New schedule will bring out best in players
Roar Pro By dlang30, 16 Nov 2011 dlang30 is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, Pumas, Rugby Union, Springboks, The Rugby Championship, wallabies
Australian rugby union player Ben Robinson, ARU chief executive John O'Neill and SANZAR CEO, Greg Peters. AAP Image/Paul Miller
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The new Rugby Championship to be contested between All Blacks, Wallabies, Springboks and the recently joined Argentina Pumas is something I have been looking forward to for a couple of years now.
The IRB have showed their hand by declaring that Argentine players playing in Europe based competitions will be allowed a release from their individual clubs to play in the competition.
While next year will be one of the most hectic and physically demanding in the history of professional rugby, I also believe it is also a chance for the game to really take off and become a better product for Australia overall.
The Rugby Championship offers much more to the game in terms of revenue, entertainment value with Argentina being an up and coming rugby nation and a chance for the game to expand a little more in South America.
Hopefully it can become fully professional there as well in the foreseeable future.
I have seen a few people arguing that a combined Pacific Nations team should have been included instead, but in all honestly with each Pacific Nations governing body currently in turmoil over one drama or another and the difficulty in bringing the three Unions together every year makes it unlikely to succeed.
At the end of the day the Pacific Isles just don’t have the money, facilities or stability that Argentina offers.
Looking at the Wallabies’ 2012 schedule on a whole, they are taking two home matches to locations outside of a capital city for the first time in many years.
Two astute scheduling choices see Newcastle host the Scots in the first game of the international season and the Gold Coast play host to the historic match for the Pumas.
With the return of the three-match tour format, Wales will be Australia’s opponents and I think are by far the best team to be touring to prepare the Wallabies for the tough schedule they will face.
While there have been arguments of player burnout, John O’Neill has done the right move in the way the schedule and stadia choices have been set out.
We now have a format set in place that gives everybody a chance to get closer to the action.
Although the spring tour has yet to be announced, it would be wonderful for the Wallabies to have a chance at the ‘Grand Slam’ in 2012 to follow the All Blacks’ and Springboks’ last attempts in 2010.
While it will most likely be the case that the Wallabies will play at least Ireland and England, it may be a few years yet before they get the chance to replicate our sole success in 1984.
I for one think the Grand Slam is something each of the four southern hemisphere heavy weights should have a chance to accomplish on a rotating four year basis.
It would make for a fair system and something else to look forward to for fans of each nation at the end of the rugby season.
The new schedule will make for more physically demanding, yet exciting rugby for all and I hope that the game continues to expand and grow around the world.
The Wallabies may not be the best in the world at this point. However, 2012-13, I think, will really define this young ‘Gen Y’ Wallabies team and bring out the best in them and their abilities.
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- All Blacks, Pumas, Rugby Union, Springboks, The Rugby Championship, wallabies
November 16th 2011 @ 6:09am
David Weir said | November 16th 2011 @ 6:09am | Report comment
A great article dlang30, thank you
November 16th 2011 @ 6:20am
kingplaymaker said | November 16th 2011 @ 6:20am | Report comment
O’Neill is the best.
I assume the proposed Argentine inclusion means two rather than one Super rugby team, both in Buenos Aires-it will be interesting to see how that transpires too, as it would obviously provide very good underpinning to Super rugby.
November 16th 2011 @ 7:29am
Pot Hale said | November 16th 2011 @ 7:29am | Report comment
“Although the spring tour has yet to be announced, it would be wonderful for the Wallabies to have a chance at the ‘Grand Slam’ in 2012 to follow the All Blacks’ and Springboks’ last attempts in 2010.
While it will most likely be the case that the Wallabies will play at least Ireland and England, it may be a few years yet before they get the chance to replicate our sole success in 1984.
I for one think the Grand Slam is something each of the four southern hemisphere heavy weights should have a chance to accomplish on a rotating four year basis.
