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It is easy to hate Europe. It has the Six Nations that does what it wants when it wants. It has clubs who take…
Over this last under 20s Championship much has been made of the approach taken by the European and non-European sides. Things such as France…
In my last article, we discussed why the French system helps bring through more underage players than anywhere else. We discussed how players like…
In 2011 New Zealand became the first team to win the World Rugby Under 20 Championship (also known as the Junior World Cup) and…
With recent calls for changes to Test selections in both Australia and New Zealand, some hard decisions need to be made if things are…
With nearly a month gone and the recent internationals just a memory I have calculated some stats that hopefully will give a better view…
This time 30 years ago, South Africans were getting ready to be included in Super 10. Having only the Currie Cup for so long,…
With the end of year tour upon us, I will be gathering stats to build a picture of the nations, with a focus on…
Part 1 looked at how transfers can be introduced. Part 2 was about all the positives the plan had for Super Rugby. This third…
We are currently enjoying the biggest Women’s Rugby World Cup to date.
Part 1 dealt with how Super Rugby can bring in transfer fees, by doing certain things with player contracts. With the reduction of the…
This year, the English Premier League spent a record £2.2b on transfers of players. Because they are the biggest commercial league, they are able…
In the heat of the moment, it is easy to feel everything is lost. Injustices taken personally as though we had been Bernard Foley,…
January 2016, possibly the last time the SANZAAR nations felt things were going well. The 2015 World Cup had just finished, with all four…
In 2015 New Zealand had possibly the best rugby squad ever assembled for a World Cup, but the slow decline of internal standards since…
In 1995 the game turned professional and the different regions adjusted to different degrees. In the South SANZAR was formed along with the expansion…
Oz crowd hates losing and If you like lots of running or high scores then you have AFL and NRL that can also do it. SR in the early years was brute force as much as skill and that is what brings people in. The more running rugby Oz does the less people engage. The team of the 90s did the dirty work before the ball went wide.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
What % of those who follow Rugby could tell you what SR team each of the WBs play for. Most of the people who watch the WBs only want to see stars on the field and don’t worry about where they play the other 6 months.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
You are going to end up with a team that is like the Black Caps where they go around the world getting games because RA and NZ are not going to be able to rises in income for all 160 players each union needs to fund for SR so that wage bill has to come down.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
SA has 60m so 8% is only about 5m about the same size as those interested in Rugby in OZ.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
how much longer with the sabbaticals work though as you are putting players with rich club owners. T14 clubs have a $17m wage cap which is three times the SR wage so every player earns more OS and that is the issue.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
The number of SA players getting URC and Champions Cup rugby with the 4 URC teams is more than SR ever was. Jake and others have said that their squad is two small to be able to compete but for the Bulls they are building slowly. They also have to rest players for 2 months over the season so if a player gets injured they can’t use the player on the 2 months rest. The fact that a Boks heavy Stormers didn’t make it past the last 16 shows the standard of the competition. The Jags did great in SR but Argentina were not good at all during those 4 years. Now they are all back in Europe they have better again and their young players will grow faster when the Jags join SR as they will not have many if any test players so they will show how good Oz teams could be.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
The current model is they are spending half the wages on the test squad and the rest of the SR squads are not good enough to improve the test players. I haven’t looked at all the figures but at the WC there were 317 players at the WC involved in The Champions or Challenge Cup with alot of the T1 nations outside of Oz and NZ plus half the players of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Georgia. The big problem is that European u20s are training with the professional teams for 10 months and at 21 you are getting 5+ games a year. In SR you only get in the squad if they think you are a finished product so having young players in SR will speed up development not slow it down.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Bulls were in that position because they refuse to send A team to away games in Europe. the top teams get home games in the knockouts because they don’t throw away games. Bordeaux topped their group because they got a LBP like Bulls but got 4 TBPs. Bulls didn’t pick up LBPs v Sarries at home because Sarries sent a full team and full didn’t get one v Lyon because they sent a B side. If they had sent an A side they would have topped the pool and had a home quarter. While Toulouse and Leinster look to be favourites I am not sure anyone who have picked the two other teams in the Semis. Atleast there are two teams and as the SA sides are finding out it normally takes 2-3 years for players to get use to the Champions Cup as if you lose one group game you have to beat one of the favourites away from home in the Semi.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Look at that Toulouse pack and frontrow and replacements. Having a stable frontrow required them all to be good.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
And a Test side pack at that.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Oz don’t need another Italy type loss where the back up players lose and the slide carries on.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
So what you are saying is that Oz just doesn’t have the players any more to be a better team as you don’t think OS players will make a difference. If that is the story then RA is about to lose their cashcow in the WBs.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Bring in 23 OS players and 23 home based players and play them against each other. Then we can compare apples and oranges. SA are able to use the players they pick while Oz have not seems to. Players return to SR improved having been in Europe so why do you think they aren’t showing the same at test level. With JS if he picks Skelton expect big improvements in his performance and also JS style to look alot more like NH rugby than SR. Rennie played more like SR which is why people like Skelton struggled as he isn’t going to run 20ms on the wing but he will hit every ruck within 5m of him and secure the ball for this team.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Look at Hansen. Was not good enough to nail down a SR spot so went OS. If he had been a starter he may have stayed and then might not be as good as he is now. All the players that are staying but not getting test rugby are missing out on game time and so are not progressing as fast as they would if playing 20 games over 9 months with a much more varied style of play.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
You mean RA doesn’t have the money to pay, rugby does but RA and NZR do not which is why they think dreams and promises will get players.
