After 2015 the Crusaders lost their top 3 (maybe 4) 1st 5ives and their was only an untested Richie Mounga left and the rest is history

I don’t think Jamie Joseph is coaching in his mew job as “Head Of Rugby” but more a holistic role, either way Clarke Dermody is still HC but you would think Jamie would still be mentoring him

Thank you for stating the obvious. Was merely saying how suprised I am at after all Fosters stack of record loses that losing the Bledisloe for the first time in 20+ years wasn’t one of them, and that their best chance of doing so in the Foster era probably would have been if Foley had kicked the ball out and got them the W in game 2022

Thats because thats were they are currently based. Quite a few of their players from their first 2 seasons were from the provinces such as Hawke’s Bay who had something like 6 or more players. I think basing them in a big city like West Sydney might be better for them as they might be more likely to attract big name O/S players who might not won’t to live NZ. I’m thinking of guys like Charlie Piutau or Lima Sopoaga for example who know the NZ Rugby landscape and can see from afar thats its just a second rate NZ side with not a big base to work off in NZ yet could be the opposite in West Sydney

Never said Ireland or anyone else didn’t deserve their victories against ABs nor did I say their first or second ever defeats of ABs were under Foster’s “Reign Of Terror”.
I actually have a soft spot for the Pumas and Argentina Rugby as I always seen the great potential they have if they would only ever got a helping hand from the big unions (which finally happened), just wish Sanzar had seen it from the start and brought them it at the dawn of professionalism. And was glad (aswell as being well not so glad) that hey finally beat My beloved ABs!

Yes but don’t you think if they had won the first game they would of had more “spring in their step” as the Bledisloe was still up for grabs and not a bit demoralised after the loss the week before?

Take what I said as you will but I was merely stating facts of records achieved with Foster as HC of the ABs!

Look as much as the Jaguares 2.0 might add to the comp onfield wise, the travel, timezone and economic value of them and USA joining just seems very far fetch to me (which on that note is probably why they will both happen eventually). I just think SRP should stick to the Pacific and the furtherest it should go is Hawaii (hybrid USA& P.I side with a handful of players from across the globe)

Sunwolves 2.0 won’t work without moving League One to a different slot on the calender (as was a big problem in the first place with a SR preason of only a month at best) which would then be during one of the International windows which just won’t work for the big money corporations who pay big money for Internationals to play for them (and not the SunWolves as was another big problem for them), the only way (and its a long shot) I think Japan joining SRP would work would be by bring a handful of sides in that are a joint venture between each L.O side in whichever City or Area they are based in. But getting rival corporations to work together for JV side is fanciful at best.

Back on Argentina I think the best case scenario for them would have been for the S.A franchises plus Jaguares to have joined with the then SLAR with 1 or 2 extra Arg sides and created Super Rugby Atlantic with an extended finals series between both SR comps. That way Arg would have kept alot of their Int’ls and we got to keep SA rugby on our side of the fence per se. But it would of had to have started at a low point but with possibly alot of upside in the long run for SA Rugby, who obviously wanted a like for like replacement comp (but in a better time zone for them) not a developing comp.

At this point we need to consolidate what we have and find a way for a SRP prescence in Victoria, aswell as find the right home for M.P which I think could be in West Sydney. Not worry about huge flights and costs to South America for games played at what was it 10 am Nz time? Also SRP needs to be the best comp it can which means opening up the borders a little bit and allow our (Im A Kiwi) Int’l players to play for any team in SRP and still be eligible for selection but with a caveat of say each side are allowed 8 “foreign” players in their squad or some number based on the strength of each side that allows the stronger sides less and weaker more over a 5 year period that gets reassesed every 5 years. Anyway if your’ve read this far cheers to you, please leave your thoughts or press the like button

Yup the losses to Argentina had as much to do with Argentina playing extremely well on the day as it did with having a Coach who now holds the record of 1st and 2nd ever losses to argentina (aswell as 1st at home), 1st & 2nd losses to Ireland at home (aswell as 1st series loss),1st series loss at home in over 20 years, worse defeat ever, 1st time ever losing 3 consectutive home matches and first time being defeated in a RWC pool match (plus im sure theres others. I dont these were all a coincident and can’t see anyone in my life time matching these lol. The one major loss he didn’t achieve was first to loss bledisloe in 20 odd years but I thought if Foley had kickd it out instead off playing silly buggers or if Rennie had got the last year of his contract then Foster very much could have broken the hoodoo

Mate The Crusaders, Blues, Hurricanes etc are 29 years old not 140 that would be the Provinces (not states) of Canterbury, Auckland and Wellington etc

Razor was Crusaders coach for 7 years. As a side note the ABs never won the RWC while Robertson was Crusaders coach yet won both (2011 & 2015) during Blackadders’ titleless run.

It was a change of venue for MP made only a week or so ago as the scheduled ground North Harbour Stadium had ground issues that would of made it unsafe for this match and all other Auckland ground are in use this weekend. In saying that MP don’t seem to get much fans through the turnstile, personally I think they should think about moving to West Sydney

Was thinking this exact samething. Also will allow NZR to send players there and still be eligible for AB selection aswell as send coaching and support staff to gain experience

Funny how since JS was announced as WBs coach I’ve now read 3 differening accounts of where he is from, first was Woodville, second Kawaka and now Upper Hutt or did you mean Pahiatua? But I don’t know where your from but no way is Pahiatua just over the hill from Upper Hutt!

