Could Super Rugby work in South Australia?

Not sure about a week to week Super Rugby side in Adelaide if it would or wouldn't work. But I do know that the ARU are doing very little to help grow the game there! With the Adelaide Oval a great success there should be a yearly Wallabies game. Also would have though an Adelaide team in the NRC would have been a go.

Have played rugby in Adelaide for many years now and have noticed that in this year (2015)'s Grand Final there were a few thousand people at the ground and the support for each club was amazing. I would give South Australia Rugby an NRC team and if they go well and are supported push them up to a replacement Super Rugby team meaning that if an Australian Franchice finished bottom of the table Adelaide will go in the league instead of that team and will continue in Super Rugby until (or If) they come last go back out of the league for the original team and play in the NRC until that procces starts again!

Apologies for the late reply, I was collecting info for my own personal interest in the subject and stumbled across this on google!!! Dave, thank you for the article, great to see some other Crow Eatersaround the rugby forum circles. Firstly there seems a lot of people here quick to kick this idea in the guts very early. Lot's of knee jerk stuff. Do people think we would want this to happen next year??? Also the jibes about being a lower socio economic area and not 'being able to afford' to support rugby is just complete ignorance and stupidity. As supporters in a state with no team to support, why should we be shot down for wanting to be able to follow a sport we love and pay good money to do it??? Next year?? Hell no. Next 5? Still no. The Super XV set up will inevitably change with each television deal we see come and go. If the conditions are right and the systems in place for say a 2021 inclusion, would that be a obtainable goal??? Perhaps by then we will have a conference system where each conference has 6 teams (perhaps a combined SA+Tas+NT) playing off home and away for 10 games, followed by the top 2 in each conference playing off in home and away finals......I think that's where SANZAR is aiming anyway. I'd even be happy if a semi-pro SA XV team was set up to compete in the new 'Super B' competition currently in the works by Bill Pulver. The competition would be slightly easier so no drubbings, and then there is always a derby.. I would love to see SA with a team , but hey, Im an optimist to the core. I'm also a realist and realise that the ARU has no money presently, and SA would need a bucket of cash in the first probably 5 years to stay afloat. There are some issues with developing the game here. Firstly, we never have games here to generate interest. Sure we had a second string Force side come and play a SA XV on a miserable wet night that was not advertised to anyone, but thats not going to cut the mustard in garnishing the public. Secondly, because Union is never on television, noone sees it or can tell the difference between Union and League. Most AFL fans call it 'thugby' and mean both codes. We don't have a professional team to support, so results are never on television. The last time I saw our channel 10 sports reporter (he is a drongo) televise a result, he called the Waratahs the Warriors..and he gets paid to report the sports!! How do we grow the game in this way?? The NRL has sent the Bulldogs to Adelaide Oval the last few years and have averaged 10-12k crowd figures, that's about as much as some Tahs games this year! The truth is a lot of those people are Union supporters, just trying to grab a game of professional rugby while they have the chance to see it. Neither the NRL or the ARU are planning teams in Adelaide in the near future. The difference is the NRL is thinking ahead and gaining support now. By the time SANZAR or the ARU try it will be game over. SARU is doing a good job here in SA, but now it's time for a national approach. We can't hope that the Rebels are going to spend too much time trying to develop our grass roots when they are in charge of growing the game in Victoria. Apologies for the long post, it's very early in the morning and as a rugby tragic I get excited about these things! Lets hope to see the South Australian Falcons in 2021!!!

Not very accurate reporting of the state of union in SA in the original piece! Mention of 2 SA players who would have become Wallabies had they been brought up in the eastern states is at best fanciful! I know and have coached both of them! Great lads but Wallabies...no. S15 players...no. In recent times only 2 'true' SA boys have gone onto the 'heights' of Super rugby and both are yet to start a game. Hilterbrand at the Force and Seutini at the Reds. Both excellent players and way more talented than the aforementioned 'unlucky SA Wallabies'. SA have a habit of claiming players as their own when the reality is little if any of their development was due to a SA influence, i.e. Liam Gill (Reds) and Brock James (Clermont, Fra). Many SA players have had successful sojurns playing Shute Shield rugby with Andrew Brown, who captained Parramatta for 2 seasons, being the standout. Many of these players though do come from ex-pat families particularly NZ. 5 franchises is fine - though there is significant concern about the performance and sustainability of performance of the Force and Rebels. Arguments could also be made about the Tahs being serial underperformers. Last nights Brumbies result following their poor performance against the Bulls is worrying. The Reds appear to be going in the right direction, playing poorly but still winning and looking like they'll be right come finals. I think there is enough to do at the moment. Australia has enough franchises but if a 6th was to be considered please do not bring it to Adelaide! I love living here but it is a rugby hinterland unfortunately dominated by some very small thinkers and thinking!

Hi Abnutta, can you give me some information about that proposal i found it really interesting, i have advocated something very similar in past articles. I really hope something like this comes to fruition from 2016, because i was beginning to despair that nothing was going to happen and i cannot see how the current Supe structure can take Rugby to where it deserves to be. Is this an official document because i have not heard anythng from the ARU regards a proposal like his.

