If the Reds were say to win the Super 14 one year (not likely within 3 years) it could definitely get 30k to each game, as well as a major funding boost to Ballymore. Even just upgrading Ballymore to 35k it can be done, that will provide a 2nd rectangular stadium for QLD which we really do need at the moment, especially with a possible new NRL team for Brisbane on the cards, as well as a possible FIFA World Cup bid.

Surely the government can’t ignore an International game anymore. Redevelop it please

We wouldn’t move all the NQ RL games to Sunny Coast, but it wouild be a good idea, and would attract crowds.

Jim- It is the governments fault because while they are around giving grants to every code other than Union it is us suffering. If the Roar move to Ballymore next year it will probably get more attention to it. You would really think that the Government would pay more attention to Rugby Union as it is a game which has International Profile. For example in 2013 when the British and Irish Lions come over, it will be a boost for all of the Rugby playing States. If the RWC is held in Australia again, it would boost the economy, tourism would be substantially increased, not to mention Stadium’s would be packed, as Rugby is a world game unlike League. I honestly can’t see why the game isn’t receiving more funding particularly towards venues even though the popularity is low in Australia, more players will ultimately mean more success.

I can’t stand Soccer to be honest, but if there was a football world cup I would make a show to a game. The atmosphere there is meant to be amazing and played and watched by supporters with passion. Without a minute’s hesitation I would show up to a game or two.

Australia however will probably not get the World Cup due to the FFA’s lack of cooperation with the other codes, and seeking a resolution, they really better get their act together fast otherwise FFA will have a problem.

FFA have said they are keen to take the WC to North Queensland because of the Great Barrier Reef. AFL could explore the option of taking weeks off. I personally don’t think Australia has enough room for the FIFA World Cup.

Just grabbing one medium to high profile AFL player could really attract the attention of the Victorian Media, and could really enforce a turn out to Rugby Union games held there.

Rebels need to have success like the Melbourne Storm. They need to import players from the countries which are strong in population within Melbourne. That will have a lot of them showing up. They need a couple of big big superstars whether they be O’Driscoll and Thurston. And they should take a few leagues, and promise them good cash and possibile national pride.

To answer the part of the running rugby. I can assure each and everyone of you, that running rugby will return in 2012. I have heard numerous people say so, and the big mistake they made was getting rid of the free kick sanctions, however they will continue in 2012. I assure you all.

Tuiliagi is not that good. He fails to actively be a dominant player in Europe, especially in the Heikeken Cup, other wingers constantly roll over him. Not to add how undisciplined he is.. And yes Ricardo you are incredibly bias. We should invest in League players, because the pride that a lot of them want to hold. Union is an International game, and you get pride for playing for Australia in Union. Not so much like in league. You can play against England at Twickenham in front of 80,000 people or you can play for the Kangaroos against England next door at the Stoop in front of 10,000 people. It is national pride.

Thurston has said that, and a lot of other League players have thought and desired this. But like League a bit better, and are worried, also cash comes into the fray, with test match payments being extravagant. And the player support network being a lot better.

I think that this Rugby franchise in Melbourne will be a success. Can they snatch some of the Storm players, and other league players, as well as a couple of high profile International Players. A lot of the League supporters will probably make the move to Union as well, sounds unlikely, but Melbourne League fans are solely based on the success of the team, with very few league supporters actually ritually showing up each week. For Union in Melbourne it is different, very different. They have it at school based level as well as AFL. They had 4 players in the Australian Schoolboys this year, which is a pretty good feat.

Melbourne team will succeed, it just will struggle to be embraced by the average AFL fan.

Ballymore is now a lot easier to get to now because of the Northern Busway. The match at Ballymore for the Reds this year, I will be there with bells on. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if that crowd sells out because Ballymore is just the beloved ground of QLD Rugby fanatics. The atmosphere at full capacity is truly amazing, and we don’t have those people over the loud speaker telling us to cheer, at Ballymore we just do. In fact my old man is coming up from NSW just for the game, for his love of Ballymore.

SFS to 60k would be a good move. I can understand Finals being at Homebush, I’m sure a large contingent of people would attend that. And the Tahs are a good chance for a Top 2 Finish this year.

Harold Mitchell. Sorry should have specified.