It would make for a fair system and something else to look forward to for fans of each nation at the end of the rugby season.”
That depends on which fans viewpoint you’re looking at. Grand slam tours mean nothing to NH teams, bar being one of four teams that the visiting team plays. There is no added incentive or bonus in beating a Grand Slam SH team than any other SH team. It is an anomaly that could and should be easily dispensed with. And the notion that Argentina would suddenly feel entitled to play the British and Irish teams having joined the 4N seems somewhat ridiculous. It would also require a sea change in attitude from their clubs/employers.
Indeed, the amount of tests against 4N teams, should lessen, not increase, for the November series. With the increase to 3/4 test tours in June and added midweek games, the November internationals should be amended to include more Tier One/Tier Two unions.
Ideally only one test only against one each of the 4N, and more room/game time for the likes of Fiji, Samoa, US, Canada, Japan, etc. The November window is the only real chance in the calendar to provide these challenges. For Scotland and Italy, the number of 4N tests could increase to two as they have committed to playing a mix of Tier One and Tier Two teams during June for the next decade.
There should also be gate revenue sharing brought into these Tier Two tests to allow some monies to flow into the Tier Two unions and help them develop further along with IRB support.
November 16th 2011 @ 7:44am
Darwin Stubby said | November 16th 2011 @ 7:44am | Report comment
So let me see if I get this right you want to play Wales again in Nov next year – that would be the 6th test against them in just over a year …..most on here thought playing the ABs 4 times and the bok 3 in a year was overkill … I actually think by the second Welsh test in June spectators might have the same feeling
November 16th 2011 @ 10:08am
mace 22 said | November 16th 2011 @ 10:08am | Report comment
I don’t thinkl playing the blacks and boks 4 and 3 times a year overkill, as for playing the welsh 6 times what a better way to gauge your performance than to play the same team a few times. I also don’t think there is such a thing as overkill regarding the amount of games ( THE MORE THE BETTER ). After the world cup I went through rugby withdrawell so I got sentanta now I can watch the northern hemisphere club games, and they have been pretty good games. Not at the pace of super rugby but good games none the less. Also top 14 on eurosports.
November 16th 2011 @ 12:21pm
p.Tah said | November 16th 2011 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
This was a pretty good game
November 16th 2011 @ 1:45pm
ncart said | November 16th 2011 @ 1:45pm | Report comment
Really good footage, how did you get that? Do you have to subscribe to something?
November 16th 2011 @ 3:21pm
p.Tah said | November 16th 2011 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
Someone in another site posted the link.
you can subscribe. click on the title ‘Tries in France…” of the video posted in the roar. you’ll be directed to the actual YouTube page. You can click on the subscribe button on that page.
November 16th 2011 @ 5:19pm
King of the Gorgonites said | November 16th 2011 @ 5:19pm | Report comment
70K + at this game. French rugby continues to grow. they got the best crowds of all the HEK matches last weekend.
November 16th 2011 @ 8:24am
Atawhai Drive said | November 16th 2011 @ 8:24am | Report comment
How long before the “Rugby Championship” is rebranded the Four Nations? After all, the Super 15 is officially known as SupeRugby, but no one calls it that.
I’ll wait and see whether Argentina get access to their best players. The IRB might have made a ruling that the French clubs are obliged to follow, but the French clubs have ways and means of making it difficult for valuable players to turn out for national teams.
November 16th 2011 @ 10:49am
King of the Gorgonites said | November 16th 2011 @ 10:49am | Report comment
I for one am looking foward to 2012 and particuarly the RC.
Also, the return of rugby at the SFS.
The return of day time footy – for SR and the Wales test.
The decisions made, the venues, and the times have all been perfect. lets hope the players deliver.
November 16th 2011 @ 11:30am
Sam Taulelei said | November 16th 2011 @ 11:30am | Report comment
SANZAR could have scheduled a much tighter competition schedule for the Rugby Championship given that there are an even number of teams competing now.