The forgotten leader Razor must pick for the All Blacks - and why it could change who wears the prized No.10 jersey
Many complained that DMac should have been picked for the ABs in 2022 yet he went off with the XV and while coached by Razor failed to have impact on a team like Quinns who had their best players away with England. Plenty players have looked great at test level but then fail to do it at Test level which is why players like Cane, Savea Jordi etc were picked sometimes out of position because they could play test rugby but the flasher SR players could not. Still waiting to hear how Fakatava and Ratima have justified selection when Weber was not good enough for test rugby, are they suddenly better than Weber was last year. Lets see Roigard play against a T1 side because the one game he did play it was lost and his only highlight was when the record score was already secured by SA.
The forgotten leader Razor must pick for the All Blacks - and why it could change who wears the prized No.10 jersey
Twiggy loves the force and if spending $10m on wages got him SR titles regularly then he would. Not sure why he would pay for other teams who can overspend and then RA just wipe their debt out. RA is happy to pay extra to the east coast teams to have better squads. I doubt that the 1.5m Joe wage is all being included in the Tahs SR wage bill so why not even the field.
Huge coup sees Wallabies hooker coming home to Super Rugby on long-term deal, with World Cup in sights
But do you want all the talk during the SR season not being about who is going to get selected for the test rugby but who is going to get sold to European teams. You will have European teams copy the Benfica and Ajax model where they come and buy up all the top 18 year olds and then sell them on at 21 as JIFF players for bigger money. What you would see is about 4-5 teams from the URC and about the same from the Prem and T14 and all of the Pro D2 coming to Oz schools signing up the best kids and they would never make it to SR and would make the European teams even richer.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
But that is not how transfer fees work. Rugby could do the under 23 rule like soccer but the FAs get none of that. If a player is sold and is under 23 then the clubs he was at growing up get the money, the FAs get nothing. I did three articles on this and it is easy to bring in fees and the French Clubs are already paying fees but RA will get nothing and the big winners would be the non SR teams in Oz as they will just sell to the highest bidder allowing them to keep more young players and if contracted to the SS then SR would have to have loan agreements to use the players in SR.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Its how lower level teams in soccer compete. If SS put in buy out clause of 300k on every 18 year old and tell the players they get 100k when sold the players will be happy. What do the SS teams get now from the SR clubs, if Meafou had signed for SR side his local team would have got as much money as they got from Toulouse.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
If JS picks him expect him to be alot better. In games full of test players in the Champions Cup he has stood head an shoulder above them. He dominated Leinster who are as strong as some of the weaker T1 nations. You are talking losing POM for a B&I Lions. RG Synman will be battling it out with James Ryan, Joe McCarthy and Ryan Baird (all current Irish internationals) just to get in the starting 15. Jordie Barrett is up against Robbie Henshaw and Hugo Keenan to get a starting spot. Rennie didn’t want a massive player to do mauls and breakdowns, he wanted forwards who could run so didn’t use him.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Good Article Harry. Sadly as SR has failed to keep up financially with the European leagues this will happen just like Brazil and Argentina no longer have their star players at home in soccer (though well enough paid). As you say the interest in SA rugby is allowing the SA teams to bring back more players (like Scotland and Ireland have done). RA and NZR need to determine to they want two pies, one pie or not pie. Currently RA and co are only looking at the test rugby and if they carry on as per the current model they will end up with a fully professional test side contracted to the Union and the rest of the players will be semi-pro or OS. The failure to grow the non Test pie has been the biggest challenge. In 2014 T14 deal went from €31.7m to €71m per season. With the SR deal causing SA to lose money they saw mass exodus. RA is experiencing that now. T14 is now now €100m while RA have lost their share of the SA money and have also lost in their own market and they are now at a point where the three richest T14 clubs spend more on Rugby than what RA earns, from which they must spend on alot more travel and run 5 professional teams. Better to manage the transition rather than act when they are in a weaker position. When the 2027 WC is over I am not sure what carrot they will have to sell the players, maybe wait until 2028 so the European teams can see the players in the Club WC.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Easy to bring in fees, put a buyout clause into every player contract. But if SS teams do the same then people would give out that SR has to pay to get their players.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
And would SR or RA just get the players for free or would they have to pay fees to get these players.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table
Does the Brumbies not get a larger % of the people living within 50km of their stadium then the Brumbies or Reds.
Scrap the Giteau Law: Rugby Australia should look to Rassie's 'Boks RWC recipe if it wants to re-join the big boys' table