All Blacks out of Brisbane Tens: report

Except most of the Kangaroos will play in the Auckland nines

Maybe that`s why ive seen a fair few tickets on GUMTREE cut price for this event..

From NZ Herald today ...understands the union is intending to give the all-clear for Blues loose forward Steven Luatua, Highlanders hooker Liam Coltman, Hurricanes lock Vaea Fifita and Crusader Seta Tamanivalu. All toured with the All Blacks in November last year but had limited game time with Fifita not even getting on the field. Jordie Barrett, younger brother of Beauden and the "apprentice" on the northern tour with the All Blacks, has also been released to play in the tournament. Nehe Milner-Skudder will make his return to rugby alongside Fifita and Jordie Barrett. Lock Luke Romano is also set to play for the Crusaders. Kaino, Dagg and McKenzie may travel to Brisbane as tournament "ambassadors" but won't play.

fair enoough mate, obviously im not privy to the detail about who said what to whom and when

It is the New Zealand Rugby Unions Players Association not the NZRU making the call about the availability of any All Black players. Perhaps the NZRU don't have an issue and allowed Dagg to be an Ambassador. Anyway without the All Blacks players it may even up the sides and make a better tournament.

I agree with your second paragraph, although I also think this tournament is not a bad way to blow out the cobwebs before the start of the Super Rugby season. Having said that, something obviously went a bit skew-if over at NZRU headquarters. I remember seeing videos promoting this tournament featuring Israel Dagg months ago. Somebody at the NZRU must have signed off on his involvement in those? If they didn't, they should have at least told Duco to pull them. Perhaps they did... At any rate, I don't think its unreasonable to say that the advertising for the 10s certainly created an expectation that several All Blacks would be playing and that the Super teams would be fielding close to full strength sides (therefore including All Blacks). If that is not what is actually going to happen, then the fans have a right to be annoyed at Duco. And if Duco was allowed to give that impression falsely because the NZRU didn't notice or act until now, that is poor form from the NZRU too.

Duco needs to understand what the word "provisional" means. An old saying about cake and eating springs to mind!

To Andy - I imagine the same or similar process would apply in NZR as well. Duco I guess would have had to get a tick through whatever channels to use chosen players for promotional purposes. That's a given. However as I have said this is a Duco Event (not ARU or NZR). How they choose to promote the event is over to them.

This tournament is about money for Duco and the ARU it has little or no value especially given some of the Golden Oldies strapping on their boots and trying to relive old days gone by. So the complaining of players having too heavy a schedule ???

NZ must have a different system to here then. My understanding is that the ARU have to sign off on all sponsorships and endorsements by contracted players, which is one of the reasons the contracting process is so tedious and drawn out. While the ARU may not be involved in the tournament, I would expect they absolutely were involved in allowing the use of players to endorse the tournament - I read that as why it was a big deal getting the Unions to endorse the tournament. If all that was not the same for the NZRU, it must be some sort of free-for-all in NZ with players doing what they want and sticking the defacto AB brand on anything they like.

It is quite possible that all parties will end up delivering what they agreed to deliver. Four of their top ten highest paid players in match day squads of 18. Extended squads also in Brisbane leading up to the tournament for training camps and heading into clubs and schools for coaching sessions etc.

Not sure if any player can be contracted to the All Blacks ... to NZR yes. Just a wee point. Its not up to NZR to tell Duco who they should use and how they should promote the event. You don't know what Duco thought. I would be very surprised if they were not aware that there was a chance ABs or some ABs would be unavailable for this tournament. If they were not aware that would be a mistake on their part. NZR are bound by the collective agreement so there is nothing last minute or selfish about this at all. What is "last minute" is that you - through the media - are just now being made aware of it.

I hear what you saying soapit but its duco, they have been told from the start they wouldn't be available, duco also use billy slater to advertise the auckland nines yet hes never played in it, yet the fans from nz brought tickets thinking he would be playing, most people in nz hate duco they dodge and just out to make money for themselves

Too true council. Lets see the team sheets before ruling out any ABs participation. The thing people need to realise is that there is Zero advantage to NZ allowing their players to play yet they absorb a large risk. However I am hopeful that quite a few ABs will play

Which is a position they (NZRU) did not want but it was forced apon them by the Players union

Redsfan the NZRU was forced into giving the international players a 3 month break and now its their fault the same break makes some unavailable? Hard to blame NZRU on this one but DUCO may have a bit to answer for

no reason at all. just dont let them feature in the ads and wait till the last minute to make the call.

They do the same thing with the Kangaroos at the Auckland nines, and also the abs don't play in the npc and some of them don't play in the first rounds of super rugby so why should the nzru let them play in a meaningless competition in Australia when nz fans don't even get to watch them in there on competitions

You seem to ignore the fact rugby is a niche game in Aust ... the interest on a national scale isn't there and the game is contracting

Well considering the Australian economy is more than 1.5x the size of Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand combined, from an economic point of view it isn't very delusional. Ultimately I am more for a push towards the Sanzaar nations diversifying their chips into the Asian market in order to survive instead of the African market which is where the financial dollars are coming from atm. The first step to this Asian market is through Australia, the country that is geographically the closest and have the closest economic ties with. South Africa has been very good to the economic climate of Southern Hemisphere rugby but there is absolutely no future in maintaining this as the status quo, this is for the sake of all parties, South Africa included. In terms of the current parties the financial propensity of rugby in New Zealand (fourth biggest economy) is practically maximised as it currently is, this has been done through excellent management and governance of the game. Argentina (the second biggest market) is unestablished (professionally) but has scope to develop financial dollars for the SANZAAR nations but with an absolute juggernaut in football chewing up financial sporting resources by the time this potentially gets beyond even a self sustaining model it would potentially be too late for Southern Hemisphere rugby to keep any level of quality stars. South Africa (third biggest economy) has some scope for further economic growth with the inclusion of the native community, however the economy itself isn't strong and far from improving, plus for reasons politically and historically these communities don't have a lot of dollars for sponsors to seriously invest in the game. That leaves Australia, a country that has an established foot in the game, is geographically friendly to the Asian market (therefore investors). If we even managed to triple the current financial output for rugby in Australia (yep still dwarfed by league, cricket and AFL) it would be enough to maintain most stars and have a flow on effect to the fellow parties, particularly New Zealand who has incredibly and fantastically maximised their economic output, which with the continually growing Rugby economies of the UK and Europe will eventually wont be enough on its own. How delusional my thoughts maybe is up for debate but smart business chases the dollars, especially where you already have a presence. We are quickly moving towards a football type predicament where the big leagues will be in Europe and Asia. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will become to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia football equivalent of the rugby world.