Dave, As I suggested earlier, Adelaide/SA's best bet in the interim is to develop their playing standards via the ARC, or whatever other games they can get. I noticed Tasmania beat the Black Falcons recently, so it appears they may have moved ahead at the moment. It's a shame the ARU doesn't have much money at the moment. I also despair at the playing style of Australian teams. The ARU doesn't have the money to pay for an army of development officers to go out & sell the game through schools & communities. The easiest & cheapest way is for the Wallabies, Waratahs, Brumbies, Reds, Rebels & Force to play a compelling, or engaging, or enterprising, or whatever similar, style of rugby, that motivates more kids to want to play the game; motivates more fans to want to attend live matches; motivates more sponsors to be associated with the game & motivates media to want to report on & show rugby through their mediums.

What's the local comp like down there? Are there many registered players compared with the other developing states like Vic and WA?

I like that!

I do think that the first step in South Australia would be to send ARU reps out to encourage large numbers of schools and universities to take up rugby. Engage the state schools in particular (as the private ones likely already have a rugby presence) and then help raise awareness about matches and get people involved. Once you've managed to have that going solidly for a few years, try to build on the local club comp and try encourage more grades and more people getting involved. Maybe even get the Wallabies to do a few clinics a couple times a year and play the odd exhibition game down there. Having a fully professional side representing Adelaide would help this process, and there is some merit in starting with the top level, as it is effective for raising awareness, but in given where we are now, I think South Australia really just needs a round of overall rugby awareness raising and grass roots growth.

Hi Dave, I would like to echo sheek's sentiments above. Like you, I fall into the "can" and "should" category re: Super Rugby restructure. If you have the time I have posted a link to a document outlining how the current SR tournament should be restructured which may interest you and go some way to addressing the ideas you've put forth in your article. It also gives a detailed look into the financial models and underlying revenue/expense distribution concerning 3rd/2nd tier competitions. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5vh08BV2viweFdjbkN0UlBNREU/edit I will say that there appears to be a widely held view in the general public that our current 2nd and 3rd tier competitions are profitable or at worst revenue-neutral. This is not the case with rugby nor is it the case with either the A-League or many NRL clubs etc. If we account for just Match day income and sponsorship revenue and balance that against Match day expenses and player payments - the ledger almost always comes out in the negative for most codes. It should also be noted that for Super Rugby a wide swathe of competition expenses are centrally met by SANZAR and not incumbent upon the individual franchises - such expenses include: - All team travel and accommodation expenses for away matches, including the finals, is arranged centrally by and paid for by SANZAR. - Judiciary; - Match officials including travel and accommodation; - Competition administration ie the SANZAR office; and - Competition marketing. The SANZAR Unions contribute funds equally to SANZAR to meet these expenses

No, I believe that award was given yesterday when North Korea was considered a realistic threat by the Daily Telegraph.

In all honesty I think Rugby in Australia needs to take a similar tack to what Gallop embarked on with League a few years back when he announced that expansion was effectively off the table while the game shored up its base. Rugby in this country is in pretty dire straights, languishing behind the other three football codes in almost all areas. Rugby remains too small, too insular (the focus on wealthy private schools is falling away, but there needs to be a greater push to get more public schools involved and competitive). I would argue that these problems are most apparent in Sydney, where the Waratahs average crowds need to start returning to their prior averages of around 30k. Increasing the brand strength and appeal of the Waratahs and expanding the coverage of the Sydney local comp might be a good way to do this, but I also think it's worth considering playing a few games outside of Sydney or at least beyond the SFS. The Waratahs are, after all, supposed to be the New South Wales Waratahs, and so the odd trip to places like Newcastle or the Central Coast should be considered so the team is seen to be showing the state a bit of love from time to time. Then of course you need to improve the crowds in Melbourne too, which is a hard one to comment on for me as I'm not familiar enough with the place, but I'd suggest you need to have the team working with AFL sides more (I know they do) and trying to get into the headlines for cross training and positive public relations stories (so no more boozo Beale). After you've got that sorted (I'm less concerned about the Force who seem to be relatively well represented in crowds) and the Reds and you've got yourself to the point where Super Rugby gets a Free to Air game a couple times a week, then numbers can grow.

To be honest I don't think the Waratahs problem out west has much to do with them not being "representative enough"... heck, half the team is Tongan right now and their demographics are definitely centralised in the west. No, what the Waratahs problem out west is that rugby itself isn't very well represented or even understood. It's easy for a side like the Wanderers, as the west is more culturally diverse and thrives with people who come from soccer playing countries that need no introduction to the game, but that isn't the case at all for union apart from the pacific islanders and a few other migrant communities. Perhaps a good starting point in increasing the Waratahs "representativeness" would be to increase the profile of the Sydney club comp and do something about the perpetual dominance of sides like Sydney Uni, who get pretty much all the talent. Then increase the number of televised games and sauce them up a bit.