Mitchell in charge is the best possible option. He has class, he has the business brains that Melbourne need. He will take note that the team needs to start off being successful, thus gathering a large fan base to each one of the games. A great move for rugby in Australia and a great move by O’Neil. Something I have not said in a long long time.

O’Driscoll’s addition to the team would be a huge asset, Argentinian based players would be great too. Even just having the fierceness which some of the Argentinians possess, would be fantastic, while having a Fijian flying winger would be great too. Looking foward to what the next 6 months hold for this Melbourne team, and even the Super 14.

RF, I disagree with that it is failing recruitment wise. Look who we have got, Will Genia and David Pocock who only left school a few years ago. Same for Cooper and Beale.

Rugby has a very strong schoolboy practice, it is hard and almost impossible to steer away from Rugby League schools to get them attracted to Union. They are trying their best particularly in QLD where the likes of the Ballymore Cup exists for schools, which gives them opportunities for the strong League schools to give their chance in Rugby.

We do need an ARC, but how do we fund it? How do we make it successful? The only real option is having New Zealand intergrated with us. 2 pools, both with say 8 teams each. Finals series. Goes for about 12 odd weeks.

Forget all these people who are in fantasy land saying Club rugby needs to be made professional blah blah blah. No chance in hell are we going to get anywhere close to that especially within the next 2 years.

RWC in NZ is a big concern. So many people are going to miss out on tickets including myself due to a ballot system and the shitty sized stadiums over there. I will struggle to secure tickets to Australia verses Ireland at Eden Park. It really is outrageous that they were selected as a sole RWC selection.

Yes some areas are of concern, some are not. No doubt it needs to be fixed up.

I can assure each and everyone of you, that law changes will be significant in Rugby after 2011. I assure you all.

International coaches, even the IRB have expressed concern. They will change, but not within the next two years unfortunately.

He has cost the AB’s two RWC’s? You’re off your head. You are completely deranged, and really need to fix up your arguments mate. They are all flawed, and they are all disgraceful.

First Bledislo- Joubert unfairly penalises Australia at the ruck and breakdown. Not to mention the scrum. Australia clearly outclasses the All Blacks.

Another Bledisloe match- Kaplan does a decent job at handling it despite his reluctance to sin bin both teams. Australia not neccessarily outclassed, just were not the full team. That is not a full 40 minute match.

Ai your comment is stupid, and utterly ridiculous. No one is getting apologies from Paddy O’Brien but NZ. Even though they won that match. Your a bit of a genius aren’t you. Gain a better understanding of the game skip.

To add to my comment earlier, and kind of contradict it. We probably cannot create a new pool exclusively for Japanese Rugby. American Rugby is off the cards for Super 15. Asian rugby is no doubt the answer to the decline, but how do we do it? Could if Japanese got more cashed up allow a full pool for Japanese Rugby? Could we increase the pools to say 6? To accommodate for another South African team, and Japan joins our pool or a New Zealand pool? New Zealand pool would be more likely they simply do not have what it takes for another Super rugby team. Let’s face it, they are struggling financially with thier current Super Rugby teams. Crowd attendances of 5000 are not good. How would they fund the travel to and from Japan.

It’s a possibility, and it should be added to the “to do list” but we have to wait for time to eclipse. And the next generations of rugby’s administrators to take over.

The costs and the travel would be far too major for a Super 14 franchise in Japan. However I think definitely within the next 5-10 years SANZAR should look to Japan for the growing market, and the cash they could easily make. I think they could make another pool for the Super 14 in about 5-10 years, which could include Japanese teams. Japan could use a lot of their overseas players, which is always a possibility. The money you make in Japan is very high.

Not now, because the ARU could not expand with the bill that was to be given, but definitely should look into it, when the ARU and SANZAR start getting some cash flow going.

The ‘outcome’ in this instance was how he landed, maybe he should have yellow carded for what he saw, as an off the ball tackle. But he thought it could come across of too harsh, as he didn’t see it as a spear tackle. It is pretty easy to miss the spear element of a tackle you know.

ARU needs to spend big on Melbourne to start off with. When you start a franchise like this one you have to make it a success especially in the Super 14. They really do need to up their game.

