Sailosi, is it that they don’t have the forwards to beat England or the structure overall? I’m just interested in what makes you say they can beat Wales but not England – I’d love to see an upset from them.

Good points Shop. It is hard to gauge how Fiji are going because we don’t see them enough and as you note inbetween World Cups they often don’t have the players available or tours are rushed so the preparation is limited. Fiji always have some supreme athletes, especially in open field situations, but I have felt that they have previously been limited in their tight five and their organisational/playmaking positions. Nicky Little improved on this for them but he must have retired now – do you know what their likely squad/lineup is going to be? I’d be interested to see some profiles on the players involved so I can get some idea of the threats that they possess.

I was at the game, and after all the weather we have had (stopped constantly raining about an hour before kick off) and was amazed at how well the field held up. Interesting to see a ground with no on field signage painted on – too much rain although the cameras managed to magically get the branding appearing on the pitch. It was only confirmed as going ahead in the morning – many thought it would be called off. The Reds pack did really well – this Force pack took it to the Waratahs last week as I recall, so that’s a positive development. Reds loosies were great – shocked at the announcement on no JOC – we only found out when they were kicking off, the team with O’Connor in it had already been shown on the big screen so good on Frisby for stepping up.

McCalman looked very powerful for the Force – lots of strong runs and hard to stop. Genia’s volley into touch was right in front of my seat – definitely in the 22 so couldn’t understand that one, lucky it didn’t have a bearing on the result. With the turmoil going on in the squad and the conditions I think that the Reds came through well and often adversity brings out the best in teams and people so hopefully this is the catalyst for them to go well.

Reds Twitter has this statement: ” The Australian Rugby Union and Queensland Rugby Union are aware of reports regarding Karmichael Hunt.

The ARU’s Integrity team and the Queensland Rugby Union are making enquiries into the reports.

We’ll be in a position to comment in more detail once those enquiries have progressed.”

From the Rebels site “Jordy joined the Club on an Extended Playing Squad (EPS) contract in 2013 from the Manly Marlins, his hometown Club, and signed a new contract that will keep him in Melbourne until at least the end of the 2016 Super Rugby season.” So it looks as if Reid was picked up on an EPS contract from Sydney originally rather than being spotted in the local Melb comp.

Hi Stripes, yes I reached out to the Reds and discovered that I wasn’t on their email list so was missing out on their promo material, but do see it on their website. Their streaming is good, because I wasn’t seeing the emails I wasn’t getting the push marketing but getting that sorted now. Question then is, since they are promoting it to their database, what needs to be done to get more of them turning up?

Good ideas, and interesting point about the 3rd tier concept. You’re right about the perception that this can bring. Overall there is a lot of improvement in how this is being run that could happen and I’m sure that it has been a lot of work just to get it to this stage but a few little tweaks like getting the streaming sorted with a dedicated You Tube channel which every team/union could have links to on their website and getting it on free to air would be very good.

I’d also add that the teams should be coordinating visits to local schools to put on demonstrations for the kids and get the kids engaged – give them some free tickets to come along to that weekend’s game along with some paraphernalia about the team and the game so that they can identify with the players.

Simon, in our club’s case the presentations were rained out a couple of weekends ago so rescheduled to last Saturday – not the QRU’s fault but it does indicate a lack of cohesion between the clubs and the QRU in terms of looking at scheduling (e.g have the presentation on a Sunday or make it earlier on a Saturday and encourage people to go from the club to the NRC match). I understand that the clubs don’t get any benefit from the NRC (even though our club has a number of players involved in it) but it would be good if they could do more to promote it to their members. As you say, timing and I think a bit rushed approach which I do hope they can get ironed out.

I wrote an article last week mentioning the seeming lack of push from the NRC teams themselves and their member clubs to promote the games and the lack of promotion by the State Unions involved. During the Reds season they have great communication to members so I don’t understand why they haven’t continued that through to the NRC to encourage attendance. I submitted feedback to the ARU via their website two Sundays ago about their lack of promotion of the NRC and am still waiting for a response.

We will be back – 1st half was quite even but 2nd half was dominance form the Rising and good defence- Brisbane had opportunities close to the line and couldn’t finish them. I agree with RL that this is much more valuable to some of players like Kerevi than just training. Interesting to note that the Rising managed to really limit the ability of Kerevi in particular to break the line, he still got go forward but was pulled down unlike in the opening match when he seemed to break tackles at will.

Daveski, I think that Jack D was injured for quite a bit of the Super season but agree that he looked impressive on Saturday. That’s the great advantage of this competition, it allows some of these players to emerge and try things, make some mistakes without the pressure of Super Rugby. Placid looked really good and he is a good signing for the Rebels, good opportunity for him having gone to play for the Rising to get used to some of the players he will play with next year.

