"A real shame": Scott Robertson laments the "gulf" between NZ and Australian rugby

Ah no they didn't. We won the first ever rugby world cup.

I'll allow you the last word, you need to salvage something for your pride.

The laugh was on you.

Wendall, please if you knew anything at all about the behavior of Rugby Australia over the last few decades you'd know that paying overs for a couple of League converts was the least of their failings. And thx, you were.... amusing.

Finally we are in agreement. I totally agree with you're above statement and assessment. The Australian Rugby Union have been totally irresponsible. They have wasted a bucket load of money on people like Wendall Sailor for instance when they should have been developing the grass roots. It is not the New Zealand Rugby Union's responsibility to bail them out but having said as much a willingness to work together would not go astray either. Nice chatting with you Mr Jones - I think !! I've enjoyed it anyway, Until next time.

Australian Rugby had a massive opportunity (1980s to early 2000s) to grow the game, to develop its player and fan base. Instead it arrogantly chose to p$ss it all away. Now like an immature, irresponsible petulant teenager they want that NZR bails them out. Why… when they have the ability to do it themselves, they just have to work harder with discipline and humility.

Grammatical errors I can live with, claiming one thing as another to preserve your ego I cannot abide.

You sound about as delusional as the Rugby administrators. When did I ever say that provincialism didn't matter. Wow, you must like fighting with your shadow. I am sure that many understand my meaning even if you don't. Hope you enjoy your provincial championship even if the majority of Australians don't realise it's even on. The whole saga has a whiff of ancient Rome to it. Nothing much has changed really has it. Feed the masses bread and circuses and they believe that they are the kings of the world. No wonder football has been likened to a Religion. It is indeed the opiate of the people. By the way, I hate to mention it but you had a couple of grammatical error's a couple of posts back.

If culture. media attention and interest don’t count for anything then why not transplant a team from the United States into the competition… thats why I’d suggest Provincialism is important, you’re arguing for it now? If you cherry pick the last decade instead of, as you have conveniently done the first half a season of results you will find that the NRL Titan, Penrith Para, Warriors etc have been mud for just the first half of this year?

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness"... so thank you

I thought “If the shoe fits wear it”, might be more appropriate Mr Jones - for you that is.

You have raised an interesting point and it is one that has many at Moore Park anxious. The blow out in scores. Yes, the scores have been one sided this year and it has people at NRL headquarters and the Nine network not to mention Fox particularly concerned because households these days have little black devices known as remote controls and guess what Mr Jones, they are using them. I never said that Rugby League was perfect. There are gaps in player standards, there is rorting of the Salary Cap not least of all by the Melbourne Storm but the problems facing Rugby League are not as systemic or as intractable as those facing Super Rugby. If you cherry pick the last decade instead of, as you have conveniently done the first half a season of results you will find that the NRL has in fact succeeded remarkably well in maintaining a highly competitive and engaging competition structure. If culture. media attention and interest don't count for anything then why not transplant a team from the United States into the competition. There are those around foolish enough to suggest such things. The U.S.A have more players than Australia and New Zealand combined. Well, the answer is simple because a square peg doesn't fit into a round hole. South Africa have recognised as much. The people in Delaware or Tampa Bay don't give a damn about Super Rugby. There isn't the support for it and I hate to tell you but nor is there sufficient support for it in Australia, at least not in it's present form.