Once again Jerry he didn’t see the outcome of the tackle. Believe me, Stu Dickinson is probably the number 1 referee in the world who will make use of his cards whenever he deems appropriate.

AllBlackfan- I have to agree, referees should be appointed on merit, but their nationality could still play a significant part ie; Australia verse New Zealand you wouldn’w want Bryce Lawrence refereeing. But you would want Barnes or Kaplan doing so.

Jerry he saw the tackle, but he didn’t see the landing point of the tackle.

I am not denying that he saw that, I personally think New Zealander’s need to really get over Wayne Barnes, and get used to seeing him for at least another 10 years. It wouldn’t surprise me if Wayne Barnes gets a senior gig in refereeing administration once he’s finished as well. Wayne Barnes actually truly knows his scrum laws, and the ruck is an actual competition when he’s refereeing. If you infringe under Barnes players will know they will not get away with it. Time to face it, Wayne Barnes is the best referee in the world at the moment, and either he, Steve Walsh (if bought back to IRB panel) , Jonathan Kaplan or Alain Rolland will all recieve Semi-Finals, 3rd and 4th play offs and the final.

It’s something you’ll have to get used to, because a lot of people will agree that he’s the best referee in the world.

Steve Walsh admittedly bought it on himself. But he was still a damn good referee. And if it is true that Lyndon Bray is keeping one of the best officials out of the game, then he seriously needs to get over it and realise that the current bunch of officials are lacking Steve Walsh’s feel of the game. Steve Walsh had his chances, and he blew them. The NZRU maybe was right to sack him, but look at all the other players out their who have been sacked, they have been given more chances, and it certainly isn’t stopping them from moving forward which Walsh is trying to do.

Allblackfan- I believe Walsh will not be able to referee NZ games but will still be able to referee Australian games.

How a referee controls the game is how the game will be played. Dickinson indeed cannot make a game spectacular, but he can ensure that it is played with very much attacking flair. It used to be Dickinson whistling a lot but he has made drastic improvements to his performances of recent times. As for Dickinson not carding Thorn, he didn’t see the ‘spear’ result, he saw the lift after being provoked and then the tackle. It was an unusual style of tackle not the traditional ‘lift, twist, dump’ or the ‘lift, twist, drive.’

I have to agree with Lindommer, I definitely think Dickinson is a top referee, and I would regard him one of the 5 best in the world. No not at all the best, but from this year we have seen Dickinson’s British and Irish Lions match which as I said earlier was one of the best International refereeing performances of the year, for O’Brien to drop him like that and ensure that Dickinson’s test match fixtures are becoming more and more limited, despite his performances increasing.

My top 5.

1. Barnes
2. Rolland
3. Walsh
4. Kaplan
5. Dickinson

Andre Watson would surely have to be the perfect replacement. One of the best rugby referees, and definitely one of the better rugby administrators going around. You can tell with the upcoming SA talent, all you have to do is watch the Currie Cup and see the likes of Jason Jaftha, and Stu Berry.

As for Steve Walsh it is Lyndon Bray actually keeping him off the main panel. I get the feeling Lyndon and Steve weren’t exactly best of friends when they refereeing together which occurred for so long. For Bray to be the current SANZAR referee panel manager is a joke. No one can doubt that Steve is a good referee, he was probably going to get the 2011 RWC final providing NZ were not in it. He is like Barnes, his games are always freed up and entertaining affairs.

I was reading Peter Marshall’s blog (http://bloggers.heavensgame.com/Main/?p=211) and it pretty much sums up the disarray which the ARU is going through. You get 20 something year old guys who are starting off in first grade and they have really no chance of moving forward.

Ballymore is easy enough to get to. It is only about 2km from a train station. Shuttle buses could indeed be on hand, to just take people there and take them back. Also the northern busway is about a 15 minute walk from Ballymore.

Precisely, referees are paid by the ARU with a bonus by the IRB. The ARU nominates Stu Dickinson each year to be an IRB panel referee, so saying that it just flaws their selection of Stu Dickinson. The ARU got it right, we need referees in this game, and O’Brien’s precedent or whatever you can call it. I guaranteed you that he won’t fly anywhere to give an apology to a team who was mistreated by the referee. Good on the ARU for stepping in.