Should the ARU sign on for the next media deal?

More layers of administration is your solution? What exactly do you think the NSWRU, QRU, etc are supposed to do?

Everything you mentioned is a big problem. What should they do? Well the aru should reduce their wage bill, run the international including super rugby and leave the domestic competition to the ADRU. They would handle everything up to NRC. We need a new wy and new ideas.

When there were three Australian Super Rugby teams, not all of them were competitive top half of the table teams.

Different markets and product is irrelevant as an argument. Terrestrial and fta networks in the UK and Europe are unwilling to pay massive money for tv rights to compete with BT and Sky. ITV's digital network famously went bust after spending a massive fortune on Football rights. The BBC a fantastic broadcaster for Rugby and provides more viewers for the league but it comes at a price in a reduction of the reduction of the tv deal for the unions. You're dreaming if you think that the dunderhead tv networks in Australia will match the shortfall if Murdoch lost exclusive rights.

I don't have kids at that age so certainly making no claim of expertise, but I would have thought the pathways have improved in recent years. The gold cup has been added, the under 20's are much better organised at state level than say 5 years ago, and the NRC has been added. I don't know what happens below say 13 or 14 years old, but 15 to 17 to colts to 20s to Premier to NRC seems ok to me.

I love my rugby union but the union product at the moment from Australian and South African teams is garbage. South Africa always say they will go on their own or join Europe and to be honest I wouldn't care if they did. I understand a lot of money flows from RSA throughout SANZAAR but nobody has any affinity with the African teams and they rate the lowest on tv. I would support seeing a Super 12 concept back with 5 Aus, 5 NZ, Argentina and Japan.

The cup idea is an excellent idea IMO.

That's what I'd be doing. Use Super Rugby as that Champions League-type tournament involving those significant established and developing leagues outside of Europe with the bulk of the 'domestic' season played in a league-type format under a more localised structure. SA (provider of the largest chunk of broadcast revenue) are big enough to go on their own and being the partner with the greatest pressure from external forces, they can grow in a direction that doesn't drag the likes of Australia and NZ along for the rise. Culturally and geographically, Australia and NZ are quite similar and given the respective sizes of our rugby markets, it makes sense for us to stick together. I'd fold the Sunwolves and Jaguars and use the existing infrastructure in those countries while encouraging Argentina to move towards some form of a fully professional domestic model. Engage PRO Rugby in the States and that 24-team Champions League competition will add a valuable piece of the puzzle to run following a more domesticated regular season that is easier for fans to engage in.

Super Rugby can be organised in this way. East and West conferences playing single round robin, and all cross conference games via Champions and Challenge Leagues. The current schedule doesn't have a lot of games between SA and ANZ groups. It is in fact almost the same as what you'd do if you split the comp but had a champions and challenge league like Europe. It would be significantly better from every perspective.

Except even cricket accepted the new reality by creating the BBL (and in India the IPL). The era of former Commonwealth colonies floating around the world playing "tests" against each other as the main driver of a sport, a la rugby and cricket, is at an end. For cricket, this reality will probably take a lot longer to set in, for rugby quicker.

Cricket.

How to strengthen Aussie rugby: An Australian Rugby Club (ARC) Cup knockout., similar to the FA or FFA Cup. We need to run a national competition to strengthen our depth, not help the Kiwis with theirs, as has been suggested with an ANZAC knockout. If the ARC Cup is to succeed we need to include all senior clubs registered to the ARU, from Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle/Hunter, Canberra, Illawarra, Sydney Suburban, Mid-West, South Coast, Central West, Central Coast, Riverina, Melbourne, Victorian Country, Tasmania, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, North Queensland, Central Queensland, Sunshine Coast, Darling Downs, Gold Coast, Far North Coast, Central North, Mid-North Coast, etc. In other words every club that can start a senior team should have a chance to put their best foot forward. ARC Cup games would start out as local for the first few rounds to allow the lower level clubs to fight out locally between themselves to weed out the least competitive during the first few rounds. Depending on how many clubs are registered (so no rep teams, regular club teams only) there could be as many as 9 (round of 512), 10 (Round of 1024), or more rounds played initially depending on total registered clubs. All games would be played on Tuesday or Wednesday evening to allow prime coverage and so as not to interfere with weekend club matches or SR games played during that time of the year and definitely not NRC games, RC or other Tests that are played later. The idea of including all clubs is to give every Senior team and their players a chance of their 80 minutes of fame. It wouldn't surprise me to see a Kentwell Cup Club team knocking off a Sydney or Brisbane Grade team from time to time. There would also need to be prize money for getting to a certain level of the knockout, say round of 64 or perhaps 32 onwards. This would allow incentives for performance for genuinely well performed clubs regardless of who they are. Expectations would be to see the best clubs to normally get through to the latter rounds but the whole Comp would be finished well before normal local Club competition semi-finals series beginning. One thing this ARC Cup would do is showcase some of the talent that usually gets missed because many of these players don't actually play in either Sydney or Brisbane. Most Importantly this entire 4th level of rugby should remain entirely amateur to ensure all clubs across Australia have a level playing field. This is particularly important for the ARC Cup to be taken seriously. The next level up, level 3 should be the NRC as the first professional level. Played after regular local Club comp finals and the ARC Cup is completed. The ARC would be an excellent recruiting tool for the NRC Teams, and also be a gauge of the standard of club rugby across the country. Level 2 is Super Rugby and they would greatly benefit from a stronger NRC. Level 1 the Senior Rep teams, Wallabies and 7s, plus all the National Age teams, U20s, etc would also benefit in the long run with greater opportunities for player identification. Note also the same could be run for the women's clubs. Thoughts?

Are you claiming a degree of insider info?

The ARU will be forced to reduce the number of Super Rugby franchises for the immediate future mainly because of financial problems. Don't be surprised to see an announcement in the near future.

Very different markets. There's also the whole brand strength. And, yes I'm stating that Super Rugby is the much stronger brand.

The Pro 12 has a split terrestrial/FTA/Sky Sports tv deal and the tv pot in total very low and not competitive.

That's great Mania. And where would have spent this $77M less?

'The standard of rugby would be equivalent to shute shield with the good players being paid in the NRL or o/s.' What good is there for the game of Rugby having its players playing in the NRL?

'From paytv covergae and one replayed free to air game' Which is what it was to start with the Super 12. Super 10 was definitely FTA on Ch 10 but both the ARU and the network were skint

fantastic blueprint, so in 2016 we now realize that the grassroots have to be funded, more pathways, more women, more sevens, a development comp. So what a pity we have been living in a cave for the last 20 yrs, who would have thought develop the grassroots, now it all makes sense. So now all we need is for Super rugby to create a bit more interest than lawn bowls and bingo?