Because ARU and NSWRU have probably done zero development their ever. No they are not allowed to start an academy in N.Z and have zero of their own in Samoa or Tonga and all their players came from the NPC bar 2 from Aus and 1 from a Samoa combine and this year they’ve got Julian Savea who was unwanted by the Hurricanes and probably the other N.Z sides

I’m not saying “Sydney” but “West Sydney”, pretty much a whole different City altogether. And as I said before there are zero pro rugby teams in “West Sydney”. There are also different life experiences in Aus for a o/s P.I player whose already been there done that in little old N.Z (players such as Charlie Piatau, Malakai Fekitoa, Ngani Laumape etc) but may be swayed by the chance to experience said life “down under”. Its not even about the $ if you read correctly, its about the fact they are a second rate NZ side with alot of players who hadn’t even played SR before the team entered and as such the results have showed. Fiji Drua obviously are a point of difference but they’re based in Fiji not Nz so have the best up and coming players at their disposal where as Samoa or Tonga don’t have resources to host MP full time. Maybe it would have been better having MP based in Fiji as the lone P.I side but Fiji wanted to go alone which they have proven they are able to do. Another obvious hindrance to a P.I side being based in N.Z is the obvious fact of the pulling power of the All Blacks where as lets face if any of the MP players were in the reckoning for, they would either already be in a N.Z SR side or in Levi Aumua’s case they would jump to a N.Z side to get themselves a better shot. Compare that to the state of the Wallabies and majority of Aus SR sides and you’d think atleast a few P.I talent over there would rather play for Aus based MP.

That may be so but alot of the P.I population in N.Z arent that well of and with the cost of living becoming increasing high, a second rate pro rugby side obviously isn’t alot of bang for buck when you go see the Blues or Warriors for probably the same price and watch a side with top tier talent who actually have a good chance of winning the game.

Also you can’t comparethe pro sides of Europe to the P.I community of N.Z.

Yes Sydney has quite a few pro sports sides, but only one of them is a rugby team and none are Pacific Island side, also Sydney has the similar population to Nz Im sure West Sydney would have more then all of Auckland. It would also probably be more attractive to o/s based P.I players who don’t seem to want to move to N.Z to play for M.P

Mostly because their a sort of 6th Nz side but without the top tier players everyone else has and also they’re in the Blues and Warriors area who actually do have some top tier players. Which should explain why their fanbase has been quite dismal

I believe thats where MP shoukd be based fulltime, they might actually get back a couple of big name o/s players than is the case now, and being the only pro rugby side aswell as representing the P.I they should hopefully get a big following there also

I think he did play for Taranaki in the early 00s though

Brock James coaches Hawke’s Bay in the NPC

Im a NZer and I’ll tell you now dont even bother about Mark Reasons crap lines. But I will reply with this.

For 1/ SRP is a Joint Venture between NZR and RA, meaning NZR cant just cut Oz teams willy nilly!

2/ How can we grow broadcast $ by cutting teams? Like literally how do you make more TV money by having less content?? Not possible!

3/ What SA team the now semi-pro Cheetahs or the liquidated Southern Kings or does he mean the SA URC B sides?? Cheetahs were fairly good in their time in SR (even being first expansion side to reach the finals) but look the Force are still rebuilding back from being dropped and were out alot less then the Cheetahs its gonna take them atleast years to get back to the level they were, so not really conceiveable NZR will be considering bring them back.

4/Japan not going to work unless the JRLO gets restructured as a 3rd comp like the NPC but cant see the rich companies who own the sides so keen to play in the middle of TRC.

I know about the Argentina and Italy ancestory link. But I can see this working or making any sense and I dont believe I’m the only one who would think so. It would be better to Arg players to sign for SR clubs as they can atm or UAR to do a deal to get 2-3 players in each Oz sides. I think moving Moana Pasifika to West Sydney makes alot more sense then this

No they should be separate comps add SAs Cheetahs, Griquas, Pumas and Elephants/Kings. Give Arg 4 sides and Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil 1 each. Remove the USA side as MLR will develop and grow in the future as will this comp, and change the name to Super Rugby Atlantic.
Each preseason host a comp futuring last seasons winner of SRP, SRA, JRLO and MLR over 2 weeks for example SRP winner v SRA winner and JRLO v MLR and the winners play each other the following week for bragging rights and the 2 losers versus for 3rd place.

He means going back to including geograpahic names (which is stupid to remove in the first place) such as Auckland Blues instead of just Blues

Wasn’t a player draft HMs idea to fix Oz SR sides?

What SRs problem expanding to much to far. A professional club comp including all the corners of the Earth aint going to or ever will work in this day and age. Why would we want SAs B club sides what do they bring that the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers didn’t? The Cheetahs have been gone from a fully pro comp too long to bring them back to SR now, look at the Force they’re still rebuilding after being kicked out.

The majority of fans dont want conferences and I imagine the clubs themselves dont want them either!

I believe the only way America could work in SRP is through a Hawai’i side with USA and PI players, otherwise its just to far from Nz, Oz and Pacific even Argentine is too far but could work with 2 sides to give those that play them away 2 weeks in Arg and for them to have a derby.

A max of 4 Japanese clubs could work but the JRLO would have to be structured again and moved to august-october which is in the middle of the RC and I doubt the corporate owners would be keen. But if they were they would get part ownership of Japs SR sides, if they could work together. Otherwise perhaps the top 4 JRLO sides play in SRP (with promotion/relegation) instead of that comp but I doubt that would be viable. SunWolves biggest problem was the Top League finishing weeks before SR so no real preseason and the corporations not willing to give up their highest paid players and why should they when they pay their salaries, so whats changed now?

Mate there’s no historical or cultural connection (that I’m aware of) between Oz and Arg nor is there a huge expat population in Oz to justify such venture. Its not going to work, whos going to support to the Sydney Argentines?? Its alot more likely to work in Spain as the UAR has already discussed and would make sense as alot of there players are in Europe. Its also better for Argentina to have there own SR side as they have already have before or bring SA sides like the Cheetahs into Super Rugby Americas