Comments on: NZRU agree to collective employment agreement http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/12/18/nzru-and-players-agree-to-collective-employment-agreement/ Your Sports Opinion Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:41:13 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ora http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/12/18/nzru-and-players-agree-to-collective-employment-agreement/comment-page-1/#comment-269768 Ora Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:57:27 +0000 http://www.theroar.com.au/?p=26390#comment-269768 This is a sad but also good day for New Zealand rugby It is prettyu clear that the 5 big unions have had most of the say in this deal and it would be their players that would have been spoken to not the players from the like sof Manawatu or Counties. Effectively we are going back to three divisions of rugby with some token crossover games inbetween where we can expect huge blowout scores and the occasional upset. Lets get real here the top 7 teams will get to play each other week in week out while the bottom seven will play the rest and their rugby is in danger of stagnating or falling to the wayside completely. I find it hard to believe that the likes of Jimmy Cowan, Andrew Hore Tanerau Latimer even Aaron Cruden will hang around in their respective regions should they not make the top 7 next year. This in turn will take some of the class and competitiveness away from the Championship division. Now flip that on it's head and look at it from another angle, the splitting of the two divisions could also create a much superior competition to what is in place at present and create a standard of footy not much below that of the Super 14 should the ABs be available, this in turn would create an exciting competition for fans and players alike from the respective regions. This then once again takes me back to the top, will this new format create such a gap that is too wide to be bridged by those teams on the next tier down. come promotion relegation will we see the newly promoted getr soundly whipped over time as those top teams will be so good from consistantly playing each other like it was when we last had Promo-relegation? There is many positives anjd negatives to this new formast but only time will tell how much it will hurt or inject New Zealand rugby. This is a sad but also good day for New Zealand rugby
It is prettyu clear that the 5 big unions have had most of the say in this deal and it would be their players that would have been spoken to not the players from the like sof Manawatu or Counties.
Effectively we are going back to three divisions of rugby with some token crossover games inbetween where we can expect huge blowout scores and the occasional upset. Lets get real here the top 7 teams will get to play each other week in week out while the bottom seven will play the rest and their rugby is in danger of stagnating or falling to the wayside completely. I find it hard to believe that the likes of Jimmy Cowan, Andrew Hore Tanerau Latimer even Aaron Cruden will hang around in their respective regions should they not make the top 7 next year. This in turn will take some of the class and competitiveness away from the Championship division.
Now flip that on it’s head and look at it from another angle, the splitting of the two divisions could also create a much superior competition to what is in place at present and create a standard of footy not much below that of the Super 14 should the ABs be available, this in turn would create an exciting competition for fans and players alike from the respective regions.
This then once again takes me back to the top, will this new format create such a gap that is too wide to be bridged by those teams on the next tier down. come promotion relegation will we see the newly promoted getr soundly whipped over time as those top teams will be so good from consistantly playing each other like it was when we last had Promo-relegation?

There is many positives anjd negatives to this new formast but only time will tell how much it will hurt or inject New Zealand rugby.

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