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The ARU's NRC is ambitious to a fault

Roar Rookie
11th March, 2014
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ARU CEO Bill Pulver will need more than a few glamour shots to fix the game in Australia. (Image: Supplied)
Roar Rookie
11th March, 2014
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2597 Reads

‘Ambitious’ is the best word to describe Bill Pulver’s decision to resurrect the National Rugby Championship in 2014. Ambitious for a multitude of reasons, but let’s start with the timing.

As Georgina Robinson highlighted in the Sydney Morning Herald, we’re almost a quarter through 2014 and the competition is still a complete mystery.

How Pulver and his cronies at the ARU can conceivably think this competition is going to get off the ground this year is dumbfounding.

Put yourself in the position of perhaps one of the successful franchises; most of which are going to be formed from existing club sides.

In the space of four months they have to (at a minimum):

– Secure sponsorship
– Source ground availability
– Confirm a playing roster
– Confirm a coaching structure
– Co-ordinate administrative, legal and contractual requirements
– Elect a board of directors
– Develop brand awareness
– Build a supporter base

All of this on top of running their own clubs, some of which are already running at significant financial loss.

The concerns that the project is being rushed and the suggestions to at least give the competition another year in planning are completely valid.

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The ARU are always quick to point out the success of the NPC in New Zealand and the Currie Cup in South Africa.

What they don’t seem to understand is the sports market place in Australia is far more competitive.

In New Zealand and South Africa, rugby reigns supreme in the winter. In Australia, rugby has to compete with rugby league and AFL, by far and away the two biggest winter codes in the country.

Combine that with the success of football’s A-League and you’ve got a very tough field to carve out a commercially viable provincial rugby competition.

One should also consider the fact rugby is yet to cement its place in the nation’s pecking order through Super Rugby, an international competition.

I’m not saying let’s just let the sport wither away into obscurity, but perhaps for now we are better restructuring and strengthening what we already have.

There may well be a time for third tier rugby in Australia, but I’m not convinced that time is now.

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Rugby in Australia needs more momentum.

A good example of using momentum was the way in which the A-League catapulted itself off the success of the Socceroos’ 2006 World Cup campaign.

There is no point in launching a dead duck.

The other significant dilemma is launching new teams without established fan-bases.

The new franchises may be made from existing club sides but there is no guarantee that will ensure a following.

Currently, the clubs are dependent on two things; gate takings and beer consumption.

It’s simple, if the franchises can’t attract fans to games they will not make any money.

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And don’t be looking at the ARU for to prop up teams in financial trouble, they’ve already washed their hands of fiscal accountability for the individual franchises.

This might then underline Pulver’s ambition to align the competition with universities, which could protect the franchise through government funding and promote the game through the student body – think an Australian version of the American Ivy League.

All this just reaffirms rugby’s position as a white-collar sport played by academics and private schools, again limiting itself to a common demographic.

Furthermore, Foxtel will only telecast one game per week, hardly a great endorsement of a new competition, and without any free-to-air matches it has limited its audience to pay TV viewers only.

Putting the commercial feasibility aside, Pulver’s desire to relaunch the previously failed NRC centralises on his theory to develop player depth and “accelerate the development of elite talent”.

Taking the latter into account, accelerate and development are two conflicting words when it comes to nurturing our finest young rugby talent.

If Pulver wants to accelerate development among the players, perhaps he is better off consulting Stephen Dank.

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The domestic clubs already provide a platform for our future stars to ‘naturally progress’ in competitions brimming with history and reasoning.

The Sydney and Brisbane domestic competitions have been the backbone of the Wallabies for well over 100 years.

It is a breeding ground that has been neglected by the governing body for far too long.

For years, the ARU has pumped money into the top-end and neglected the survival of the clubs and, more importantly, the development and recruitment of juniors.

Our lack of depth doesn’t stem from the absence of a third tier competition, it stems from a decade of poor administration.

The ARU needs look as what the New Zealand Rugby Union did in centralising power over the provincial sides.

Competitions like Sydney and Brisbane should not be robbed of opportunities to see quality talent playing in their competitions week in week out.

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The Super Rugby franchises in Australia have been holding on to non-matchday players without proper reasoning for years, therefore continually ensuring weak domestic competitions.

It is no surprise club rugby’s demise seemed to begin around the time the game went professional.

The 1997 Shute Shield Final between Manly and Eastwood saw 26,000 people at the SFS. Last week the Waratahs V Reds crowd was 16,000 at ANZ.

That is an incredibly damming statistic on the current state of the game in Australia.

The ARU needs to rethink its plan from the ground up; launching the NRC now is incredibly risky business.

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