New ARU boss says sevens is way forward

tc thats the problem someœe new will watch the tries a plenty fast action 7s but then will watch a full 15 game like a WC final or the recent 6 nations game between Ireland and England and think what is going on.

Ok, no-one's biting. Once again, sorry for posting here, but.. Was the Robbie Deans article really genuine? I think not. The article itself was fair enough - albeit a bit vague - but I seriously doubt all the responses were included, and why were the comments closed off? On the issue of resting players I agree more or less with what he's talking about. I would favour 2 weeks instead of 3 and let the players out of camp for the weekends to play for their clubs on a case by case basis. In case Robbie Deans ever contributes to the Roar again here are my questions: - How do you respond to the calls to make the Wallabies back-line play more adventurous? Has it been a conscious decision to play a crash-and-bash centre at 12 or has it just worked out that way because the alternatives were not appealing enough? - What has happened to set moves in the backs? Why do we see them so rarely any more? - Five years ago we were all very excited about the new "play what's in front of you mantra" and what it might bring for the Wallabies. How do you rate its success and how has our attack changed since then? - Do you concede it was a mistake not to take a genuine no. 7 backup to the 2011 WC? - Why did George Smith move on from the Wallabies when he was seemingly at the peak of his powers? Personal decision? Forced out? Not a team player? - In the 2007 WC the Wallabies scrum was humbled by England. Six years on the headlines have fluctuated between: "Wallabies scrum finally comes of age and earns respect", and "Wallabies scrum humbled again". How do you rate the progress over the past six, and particularly five years? - Again, how have the Wallabies developed over the last five years in terms of fundamental skills such as: catch and pass, body position in the scrum and tackle/ruck/maul, kick receive and return, etc?

Nice thought but it's not going to happen in a hurray. NZ have many comps with our own Provincal teams all 20 of them which are seriously contested every summer and have been since 1975 except 87, 88 & 2003. I went to a NZ club comp before the Wellington 7's and a club team ( Te Puna) that had 5 NZ players, (Gordon T given them a run) lost to a bunch of nobody's (Rangataua) in the final which seems to make sense after the way NZ played in Wellington. Oz played better than them during that tournament and should've gone through instead of NZ, just my thoughts.

Didn't Australia lose to Spain?

MY ARU Strategic Plan -Wallabies: They are fine, they are then end product, well resourced, it's the bottom I worry about. -Women's rugby: More investment at junior pathways 7evens:- Get a Trans Tasman summer sevens going- and give full time contracts to the men's and women's teams:20 full time contracts each . $80,000 each as the minimum wage Super rugby- 6th team in 2016: 5 imports per Australian supe rugby squad 3rd-tier: ARC bring it back 4th-tier- Shute shield teams have to become the 4th tier, whether they like it or not. Have a knockout comp each year on top of regular season between top few state teams in each state, plus NSW and QLD country Under-20: An under-20 youth comp would be a dream Toyota cup style under-20 if affordable, if not just make it east coast, or have a Super rugby under-20 aussy teams only. Junior rugby: -IN sydney and Brisbane, combine all the elite private schools in 1 division, and divide them into conferences or geographical lines/Zones. -And more money for junior club rugby under-18 too under-10's . If possible established some elite junior club comps with the shut shield teams, under-16 and under-18. TV deal for elite junior comps, schoolboy rugby/ and junior club rugby. Commercialise both more, like rugby league using corporations to sponsor. Example- GIO schoolboys comp now on TV this year and big company sponsor. That is my ARU Strategic Plan

I'm hearing your bark big dog. But what chance does Rugby have when BP says things like this "“The Wallabies are the most valuable asset in the Australian rugby product range, and so we need to preserve that profit.”

All sounds pretty reasonable. I like 7s and I think it's going to be a useful weapon in the battle with the codes. Bill Pulver sounds like he's a good choice for CEO and has some good sounding ideas. A lot of people are pushing for a genuine 3rd tier for obvious reasons. There are so many different approaches (exp. Super Rugby, Unis. exp. Club Rugby, ARC, sub-Super Rugby (2nd, 3rd grades playing in another comp) etc, etc) he wont be able to please everybody. We all want the same outcome though - real competition, better player pool/development. There will have to be some compromises. Now to Robbie Deans article. WHAT A SHAM! Sorry I'm posting this here but the RD thread seems to be closed to comments. Also, the comments were overwhelmingly positive considering how much stick he's been copping the last couple of years. Where are all the negative comments? Just a few sanitised ones stating a very polite disagreement. You can't tell me this is all the comments?!! What country are we living in - China, Iran, North Korea? Before I write my response to Robbie's article I'm going to see whether this comment remains up. Sorry to sound negative but there's something fishy going on here.

Chris ,if I said to you would nines take over thirteen man rugby league what would your answer be , well its the same for rugby 7s ,it is used as the introductory package that gives you insight into the real deal . When you look at boxing what division is the most famous worldwide ,we all know the answer is heavy weight . It's the same for the All Blacks the 7s team is just a bye word when compared to the 15s team .

Qantas has been a proud supporter of rugby for over 10 years and are pleased to have been the Naming Rights Sponsor of the Qantas Wallabies There are eleven major sponsors, but the team is not referred to as eg Samsung Wallabies, KooGa Wallabies, Hahn Superdry Wallabies, Tom Waterhouse Com Wallabies and so on. QANTAS pay extra for the naming rights privilege, and as such i will support their sponsorship by using their full name.

In the past 10 years or so i think 7s has become so distatched from the 15 man game and maybe in 20/30 years it could over take 15s around the world. Sevens is good as a once a year end of season thing but not a year long type comp and the game can get boring just seeing basketball tries all the time.

