The knock-on effect of the National Rugby Championship

I think that tries should be worth 4 points and all kicks 2 points.

It is accurate Griquas still contribute players to the Cheetahs squad

I do agree with your comments about the country teams. The problem was they tried too much to make an historical link, and country was the basis for that. Agree that it cannot work long term. They are the 2 teams that i don't agree with, and that's from a commercial point of view.

TWAS, Obviously we could discuss this ad nauseam & probably will in due course this year. I've also previously argued why I think the Country teams are inappropriate for this type of national comp. Sooner, rather than later, the Country teams will require a fixed address. Does anyone think Fox Sports will be happy long-term to carry their cameras to 3/4 different grounds each year? For each team?? Once a permanent location is found, the Country teams will quickly become associated with that one region, & lose its touch with all of Country. But that's okay. We can squeeze another square peg into a round hole & pretend it works.

But Andy, which teams make more sense? The Central Coast Rays who were fed by the clubs which are the North Harbour Rays, but was located on the Central Coast? Western Sydney Rams? Which are basically the same teams and same home ground. NSW Country and QLD Country have played around the state, but played city games only in the case of Sydney to having a Round 1 game and to suit TV games for Country. Really the only thing missing is how the Fleet covered Eastern Sydney better.

I'd have to agree that (IMO) the ARC teams made more sense geographically and some of the NRC teams are a bit of a compromise. But much of that has been to address some of the political issues that contributed to the death of the ARC. That failure cost us an additional 7 years without any domestic competition, with the absence perhaps even contributed to SR taking the path it has in 2016. So while there may be improvements that could be made to in the structure and operation of the NRC, they should be made incrementally to the comp we have. Far better that than take another seven years to come up with yet another version that will still never satisfy everyone.

I think the competition with soccer, or at least existing in a culture as heavily ingrained with soccer as the NH is, is a considerable reason that that NH rugby public sees games with very few tries scored as the ideal type of game.

Sheek, in fairness almost all the NRC have some of that. Brisbane City, QLD Country and NSW Country can cite long histories. The Sydney teams were an amalgamation of clubs with geographical proximity and named around their previous ARC alignments for the same groups of teams. The Spirit wear the traditional WA colours and are named after the ARC team. The Rising whilst different colours are based on the previous Rebels A team, the Rebel Rising. Really the Sydney Stars is the only one without any relevance and we all know that was compromise to appease all the other Sydney clubs who resented their ability to field a team themselves. The biggest issue in that maintaining their links we have a number of jersey clashes.

Thanks Rickety.

Rugger, Brett is another who has made the same observation about my opinion. No, it's not as simple or as straight-forward as that, which I have previously explained. A couple of the ARC teams weren't right in conception, & a similar number, plus one more at least, are not right this time. In my humble opinion. Both the ARC & NRC were/are great concepts. But both suffer from mind-numbing compromises that don't make sense. At least, not to me. If the concept is that important, we ought to get it right first time. However, obviously one thing I don't get, when I look at the NRC & BBL makeup, & which must be a reflection of the times in which we live, is that the teams don't need to have any significant historical, traditional, heritage or tribal relevance. Some do, while others don't. None of the BBL teams follow any HTHT path. It's a totally foreign concept to me. "Just make money" appears to be the only mantra necessary.

Just to put some context into how much impact the NRC has had for the Reds, look at the team named to play the Brumbies. 6 Super Rugby debutants who played NRC for Brisbane or Queensland Country last year. Sam Talaki, Marco Kotze (Both starting), Sef Faagase, Adam Korczyk, Duncan Paia'aua and Campbell Magnay. Both Richard Graham and Nick Stihls have come out and said that the NRC was really important in helping these guys make the transition for club rugby, to the week in week out training and playing requirements of professional rugby.

Sheek, It's essentially the ARC with one extra team. You have in the past called for it to return. We now have it. I don't see the issue.

How accurate is that though Bakkies? In 2014 the Cheetahs played every single home game at Free State Stadium, Blomfontein. So it's likely a very different set up to NZ, where teams will play out of multiple grounds regularly to represent multiple provinces (For example the Cheifs played games out of Hamilton and New Plymouth in 2014 and the Highlanders have previously played games out of Invercarvil, Dunedin, Otago and Queenstown).

'Bakkies, the Cheetahs are the free state cheetahs. Griqas are a completely geographical region. The currie cup premier division format is actually the 6 franchises (bulls, sharks, lions, cheetahs, stormers and kings) plus two qualifiers.' Wrong,. Not in Super Rugby they aren't The Cheetahs aka Central Cheetahs compete in Super Rugby. They're a separate side from the FS Cheetahs who compete in the Currie Cup. Griquas along with the Griffons contribute to the Super Rugby Cheetahs and some matches have been played in the Griquas home ground in Kimberley. All three are separate provincial entities in the Currie Cup. WP and Boland form the Stormers. Both are completely separate provinces in terms of Currie Cup Rugby. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Rugby_franchise_areas

I can't agree Ed. The ABs went down this road through the 2000s and met with limited success. The penny finally dropped in 2009 when the ABs all out attack was strangled by the Boks (along with the disaster of the 2007 WC). Since then they've learnt to play a more balanced game and finally a second WC materialised. You couldn't convince me that the ABs have an inferior skill\creative\speed game to the Wallabies so if it's failed for them why would it work for the Wallabies?