No argument Brett, the Roar are definitely providing the most comprehensive coverage and I’m grateful for that. I went to the Brisbane – Melbourne match with my kids (who got to form a tunnel for the players to run out onto the ground through which they enjoyed) and we really enjoyed it, but Melbourne Rising really smashed us in the 2nd half. It was a great atmosphere and good to get up close to the game and allowing the kids to go on the field at the end of the match was great – those little things keep them coming back. Just need more promotion and media coverage – Saturday’s Courier Mail had nothing about the game, despite it featuring Genia, Gill, Burgess etc.

Simon, good writeup. I was at Ballymore with my kids and we had a great time, albeit disappointing to see City get hammered so badly, but Melbourne were very good across the park. It’s a shame that the game conflicted with some of the rugby club’s presentation/breakup days – I had to rush from my kids club breakup to get there and the older kids presentations were going to be on when the match was on. I would have thought that the crowd was larger than that looking around, there seemed a good number of people there and like you said plenty of families which is great. It wasn’t promoted well at all – not sure why the QRU weren’t sending emails to their members encouraging them to come to the game as a number of people I know had made other plans as they weren’t aware that the game was on.

Placid was great from where I was sitting (2nd row of the grandstand) – lots of storming runs and very hard to stop. Have seen him doing it at Easts many times and he certainly turned it on today – shame he was on the wrong team.

That is disappointing to hear Redback, and this is where the clubs themselves are letting the side down. Have you chased them up? Given how well their team has performed so far I think they should be pushing their cause to everyone who is connected to their feeder clubs and the local media to get more supporters along. I see that Perth Spirit have merchandise now.

Patrick, the Roar are doing a great job with the NRC, and Brett McKay especially has done well with getting the information out there. The ARU have done well to get the NRC going but there are some simple improvements needed that haven’t been evident yet – as I pointed out even email marketing about the upcoming matches and encouraging you to buy tickets would be good. That’s not an expensive exercise as they should already have the resources in-house and have the database of rugby people. We really want this comp to succeed and continue which is why I have made these suggestions and submitted my message to the ARU to give them direct feedback. I did that on Sunday and am yet to get any response. Volunteer bloggers are really good but should it have to come to that?

Mike W, I’m not grumpy, I have tried to make some constructive points without resorting to insults. I know the team names and when the games are on, as I am very engaged with rugby, but that is not the point. Good on you for going along to the game on Sunday.

I made a point of complimenting the ARU for getting the competition going – like you I think it is a great achievement but there are simple things that they could do other than get it going, as I have tried to point out. You have a different point of view to that which is fine, but let’s have constructive input, not name calling. Community rugby does need support to grow and I am quite involved in grassroots rugby – helping coach, referee and organise so I am more than just a spectator. My point is that just putting it out there and expecting it to succeed like that is not enough, and I don’t put all the blame on the ARU for this, the state unions should be doing more to promote it via their membership bases and their clubs, and I think that is something that the ARU should be pushing them to do as the overarching governing body running this.

I understand the tv rights challenge and don’t expect them to have more than one game on a week – no issue with that, but the lack of streaming options is challenging. Yes it was done quickly and good on them for getting it up and running but that doesn’t mean that there are not things that could be improved and sometimes people outside can point these out. The email promotion is a simple one, as is website updates. Small inexpensive changes could help to improve things.

Jamie, good to hear you’ve been going along and bringing others, we need more of that when the games are in your town but if people let the ARU know that we want to get behind this and they need to give it more of a push then they might take notice. As you said, the games have been entertaining and can attract the casual watchers so we need to engage those watchers more and keep them coming back.

ARU NRC site has the videos – rugby dot com dot au – slash NRC slash Videos – it is up there now.

Hi Rhino, good to hear your daughter has joined up. One of the female volunteers at Easts when we signed up told me that her son played Under 8’s last year and the boys are afraid to tackle the girls, but the girls don’t care, so they have a pretty good run of it. My wife’s GP, a real rugby fan said that when his sons were young players at GPS there was a girl who was the best player in one of the son’s teams. I think the more that we can encourage girls to play and get more of them along then the more we will overcome the Mum’s fear of their kids playing and getting hurt. We saw a few girls playing last year when we went down to Easts one morning to watch the young kids play – get your daughter to encourage her school friends to give it a go too.

Roscoe, that is a very short sighted view that was expressed to you. I am a Kiwi living in Brisbane and I support the Reds because I live here. If I was in Melbourne I would definitely support the Rebels – hell I am supporting them anyway but they would be my Number 1 team if I lived there. I think most expats would be like that because the local team is what you are exposed to. I hope that having the Rebels there will help to expand the interest to locals with no previous rugby links and get more local kids and adults playing the game – it has certainly worked for AFL in Brisbane with the Lions.

Wouldn’t it be great if they made part of the new applicant requirement for the job to present a plan for how they are going to grow rugby in NSW and specifically how they are going to address some of the problems that the game has there? Then, if the successful applicant had as part of their contract KPIs around meeting the points in their proposal, it might make them all think carefully about what they can bring to the job and actually get someone who really adds value.