why is it that you cannot answer directly to the obvious mistakes in your comments? which is how this correspondence developed… despite having access to a pool of talent the envy of many If your only “evidence” of this is the IDEA that players from Auckland will prefer to sign with them at some stage of their career (before they have proven themselves or after? before they have made friends, families and lives in Aust or after etc etc) – this of course on the back of you simultaneously arguing that a pro-club structure prevents that exact thing… bravo bravo I can see why you’ve avoided to answer. And secondly your desperate desire to facilitate an equal outcome belies the fact that this has never been the case in the NRL or any other pro sport competition. Penrith has won the title twice in 60 years and the Titans are MUD and have always been MUD (pretty similar to the Force and Rebels). 50-6, 44-8, 48-0, 46-4, 38-0,48-10, 40-6 these are just a few of the scores from this years NRL, looks just as uneven, possibly worse than SR. Not to mention that, in this terrible draconian structure of Provincialism, that you are so desperate to condemn, there has been a significant diversity of winners and losers. Every Kiwi team has won a title as has almost every AUST and SAF team. The Crusaders went from last to first in a one year (97-98), Auckland were unstoppable in the first two years and then for awhile were a laughing stock. Reds have been up and down, Brumbies mostly up, Bulls very much up and down etc etc A comparison of the two comps in terms of success mobility would reveal the two to be reasonably similar. The point you miss is that there have been winners and losers in both structures, and rather than learn from the example of others and have a decent crack at it you’d rather prefer Aust Rugby to cry foul over the system and blame everything other than the things in their control – weak. I’ve not even bothered to mention the great benefits of Provincialism.

Come. Now !! Mr Jones. That's not like you, to be so modest. I am sure that there are many New Zealand expats more than happy to return home to the motherland. I disagree profoundly, how could they not have greater access to home grown talent than foreign clubs. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is perhaps not the best example having been born in Apia but he chose to return to New Zealand despite his having well established himself at the Roosters. The Warriors have advantages that the Melbourne Storm could only dream of and yet...... despite this, it hasn't been enough to warrant success. Talent is more fairly distributed in the Rugby League because it is a comparatively open market. You will have no argument from me on this point but to expect that Australian teams can exist on a level playing field whilst the New Zealand Rugby Union hides it's players behind a protection racket is to demand too much of Australian Rugby. The Melbourne Storm prove that despite the lack of player talent success can be artificially grafted. The NRL recognise this and go to all lengths, some of them ethically questionable to maintain Rugby League's footprint in Melbourne. The problem is that Rugby are still behaving like gentlemen in a professional era. When all is said and done, this is business, big business and Rugby needs to wake up before it looses a toe hold in its biggest market in the South Pacific.

seems you need to take a little break, maybe a walk and remember this famous quote… “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so”… Think on that one, it fits you like a glove.

The Storm have been quite successful haven’t they… compare their fortunes to say Paramatta (a club with an organic talent base or as you’d suggest access to bla bla) and yet Melbourne in a pro-club comp has been about as dominate as the Crusaders.. sure the Crusaders are better but there are obvious comparisons. Why does the NRL produce regular winners in the storm and roosters and regular losers Warriors and Paramatta if it such a better option?

despite having access to a pool of talent the envy of many these were your words in reference to the warriors... and yet their access is no greater than that of any other club..

The term blind arrogance doesn't constitute a typo either. When was the last time you read an Australian newspaper ? I recommend that when you do so you bring a magnifying glass to look for the rugby section. You are correct, Einstein, the Melbourne Storm are a professional and very successful rugby franchise despite the fact that very few of their players are from Victoria. You have inadvertently made my point. Not quiet as well as I have but then you didn't intend to, did you. In blind pursuit of national success rugby union in New Zealand and Australia has lost sight of why people watch the game in the first instance. To be entertained. Protectionism went out with the 1970's comrade. Do you think that the French couldn't regularly put forward a successful national team if they chose to ? Yes, The Melbourne Storm have been the beneficiaries of NRL largesse and some questionable officiating from time to time but unlike you or some dim witted rugby administrators the NRL recognises that the Victorian market is a valuable, indispensible one. Rugby needs to get past your kind of blind and archaic parochialism and protectionism and do what is in the best interests of the game. I repeat, a rising tide lifts all boats.

did you mistakenly press the o and r keys instead of the w key?

No I just thought there was some greater point you were trying to infer, unlikely as that seems now. Also that doesn’t fit the definition of a typo – does it