that they’ve got ticker…

Having not come from Sydney, and only picking the game up after I went to Uni, I look forward to bringing MY son up with “his” team – the mighty Western Sydney Rams. Roll on August!

Even though I’m an ex-Easts player, & live in the Randwick heartland, I agree with you!

Sydney & Brisbane Premier Rugby is not the answer, certainly not by itself, & never has been. Although perhaps in another era 20 present, past & future Randwick & Sydney Uni players slugging it out aginst each other made for a great contest. Ditto 20 similar players for Brisbane brothers & Qld Uni.

But those days are gone. Premier clubs can consider themselves lucky if a leading Wallaby turns out once a year for them. That’s the modern day reality.

For Rugby to progress, there MUST be another level between S14 & Premier Rugby, whatever the Sydney Mafia especially, might otherwise think. I am a great supporter of the concept of the Mazda ARC, if not necessarily the structure itself.

Personally, I would prefer a provincial style comp like the one-off APC last year (& I might add, like NZL & RSA). My 8 teams would be – NSW, Qld, ACT, WA, Vic, SA, EA (Central Coast/Newcastle/North NSW) & NQ (Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton).

The difference with my suggestion (APC) & the ARC would be one less team in Sydney & no team on the Gold Coast, but with teams in SA & NQ. On another note, perhaps the next 2 teams to join the ARC will be from Adelaide & either Newcastle or NQ.

Nevertheless, I will give my full support to the ARC because God knows, this is what we need to take the game forward.

At some point in the future, the game of Rugby MIGHT, I say MIGHT, take off in USA, China, Russia & other European countries, countries with far greater populations than our own.

It would be moronic for Australian Rugby supporters to continue to think Sydney & Brisbane premier Rugby by thenmselves, will continue to serve all our needs. In the future, successful Rugby nations will require solid domestic structures, & solid player participation numbers.

Right now, Australian Rugby has neither.

The point the report (and a lot of rugby fans) misses about the league player recruitment is related directly to income streams: Marketing. I don’t like the fact that Lote got a very large pay packet, considering his input onfield, but we need to realise that we’re up against three other codes and that every inch of column space is valuable. The problem is not so much that we’re throwing millions as Costa Lote, but that we’re not backing it up with better marketing campaigns about rugby in general, of which Lote (who is still a more widely recognised public figure than most of our rugby players) could be the spearhead. Heck, John O’Neill got Sailor recruited – in the first 12 months after he switched, column inches devoted to rugby went up in all major newspapers, to the detriment of league!

The belief that the Mazda ARC is a bad thing, and that more money should be invested in clubland, is about the most deluded, self-interested nonsense I’ve ever heard. Deep-seated allegiances are exactly what is wrong with rugby in Sydney and in Australia in general. I recommend someone sit down with former All Black Grant Batty (now coach of one of the QLD ARC teams) and ask him about rugby politics in Australia compared to New Zealand. I believe that the present club system in Sydney strangles the potential of our nation, because they’re busy buying the best club talent and leaving other clubs to starve. The result is a logjam of talent at the big clubs, which means lack of opportunity for younger players coming through.

Here we are, trying to fight off AFL and NRL, and the idiots at Uni, Randwick, and Easts think they hold the answers in the left hand of their old and tired clubs (the right hand is busy holding their silver spoon). They ignore the massive player pool west of the M3 because they didn’t go to the right school, and rugby is poorer because of it – and I’m not just talking Pac Island kids either. If the clubs were so good and important, why can’t the final bring more than your average league crowd into the stadium? The reason is simple: No-one gives two hoots about such a poor standard of play. Their resourcing issues are entirely their own fault, even for the big boys.

The belief that clubs are worth more than a truly national comp is in direct contrast to the points above about provincial bias and representation at the national level, as well as the neglect of the west. I live and play in Western Sydney, and if you look at the team Championship tables on http://www.rugby.net.au/ you’ll see that the further down you go in division, the further away from the Eastern Suburbs you get. We need a fresh start, and that is what the ARC provides.

Awesome!