Joe B said: "Also, keep calling the national team “qantas wallabies” as it stirs a stronger patriotic fervor to represent/support a commercial airline than just australia by itself." Joe is the the irony smiley gif missing there ... ? Sorry if I've misunderstood - you WANT to keep calling the Wallabies "The QANTAS Wallabies" ? YIKES. OK, if sevens is worth more of the ARU's time, and Mr Pulver's time, I'm all for it. Maybe sevens should be the home of garish playing strips, music on the PA system, fireworks, and strip test and rep rugger back to old-fashioned, minimalist, small-c conservative, dignified ethos. Note I said 'rep rugger', not 'franchise'. Franchise - ugh - what an ugly term to describe what should be an emotional touch stone for the fan. The Super teams in Australia have the advantage of being identifiable with a geographic entity; this should be the basis upon which people support their teams. For Rebels and Force in particular, getting locals into the squads should be of the highest priority. I'm picking the scab off an old wound, I concede, but it makes my blood boil that the ARU was the holier-than-thou custodian of tradition when Mr. Murdoch wanted to buy rugby in 1995, but the quickest to sell EVERYTHING as soon as the war was won. If Bill Pulver wants to recapture the magic, he should pick up and bring back the things that made it magical. Because frankly, and I say this as a bloke who played for school, uni, regiment and club, and whose 6 year old is just about to start his first season, the game to me has barely any of the magic that it did in years gone by. Mostly I have stopped going to elite level games. Mr Pulver, if you or your spies are reading this, please - PLEASE - give us back the game we fell in love with.

we should focus on sydney and the fair weather supporters of the warratahs because once that has been addressed australian rugby will be back on track. And put more academies in sydney and queensland as these are new major growth areas for the sport full of untapped potential that has had little exposure to rugby...another boon for aussie rugby. Also, keep calling the national team "qantas wallabies" as it stirs a stronger patriotic fervor to represent/support a commercial airline than just australia by itself. Perhaps another way of increasing revenue would be to sell broadcast rights for all tests to foxtel, not just super rugby, which will at least enable the now more concentrated group of viewers the opportunity to watch the game live and not delayed several hours on FTA. But, perhaps sevens rugby in Rio in the midst of the olympics over a two week period is the shining light....personally I think quade cooper will get more exposure for australian rugby by boxing a couple of times a year. Pulver has to take a leaf out of AFL's book... grow the base, and the pyramid will get taller. Re-instate the perth and melbourne academies, get more coverage (and live coverage at that) of rugby (super and test) on FTA. Subsidise grass roots competitions. Start focusing more on non-traditional areas, rugby may not dominate but at least it will grow.

How about fixing the breakdown laws and re introducing competition for the ball? Stop the tackled player playing the ball on the ground(relese before making ground contact),get rid of the use or lose it laws and those to do with entering the ruck from one direction. Consider allowing players to scavenge for the ruck ball with their hands but the tackled player must release and not be allowed to play the ball. I guarantee if these things were done, there would not be stadiums big enough to hold Test crowds.

Yes but has test cricket yielded dividends due to 20/20? Different games, they just happen to have the same name :)

No, the way forward is to change it from 7s to 8s and bring in 5 imports per team.

No doubt sevens has its place but I have the impression the money spent for its development will be be taken from the XV format, which would be an error IMO. Sevens is a different sport than union, more so than 20/20 and test cricket IMO. Am not sure that the people we will attract by developing it will switch to XV, go to stadiums, play the game etc. yes there is an audience for it and most of us love watching these two day tournaments. Would we want more? Not sure. The XV game still has a lot of appeal and I think we have not yet seen what it could be if we find the right competition format and rules. It has the potential to be as 'fun' and exciting as the sevens with this extra intensity and diversity that only the XV man game can bring. Hope Mr Pulver doesn't only think strass and olympics. There are many non Olympic sports which are great to watch and play too.

Mr Pulver have a chat with Peters and Tew and get a SANZAR Sevens set up over the summer perIod. 16 teams in total: 5 teams from NZ, 5 from Oz and 6 from SA (includes the Kings and Lions). If SA is unavailable bring in the Pacific Islands. Host 2 or 3 tournaments in Australian and NZ when the Spring Tour is on in November. Winter football fans are in withdrawal straight after the Grand Finals and will watch any type of football in our time zones for a fix. Wallabies/All Blacks wont be available but the next best will.

A good article and some good vision shown by Bill Pulver. Financially, giving the 3rd tier to the Super franchises makes significant sense as there's no need to replicate in many cases. I believe, however, that there probably needs to be more than five teams so the ARU will have to decide how best to swing this aspect. Perhaps the Reds and Waratahs can support two academies, an additional one in Western Sydney and a QLD Country based academy (Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast or further north if appropriate). Obviously, they would require additional funding from the ARU to persue this. The ARU could also have an academy making up eight in total. Games would be played as curtain raisers to the Super games. In doing this, however, players should be drawn mainly from the premier players currently playing around the countryside and those who show the necessary skills and promise from the areas without a premier level comp. I also like the idea of pushing the rugby 7s approach. Whilst some 15 man game purists may see this as a degradation to some extend, the following and extent of younger support coupled with the 2016 Olympics means significant inroads to the 15 man game can be made if marketed correctly and we give it a high enough priority to be up there in medal contention. Perhaps the future is looking somewhat brighter for rugby.

Kids, say no to drugs. Come plays rugby sevens instead and you can win a medal!

absolutely right TC makes you think what a sorry performance Mr O'Neill did second edition but it's early days and the proof will be in the pudding served up to the Australian public but here's to exciting times ahead :-)