World Series Rugby: Please just do it, Twiggy

There's nothing as humiliating I find as losing your own scrum feed via a hook (vs a push). If you can manage to win a few in a row, the other team moral will crumble :) queue the forwards bickering and muttering their hooker to start hooking

Superficially, as a Perth resident and Force fan, I am gagging to find out what the format for WSR will take next year. I am with you in that regard. Right now, the only people that need/deserve to know what is going on are the players and the teams. It is sheer arrogance for us to expect that we should have front row seats to the negotiation process. Announcing a list of teams and then axing one or 2 at the end, reality TV style, to buy them time to finalize things may be the ARU's style, but Twiggy's Mindaroo group are professionals and clearly aren't stooping to that level. Andrew Forrest has said a lot of things, most of which need to be considered as a wish list, a mission statement, a vision. All good, but they are at the nuts and bolts end of planning and execution. Not all wishes have come true, and that is OK. The plan is for 8 teams, The teams under the SANNZAAR region banner on the same spreadsheet as 20+ others. the next 3 preferred options will get the opportunity instead. Recently, there have been a spate of articles almost demanding that Twiggy show us his plan or telling us that it is a failure because it is late, this one included. My inner skeptic saw a bunch of headlines about how Twiggy is making a mess of things, Promising a Western Sydney team and then not being able to deliver. Then, buried in media noise, it was quietly mentioned that NSWRU and RA "had withdrawn Support" which is Weasel speak for "Denying". Looks very much like misdirection to make it look like Twiggy's Fault, It is more likely a desperate act of self preservation. I get it, it is best for RA, their atrophied carcass will live a bit longer, but it doesn't seem to be what is best Australian Rugby. "We don't wan't it but you can't have it", Not exactly a mature approach. They are losing even more credability, I didn't think that was possible.

You reckon so? Modern players are more inclined to keep the ball in hand. Most of the kicks will still be retrieved inside the attacking half so I reckon teams won’t kick back as much.

News today is that the delay and subsequent turfing of the idea of a West Sydney team was apparently the doing of the NSWRU, not Twiggy.

The lack of announcements is explained by these decisions by R(E)A and it's parent RNSW. Doing whatever they can to ensure the game falters and dies where ever they don't have total control.

Rugby Australia are still inferring with the competition by pulling the Western Sydney side from WSR 2019.... They also stand in the way to get marque players including Australian players to play in Australia and be illegible for Wallaby selection. Cameron and kie's hands are all over WSR and continue to be obstructive in what is a desperately needed innovation and shake up of rugby in Australia

Andrew Forrest was never going to put a contract in front of Darren Coleman. It was the backers of the proposed Western Sydney side that were negotiating with Coleman. Andrew Forrest/Minderoo are running the competition - not the clubs. Forrest/Minderoo currently own the Western Force but have already stated an intention to have the ownership transferred when appropriate.

250 hrs should be 350 hrs.

That $18 M is already wasted so there was not saving. Anyway the worst they could have done was to merge two sides and with Twiggy's financial backing that could have worked. However they painted themselves in a corner where they decided to axe a side (volentary) and there was only one they could legally axe. Dumb!

To "deal with actual reality, constraints and stakeholders" are doing equally well in RA. They cannot even spell stakeholders!

Yes it was them that decided not to support a team for the 2019 season as they drag their feet and is unable to make it happen....

No you are a Cameron Clyne fan and axing the Force fan and apologist. They can do nothing wrong in your eyes even if the facts are showing that they got it wrong.

Without the Force he may have been lost of Australia rugby. One of many that got a chance to develop at the Force when they were disregarded by the establishment. Just look at the best Wallabies players in the recent tests - most of them had a Force connection.

You are guessing again. RA is still doing everything they can to stop WSR from getting up - they have form and World Rugby has to drag them so far to endorse the competition. World Rugby can see a billionaire that is willing to spend his money to support rugby in areas where it is needed and that is not supported by RA as a good thing for World Rugby. Clyne's ego however cannot handle it that someone do a better job at running rugby than himself. He had to go long ago but continue to hand around like a bad smell.

There certainly is in WA and in the Indo-Pacific/Asia region.

"Perhaps they are blocking him" - no sh4t! That is what they have been doing from the beginning! To narrow minded to see beyond their own interest.

So you made it up? "RA have essentially signed off everything it’s gone quiet now that it’s all up to Twiggy and WSR…" - no RA is still dragging their feet to try to sabotage a billionaire that is willing to invest his own money in Australian rugby, Unbelievable stupid!

From the very first announcement about the IPRC/WSR it was clear that the intention is to grow the game of Rugby Union in the region and create a competition such that these countries could keep and nurture home-grown talent. Forrest/Minderoo's intention is to invest $150M over 3 years to address issues re governance, coaching, team and player management and develop the game right down to the RugbyRoos/pre-school level. Of course not all of the target countries are capable of joining WSR straight away. That's why it will be only 6 or 8 teams for the start-up year. The clear intention is for private ownership of the WSR teams. That's already happening in Japan. It's unlikely to be an issue in Hong Kong and Singapore but may need a bit longer in the PIs and elsewhere. It won't necessarily be high standard rugby in the 1st year as it's a RWC year - few of the marque players will be moving pre-RWC. It's likely to be the same for other professionals who may be national team eligible. So it will be a formulative year of testing the set-up. A regular home-and-away season will be a good step-up from the WSR invitational games played in 2018. It was always the intention that Minderoo would pay for (on average) 2 marque players per team. Hodgson has lined up a list of International (including Aussies playing OS) professional players who are interested in joining WSR. Despite what some naysayers have advised this is FACT). For Aussies it means getting closer to home than Europe. These players would be available to play for all of the clubs (but paid for by these clubs). There may be a limit on the number but that has never been stated. The marque players and professional players are there to mentor/enhance the local talent and have a positive influence on the game in that country. (Probably with the same 250 hrs/year community rugby involvement that is part of the contract for Western Force players.) WSR always wanted to get Aussies who are playing OS but not qualified under the 'Gitteau Rule' back to being Wallaby eligible. It is unclear if that will be the case. Have to wait and see. Forrest's initiative has the backing of World Rugby and most other National Unions - hence the announcement by World Rugby in Sydney about 2 weeks ago. It's clearly evident that it was Western Sydney potential backers who approached WSR re having a team in the new competition. Now at least we know who blocked that initiative. I'm interested to see what NSWRU and RA have planned to develop Rugby Union in Western Sydney. In reality WSR should benefit rugby in WA, in the Indo-Pacific/Asia region and for rugby globally. It also has the chance of being beneficial for development of Aussie rugby players who clearly can't fit into 4 SR franchises. It's going to be an interesting next 9-10 months and to see what unfolds beyond 2020.

RA and specifically the Master of the House Cameron Clyne claimed that axing the Force will improve the Australia Superugby sides, the Wallabies, release funds to support grassroots rugby, improve crowd numbers and help RA to remain solvent. But have you look at what happened since..... Have a look at Clyne's interview with Jones last year prior to the axing of the Force - just full of it. Force supporters argue that you do not improve rugby by cutting players and we are proven correct. If it was not for Twiggy, rugby in WA would never recover from the Master of House's incompetence. The Force attracted the best crowds this year and we did not even play Superugby! And the naysayers like TWAS has been proven wrong time and time again by ordinary rugby people. It will be a very blue Bledisloe cup next year and the All Blacks will get a lot of support within Australia and RA will be the laughing stock of the Rugby World.

getting rid of the team that was costing them $18 million in the first place?