There is power in a union, declares O'Neill

If you think Rugby will be under pressure, its nothing compared to the English Prem League. The money is going to dry up for int sport. Companies just can afford the money. The USA this morning crunched the figures with the credit crisis. The crunch has cost US tax payers more than WW2 and the War on Terror combined. So, get it while you can cause next week you might be pulling beers at the local RSL to make up for it.

Also, it's not a restraint of trade, at least not an illegal one. The Wallabies and All Blacks are employees (technically independent contractors, but essentially employees) of the ARU/NZRU. The unions have the right to set criteria for their potential employees. Put it this way - if I was a private aspiring to become an officer in the NZ Army I wouldn't think I've got the right to quit and join the Navy and still expect to be considered for promotion.

Millster - here are a couple of logical reasons for the ARU and NZRU's stance on overseas eligiblity. First of all the S14 is a product that delivers money to the NZRU, SARU and ARU. Weaken the talent pool and you reduce its worth as far as far as revenue generating. Secondly it's been shown in football and with smaller rugby nations that if a player is signed with an overseas club that player's country can find it very difficult to secure their availability. Playing in Europe would make Matt Giteau less likely to play for the Wallabies regardless of whether the selection criteria were relaxed.

The reality is that the TV income and sponsorships that bulwarks the leagues in Ireland, UK and France is just not going to be achieved across SANZAR or even an expanded 6 Nations down South. O'Neill says the recession is going to hit the NH clubs and limit their abilities to draw players. He forgets that it's a global recession and the same economic principles apply down south - look at what happened to Giteau's commercial deal. Perhaps OZland needs to follow the example of their counterparts in AFL and start attracting players from Ireland and UK. Globalise the game, rather than putting up fences. Offer a different kind of package - emerging players from these countries will get a chance to train and play with the best in the world. the crowds will flock to see new foreign talent coming into the game - bring some diversity to the matches. For the foreign players, they get to play in the S14 - the best provincial club comp in the world that's so much better than the tinpot Heineken Cup. Brilliant weather, acres of space, what more could they want? Playing in the national team doesn't matter as much to Irish and French players, probably Scots too. English players still have delusions about pulling on the white shirt but they'll gradually become like their soccer counterparts, and see where the real action is.

This is a downright blatant restraint of trade and should be seen as a disgrace. It is absolutely unnecessarily to so link the professional club level of a sport and its international representative dimensions through such regulations. It is this level of ugly protectionism that is 'cavalier', not the normal and logical acceptance which "soccer" (please use the proper word football Johnno, you were after all chairman of the FFA for a while and should know better) takes which is that if a game is essentially global then its player market should be structured to reflect that. There is no logical reason why Giteau or anyone else shouldn't be able to play where they see fit, for economic and career reasons, at club level while retaining their eligibility for Wallaby selection. His playing in Europe does not make him any less Australian after all. And surely we want all the Wallabies, present and future, happy and playing at clubs that suit them and develop them the best - regardless of where they are in the world. Finally, how can JON describe the S14 as the "stand-out provincial rugby tournament in the world because it’s had the best players in the world playing in it" when quite simply they cannot play anyone else. How artificial is that? Let's trap a hemisphere's worth of internationals into a 14 team comp through draconian restraints (inlcuidng further trapping them within that comp to only be able to play for thier own countries clubs, as allblackfan points out) and then blow smoke up that comp's bum for its strength. It's weak. Piss-weak.

John O'Neill has against revealed his true colours (does hypocrisy have a colour?). On the one hand, he says: ``It would be cavalier of the ARU to say ‘you can go and play overseas and we’ll do what soccer does and just pick you even though you’re playing overseas’,”. On the other hand, he restricts foreign player restrictions on Aussie S14 teams that allows the Qld Reds to pick up former All Blacks flanker Daniel Braid (I use the word former because there's NO WAY he'll play for the ABs while he calls Brisbane home) not to mention the Waratahs and Force, who have, or are trying, to sign up SA and NZ players. Not to mention the whole Deans affair. With ``allies'' like these, who needs enemies?

Sensible strategy once again from JON, who after DIngo, is the most important element in the future of Australian rugby. An enlarged s14 comp will produce more teams, more games, more TV territories and hence product and revenue from which the players can be paid more. Simple productivity improvements!!! This will also play to Rugby's relative strengths V's other codes. The riches will come in financial terms and the greater ability to attract the best players to rugby. It will also slowly create greater interest in rugby generally. But translating this to the strengthening and growth of clubland is still a real challenge. Getitng it onto free to air, in some way shape or form is essential though, even if it not going to be live!!!