New coach – Joe Schmidt

4 and twenty are rubbish pies. Tried to buy NZ street food (an outlet had a range of otoducts), after waiting 20 at the hot food area I gave up and brought hot chips.

Hi Geoff,
The lady and I waited to the day if to buy a 3 day pass, with Covid we wanted to make sure our teams were playing and prices may drop if less teams playing. Friday morning we go to buy a 3 day gold pass online, where earlier in the week heaps were available, to find out the only ones I could buy were silver or bronze behind the posts. We went to ticketek in Melbourne and they said they could go nothing, try buying at the game. At the game, big signs saying buy online only! After waiting 40 mins in the queue, we are told silver is the best available. We brought them (you could buy tickets there, just a big mother of a sign saying otherwise!) as had flown in for the weekend. To find no tickets on upper levels sold and bottom areas for gold and platinum sold out, was very disappointing as we would have brought gold or platinum tickets. Many food and beverage outlets were closed, so would prefer to be up a level with them closed than behind the posts with them closed. Opening one, or maybe two sections in the upper level would have sold more tickets. Not being able to buy tickets at the ground is plan stupid, and then being able to is even more stupid. Blaming Covid is really not on anymore.

John Quinn, Crusaders Metal skills coach?

Csn I add; Go the soccer route, no water boys. Only medics with no or maybe one water bottle allowed.
If someone needs a drink, they need to go to the sideline.
I am sick of seeing water boys passing on messages and the refs trying to start the game.

I lived the first one they had, indigenous parts on one shoulder and around the bottom, thought it was more classy than the current green. Then keep it permanent

Add one player and call it rugby league, oops that already taken!

Great news for the reds.

I would like to see place kicks kicked to the bin. All penalties and conversions become drop kicks.
How much time would it save in the game, also it a much tougher skill to reward soft penalties 50m out.

Japan don’t want a competition with Australia, they are just starting there own competition. Australia needs its own domestic competition with Australian teams. Stop word about every other country and start work v about Australia.
On the international game. I believe we need to do competitions like the rugby championship pre planed forget one location only and stick to it. Travelling is going to cause issues with lockdowns happening non stop.

I have noticed that next years trans Tasman competition has not been confirmed and announced. Thinking RA should split all the super AU teams into two and play a domestic competition of ten teams. No foreign teams, just Aussie’s.
NZ rugby management is not trustworthy or consistent enough to deal with. This all started when They swapped CEO’s.

Good local tough comp, a few grades below the Hospital Cup. I was watching Burnie play Taroona on Facebook live on the weekend with all 89 other viewers!
I am going to travel to Devonport to watch the semi on Saturday. Tough road trip, 45 minutes along a Bass Highway with water views all the way.
Tassie is probably tougher than Victoria on winter sports, only AFL here with a few soccer games added in. All other sports struggle to break in, media coverage Is 98% AFL and and token story about something else. Wallabies don’t even get a mention.
Nice to see a story about something that’s not the Shute Shield infighting.
Go the Burnie Emu’s.

Not sure he’s going on about. Nic’s reffing been great this year. He should of had him the last couple of years when it was very frustrating watching him ref.

Hi ffray,
If I had my way, we would have 3 nsw teams (two city and one country) 3 Qld, 2 from WA, Vic and SA, one from NT, TAS, and ACT.
28 week comp with no byes, with super rugby and internationals playing above this at the same time. Players going up and down as needed. Small TT comp like this year which is state teams feed from the NRC teams with 3 teams aligned to them that there players come from.

Interesting reading the comments (I have not read all).
It seems if you are from Sydney, the NRC is a joke, and if you come from anywhere else in Australia it is a must.
My take it is a must, each super team can have two teams below them, my preference would be nsw and Qld have city and country teams, the others a state team, plus another state (or territory) team. 10 teams, 9 games if they play each other once. Super assistant coaches could be head coaches, SR administrators run the clubs so we don’t need to double up costs. SR players not in wallabies play plus a few club players stepping up. The goal would be for these players to come from there local catchment area as much as possible, as this builds interest in the area. If done correctly, when players make rep teams or the top club competition, then there next step is NRC.
This is a no brainer. The only issue is how to pay for it, although if done right. Costs would be very low, travel and play in the day if possible, semi professional or amateur players.
It can be done if thought through correctly

Thanks Nick, very interesting read.
I picked up on that the average life span of international player if 6.5 years and at world cups, 28(ash) years old.
It got to me thinking about a conversation I had yesterday that the Reds had underperformed in the TT, and I said that they are missing the older guys in the squad, need to what another 3-5 years as they age like a good Red should. I have noticed that they are bring young talent through which is keeping the pipeline humming. On the other hand the Force has done as we expected, with too many older players, this helps not getting smacked in the score, but not always getting the win.
Two things stand out for me

1. Why does Australia lose a lot of mid age players (often at their peak). Family (MONEY) is the obversely the main reason, although i would think the average Wallaby would be on $500-800k (plus the odd $1M player). Is the Wallaby jersey not enough of a pull to counter the money?
I understand at super level the offer of 2/3 or 5 times your wage is close to impossible to turn down, especially the young players who are either not future Wallabies or fringe Wallabies. Does Australia not value to older player?