It would make for better viewing in the “black spots” ie those countries not involved in any given week of the competition.
For example I posed an article a couple of years ago about Argentina entering the SANZAR competition and proposed two games per weekend played over five or six weeks to minimise the travel factor for all teams.
On each weekend of competition there would be one game on a Saturday and another one on a Sunday or with the timezone differences between all four countries, two games played on a Saturday.
This would also shorten the length of the competition and with realtime results each weekend would generate more fan interest like the Super competition.
After the intensity of the world cup the new Rugby Championship is at risk of being a damp squib in comparison if early results finds a probable winner before the last rounds are even played, like what happened with the expanded Tri Nations.
November 16th 2011 @ 1:13pm
Bay35Pablo said | November 16th 2011 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
I like it.
Makes too much sense.
They’ll never do it.
November 16th 2011 @ 10:50pm
Weka said | November 16th 2011 @ 10:50pm | Report comment
They are playing two games per weekend and for many of the games they have managed the timezones so they can play both of them almost back to back or with a short gap in-between. There are two travel weekends during the RC where there will be no games.
November 16th 2011 @ 1:12pm
Bay35Pablo said | November 16th 2011 @ 1:12pm | Report comment
The PI team doesn’t make any seanse as it adds nothing more than an exciting team to the comp. The number of extra viewers in the Islands is minute compared to the SANZAR nations, or Argentina. Plus the venues in PI are poor. Having them play in Australia of NZ would be too big a dent to their pride.
Argentina are being paid for by the IRB to compete, as the IRB sees they have to have them in a pro comp to develop, and the IRB is pushing to develop the Tier 2 nations and generally.
The issue for the Pumas will be in a couple of years time when Euro teams start putting contracts to Argentine players that require they not be available for the Pumas, which is how some Islander players etc were kept out of the World Cup. The Euro teams don’t want to pay big bucks for a player only to have him miss out due to national duties, and/or come back knacked. The only real solution is to have Argentine teams in the Super comp, and pick mainly from them.
November 16th 2011 @ 1:26pm
Sledgeandhammer said | November 16th 2011 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
I’ve been watching top 14 on Eurosport and it has been dreadful. I really can’t understand why guys are so keen to play over there? Money I guess. The focus is so big on winning that the standard of play is stifled, there is no risk taking or creativity, just cynical, dull play. Hopefully this is early days and the season will improve.
November 16th 2011 @ 2:05pm
Johnno said | November 16th 2011 @ 2:05pm | Report comment
I think SH rugby is going in the right direction how ever a few issues for me still.
Big fan of the rugby championship and would like it to expand to include best pacific island team, a combined pacific island team is a waste of time, a bit like aussie/kiwi team to form an ANZAC team, they are all 3 individual countries, each with there own culture, despite racial similarities a bit like Aussie/NZ, some racial similarities but reality is 2 different coutnries, saw with asking USA/Canada to form combined team a waste of time with no meaning.
UK and Irsh Birtish lions has history, all except Irleand are all on the same island with no borders.
What i would not do is bring back 3 test tours a waste of time unless rugby is under global rugby calendar.
Will aussie rugby fans really have any feeling beating England in a 3 test cook cup. No
I would have 4 test June window where the wallabies play teams like, USA, CanadaGeorgia,romania, and maybe England or a wales or a france in a 1 test match.
But SH rugby is moving in the right direction. Next move for SH rugby, is when the SANZAR tv deal ends, to reformat the super 15 and where to next for the comp, and rebradning or reforming australian club rugby.
I would like a super champions league in the southern hemphiepshere.
November 25th 2011 @ 12:56pm
gpc said | November 25th 2011 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
I disagree about the 3 test series having no feeling. I for one would love to see the wallabies beat England in that format. I think it has more meaning in a best of series rather than one off tests. It also gives nh teams a better shot at winning games on their tours- something they all struggle with.