Now Melbourne is in, let's take rugby national

Yes Jus, we all know you don't like the idea of having another Aus team and wanted another SA team. Although I'm not sure why you needed to have a silly little dig at the Wallabies game last week to prove this point. But to be brutally honest SA also have a hidden lack of depth in their ranks. Just look at the last SA 'B' teams performance last week when they were flogged by an English club team without their key players! And another strong point to support this is that since 2002 there have always been 3 SA Super teams in the bottom five in the Super 14/12 table with the exception of one year, 2004. Another SA team would have just added to the wooden spoon comp. The only reason their was such a push in SA is because their is a polital push to have an indiginous team in the fold, and without the 6th slot they now have to look at dropping the cheetahs or lions from the super comp. Australia now have the 5th Super team. It is time to move on and for all Aussie rugby fans to support our new franchise. Back to the point of this article, I long for an Aussie national comp. SA and NZ national comps have the tradition and support becasue they were started and they developed. In short, you need to start a national comp to start tradition. By the way, SA will lose to France this weekend!

An Australian comp is not just about TV-time or having the same players playing more. It would be about taking a relatively large number of players from school / colts / clubs and providing them with a structured development up to Super / International level. Not all would make it, but at least it would become apparent which and it has to be a better option that simply picking the few that look good at school, crossing fingers and throwing them into the deep end. It's about keeping players involved post-school, providing a proper talent screening, allowing for late bloomers and competing for talent against the opportunities provided by League.

Come on guys .. our "National Comp" is now intertwined with the S15; you all want a Home and Away Australian competition and that's what you'll get with the 2011 version of Super Rugby. This is where we will compete with NRL/AFL/A-League! February to September, with the hope of a final series involving 2 or more Australian teams would be fitting ... yes I know our SA and NZ cousins will be wanting their teams to feature .. and I understand that maybe the SA bid was better in some respects BUT the bottom line with this competition is $$$ and the Melbourne bid brought a lot more dollars to SANZAR. Junior Squads / Academies as "curtain-raiser' don't always bring in the punters but a mixture of competition teams do: see "NSW Suburban v NSW Country" for some great 'grass-roots' rugby at the SFS (I think it's prior to the Hurricanes game in 2010).

I think we'll see a national comp pushed right to the very back burner for a while. The focus will be more on the possibility of another round of expansion, looking to Argentina (assuming that appeals to the broadcaster), and switching the clubs to private equity in line with Melbourne. It is the last of these that may prove interesting. Bring in outside money and you can expect that the teams will be pushed towards generating a return, or at least minimising losses. Investor interests will also come to the fore with respect to not risking their investment (ultimately, the players) in amateur matches that generate no return for the team. But the non-Wallaby players will require playing and development opportunities, so I'd expect to see an increase in the sort of sponsored tours that the Force and Brumbies have taken over the last couple of years. Another possibility is that, if it cheaper for others to tour here than the other way round, each Super team might sponsor a touring side that then plays the circuit and maybe a regional match against Aus A. If you got a good mix of club sides and developing international sides, it could prove quite watchable. It wouldn't broaden the rugby base, but then neither would any competition between academy sides (especially when lists are being shrunk rather than grown). But if it generated money, or at least didn't cost any, it would at least tick one of the boxes. One thing is certain - you don't sell more tickets or generate any money at all from curtain raisers.

National comp? It'll never work! Now where are those smiley faces, & how do you get them up....................

A true ARC is a pipe dream so yeah, why not use the academies v some larger provinces? What people need to remember is, because of the large number of internationals the wallabies play every year, the ARC was a genuine 3rd grade national comp. No other ball code in Australia has national level comp....Sure the Saffers and the Kiwis do, but in those countries the national comp has tradition, no real competition and less travel.

Good idea but one to create a truly national competition of the extra teams should be from South Australia.

The academies play each other now however it could easily be expanded and have some importance put on it. This concept will help expose players and act as a feeder for Super 15. Lets all be positive and believe in the talent that is coming through, it may take some time but for us to move forward as a rugby nation we need to establish lines of recruitment which at present are very limited. If the reports are right and the ARU are talking about allowing up to 10 foriegn players to join the Melbourne team. The ARU then is really saying it is all too hard. It is also interesting the names that came up, the cost of signing these names would pay for a national comp easily. It also reads that the ARU are going to be the ones to buy players for the new team and not the coach or the melborne organisation and also talks about raiding the ARL. Haven't we been down that path, history would say that the ARU ability to negotiate contracts and players doesn't get me too excited.

Perhaps this descision may finnaly expose, thru a paucity of talent , that Aus is more limited than is generaly beleived. I mention this in the beleif that Aus wouldnt have won last week had, for example they had lost several players thru injury, they have been reduced to less than their ideal starting line up . England lost thru injury most of their team , yet should still have won . Bad luck and poor referying are hard to prepare for .

I too agree withe the idea of the article, but I think we should take some time about this now. Let's make Victoria a strong team and get Super rugby back to where it used to be first, and then look at the APC/ARC options down the track. I've suggested previously that perhaps a logical first step might be for the 5 Super teams to play a 10-week H&A series from August.

A Rugby national comp won't compete with AFL or NRL, it’ll be the poor cousin for a long time. We need a point of differentiation. The new Super format will be a 'pseudo' national comp at level higher than that of NRL and AFL. However I agree with the sentiment of your article. The fact that we are looking at have up to 10 foreign players in the Melbourne team initially, highlights the lack of depth and a need for another tier. I'm not certain how this 3rd tier would break even, but agree establishing one is imperative. Deans went to club rugby to look for some 'bolters' for the Spring Tour. He found one, (Dave Dennis) but it’s a huge step from Club to Country. Depth development is crucial, but rather than saying a 3rd tier cannot be done, lets find a way to do it. I like the structure with the Academies you have suggested. It doesn't create a plethora of new clubs and is less likely to put club rugby noses out of joint.

Is this a good idea or a bad idea, I think it is a great idea, but from what I heard the Super 15 proposal that was acepted was not even close to the standard of the SA one when it came to logistics, finance, admin, etc. So they better pull up their socks!!!