2. What is the best age range/spread for a team/squad. if you went something like low/18-23, mid/24-28, and high/29+

Don’t think we need buys, it’s a one size fits all approach, if players are managed correctly they can be rested for a week off when needed. I believe different players have different needs and often different positions require specialised approaches.

Hi LG,
I agree that Aussie Rugby has to look after Australian Rugby first. The question you have asked is how, and I agree that both Rugby AU and TT should stay.
It has been proven beyond doubt that Aussie want to watch Aussie play first and foremost. If anything the AU comp should be extended, and another Australian team needs to come in, not a foreign team, no matter the feel good factor, to grow the game in Australia, Australia needs more Australian teams, not foreign teams, Australian teams grow the game in Australia, giving more pathways to the top, more players playing professional rugby and less players going to league because they they can make a living there and not in rugby. Foreign teams are for the TT or International cross over comp whatever form this takes.
Yes, Thorn said they need to play against the Kiwis to measure yourself against the best, but you do not need a full season of games to do this.
The first core priority for RA its to develop and grow the game in Australia, get it back to a solid supporter base with a solid financial model for future prosperity.
This should be the core question RA asks for every decision they make.

Hi Geoff,
Love your articles, wish you had one every day.
The Sydney Shute shield debacle reminds me of Jono’s great article (https://www.theroar.com.au/2021/05/28/how-should-australian-rugby-be-governed/) about the structure of Australian rugby. To many chiefs looking after themselves only.
It sound like Sydney Elite clubs looking after themselves to the belittling of the game as a whole. Being a kiwi living in Brisbane for 22 years and now part way through a 18 month stint in Tasmania-go the Burnie Emus- I have little knowledge of Sydney rugby except the bits and pieces published which you have to take with a grain of salt. The big issue I see is that not Shute Shield is trying to grow (I honestly hope this is the reason they are doing this), although many may say this is the opposite of what is happening. Is that kicking Western Sydney out does not pass the pub test and smells a little to much.
It is the lack of noise coming from RA that is concerning. I must say it can only be for a few reasons;
1. Working behind closed doors to fix this.
2. Hoping the clubs somehow make a 3rd tier competition that RA do not have to fund
3. The structure of Rugby in Australia give them little ability to do anything.
4. In the process of fixing the structure of Australian rugby, then the can come over the top and clean up once new structure is in place.
5. Bury there heads in the sand and hope for the beat.
Whatever the reason, it is wrong for RA to say nothing. RA needs to come out and be seen to looking after Australian Rugby as a whole. Western Sydney cannot be left to rot, and now more than ever, needs RA support in whatever is the best for rugby.

Great read.
Thank you

JP is injured, not sure of a return date.

Agree, bring back rucking. Will fix the ruck!
Unfortunately the world has moved on and I’m still drinking my beer and talking about the good old hard days.

I agree Scrum, needs to be black and white, no grey areas. Coming down hard is tough and hard to change peoples attitude. If you want real change, then you have a red line and it does not move, the next crop of players coming through will accept the red line as normal, and the old guys can swing on there beer and remember the good old days when we were the hard men when they can’t remember the game because they played concussed.

DMac’s tackle;

No arms
Raising in the tackle
Shoulder on head

Red card

Asking or a more nuisance approach asks for more grey area, make it black and white and everyone knows where we stand. Rugby is a moving jigsaw puzzle that never gets completed, and whatever the rules for head knocks, there will always be grey areas, leave the rule fixed hard where it is and everyone knows where we stand.

No watering down on safety.

Wally James The Muttaburrasaurus, you are not the only one not happy with PE coming into the game, I believe a bit short sighted and the games current governing bodies may regret this in 5-10 years time. NZ Silver Lake deal is not standing on thin ice yet, but the ice has melted to bring in some worry for them. The issues is the control they are asking for, and the long term issues when they want to sell, or the next stakeholder wants to sell. Each new stakeholder will want something different out of it and the governing body slowly loses control and objectives will change due to new money men.
Then if PE has done a good job in adding value and there share price has risen, the governing body most likely can’t afford to buy it back! All the money gone to grassroots (I wish).
NZ and Australian rugby would be better off opening clubhouses (pubs/restaurants) in places they play regularly like Brisbane, London, Paris etc, this bringing in long term money, and a place the player go to after the game to enhance the experience. Might also go down well with expats also.
A once in a lifetime pandemic is not enough reason to give up.
As this excellent article states, shorting the governance out will focus the correct people on the correct jobs while saving money and making the sport agile.