As we seeing the start of a new code war?

lets not argue on something you and i never witness so im nbot going to just spread rumours about the past. serge blanco never played rugby league and played all his rugby in biarritz where there was no league club. you might have got him mix up with phillipe sella who had one season of league out of 29 years of playing rugby from junior to seniors.

Let's think sensibly about private ownership. The SR Clubs recive a portion (remember, not all, but a percentage) of the broadcast revenue from the national sports bodies - there is no revenue unless there are Clubs, there are no Clubs unless there are players and hence the portion usually poays for the players. Rumous state that the rebels lost more than $6m for their first year, on top of the investment required to operate the Club, approx half the AFL CLubs lose money, nearly all the Soccer Clubs do - c'mon who in their right mind would fund a footy club in Australia with the competition and small population? Macro economics would say not!

Thinking further, folk generally think of Club v Country as clubs not releasing players but it is also (probably more) manifested in the length of season and number of games. It is more insidious, as privately owned clubs will feel they have the right to play any of their players if they are available and it falls entirely on the player themselves and the national body to manage their workload through the season. It is a tragedy that, because of player club workload and the need to manage the workload of the first team, they have had to deny most of the second string players international exposure and some second tier Test nations the chance to play against improved opposition. Unless they do something about it, it will continue as a problem even if they went to an international season. As the motivation to that was described, the clubs liked the idea of internationals in summer as it would reduce disruption to the club season and (by small extension) allow them to play more games. By the time the internationals came round, there'd be no players left.

Testify!

Andy S, Yes i agree that Europe has had a habit of sending under strength teams down to play the Southern Hemisphere, but i feel this is more directly attributed to the long club season they play as opposed to the private owners holding players back. Player welfare (rest) is always going to be an issue regardless if the unions or a private owner runs the team. However the good news is that the RFU have listened to the criticism and has agreed to start sending full strength teams with extended tours in June. This is one of the reasons that the RFU stopped the Churchill Cup, because the Saxon players will now join the Red Rose on their tours down under. As you stated P.I. is a must. If not in the form of a private owner then maybe a private consortium. The kiwis could be on to something with the provincial or state unions buying the professional teams with the backing of a private consortium. Regardless it will all come out in the wash at some point. Going back to an earlier post this would all be alot easier if there was a global rugby season similar to the one Bruce Craig is proposing.

Hasn't it? Every mid year tour we hear protests about weakened sides and protests that "no honestly, they are absolutely the best side we can put on the field at this moment in time", as everyone goes away to look up all the unrecognisable names on the team list. Still, I'd agree that Rugby has generally handled it fairly well to date, but it is an inevitable issue as club competitions increase player game loads. Sooner or later Rugby will have to address it, as the mid and end of year tours become increasingly obvious fund-raisers and training runs for the World Cup (a la soccer). It may mean a step backward into more meaningful tours, but at the same time it will have to be a step forward into a structure that ensures that the best of each country are on the field at the same time, at their peak and desperately wanting to be there. Absolutely agree on PI though. The trick will be to find a way for it to contribute, avoids the "rich man's toy" syndrome, gives it a return and all without selling the farm. A challenging problem, but hopefully one that has a solution somewhere.

UFA, George Pepponas was Greek born and a doctor, captained the Kangaroos. Hardly a background associated with league. Serge Blanco didn't play sport before his teens? Like many players of his era and before, league credentials are often ignored or in some cases, deleted. You probably haven't heard some union players had their faces blanked out in official team pictures for swapping codes. There is a lot you don't know either.

'you’ll hand five people the power to destroy the game professionally if they ever get the thought in their heads.' Why would they want to do that? And indeed, why would the ARU allow them the leeway to do so? And has that happened in England or France, or has, instead, the game not benefitted from endless millions being ploughed into it by these owners?

'If union stopped its decades old attack on league'. This suggests there has been no decades old attack from league on union.

By the same token, anyone growing up in league-dominated areas will be under immense social pressure not to play rugby union. Besides why should a school play rugby league if it doesn't want to or think it's worth playing?

Anyway you look at it the current system is not sustainable, the unions don't have enough money to keep growing the game. Something needs to change i.e. private investment. You make a good point about players coming down with injury, but it has happened in the Northern Hemisphere..... yet.

You'd need to tell that to the Argentinean, Samoan, Tongan and Fijian players that have historically struggled to get released for internationals. The IRB has had to specifically legislate for it specifically because clubs were refusing to release players. As I understand it, even now some players refuse to go because test injuries may not be adequately covered by insurance and could cost them their club contract. It is going to be bad enough this year, when the SR clubs will be sweating on their key players getting injured playing Tests four weeks before the finals. Put the return on private investment on the line as well and I think you could pretty much guarantee every key player would develop a debilitating three week injury at the 78th minute of the match before the Test window, every single year. National bodies and private investors don't go into partnerships; one or the other owns the game and in all the big money sports it is the club owners. It would be incredibly unlikely that Rugby could be the exception - the smart money would have to be on the big money.

What you fail to mention is many of these so-called union boys went to schools that discriminate against rugby league. The only reason they play rugby union for their schools is because rugby league is not part of the curriculum. It's a bit rich to cast these children as union boys when they're denied the opportunity to decide for themselves. The fact they decide to play rugby league when they're out of school -- and no longer limited to playing union -- says all I need to know about which sport they like the best.

There is the Four Nations, which is held in England every 2nd year. Usually involves a trip to France and England.

Having private owners startup and run a tier 2 competition is a good idea. However, imo the SR teams need to be run by rich owners with the ARU running grassroots rugby. This could lead to the ARU and privately funded SR teams going into partnership and starting a tier 2 developmental rugby competition preferably in the smaller markets, so they don't compete with the SR matches. I don't really see club versus country as an issue for rugby that is more of a soccer thing.

KPM, The ARU could spend millions on grassroots and tier two rugby if they allowed their SR teams to be privately owned. Unfortunately there is this fear about private ownership, but just look at the English and French competitions they have private owners and the game is going from strength to strength there.

so like benji marshall then?

i just wish fans wont call other sports names and vise versa.

if you had an idea of what sports in nz was like then you might know something instead of making up your own. jonah lomu and many great all blacks played rugby at schools and many (including lomu & sbw) made representive rugby union teams in their provinces from age six right up to high schools and the rest is history. and for many other all blacks they couldnt have played rugby league at junior level as there werent any rugby league played in many provinces of nz for almost 100 years and even to this day league isnt a national sport yet. im not sure where you got the serge blanco was a league jr idea from but he was born in venezuela and only started playing rugby from his teens until he made the french school teams in the late 70's.

matt s, if rugby league and afl have decided decades ago to develop their sports outside of its few professional clubs in victoria, nsw and nothern england, then maybe your sport (rugby league) would have been played in many countries and areas than currently is. stop blaming rugby for the wrongs your own administrations did decades and decades ago. i didnt know rugby was top blame for rugby league not having teams in melbourne, leicester, london, southampton, perth, adelaide, bristol, derby and so on in nsw premiership or northern union.