NPC 2023
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@Duluth If provinces could only field local players, the competition would always favour the big provinces, who have a much larger player pool. Auckland would have too many players and talented, deserving players would miss out, while a small province wouldn't have sufficient players of an adequate level to field a competitive team.
The competition wouldn't be fair.
Fielding local players should be the starting point, but it isn't always realistic.
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You were just complaining about a HB player going to Southland and an Aucklander playing for HB. It's the same point
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@Duluth No, it isn't exactly the same point, because the player who left for Southland was already contracted to the Magpies and is an NPC level player with sufficient experience.
Fielding a local player in that case was realistic. It isn't always realistic, because local players may not be of an adequate level. I don't know, for example, whether there is a lock of adequate level available in Taranaki to fill that spot now taken by Franklin.
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@Stargazer said in NPC 2023:
Fielding a local player in that case was realistic. It isn't always realistic, because local players may not be of an adequate level.
Then the province should lose games
Depends if we want a provincial competition or a retarded franchise competition.
I can't believe you want to gut a core concept of the NPC like this. Club flows to NPC. It's the strength of NZ rugby blah blah blah
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but wouldnt players further down the pecking order at a big union move around to the smaller ones (properly move and play club, not just fly in for game day) to get game time and hopefully get a fully professional contract?
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Paladin as well, but doesn’t have their badge
Here's the paladin store. The other team with a retro jersey is Harbour https://nz.paladin.sport/products/
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@KiwiMurph pretty shit for Wellington having one of their most important games of the season at the end of a storm week.
The scheduler must have been a Cantab.
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@Stargazer said in NPC 2023:
I haven't checked all union's socials, but some of them are now selling retro jerseys (maybe only those who get their gear from Paladin?). The three I saw on my time line:
Gilbert has had a Retro "inspired" one for us for a couple of year
My biggest problem with Gilbert is all their images are computer generated, not the real thing, so you cant be 100% sure what it like in the flesh
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Great signing by Taranaki
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My bad.
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@Kiwiwomble said in NPC 2023:
but wouldnt players further down the pecking order at a big union move around to the smaller ones (properly move and play club, not just fly in for game day) to get game time and hopefully get a fully professional contract?
I don't think so - not enough money in it for someone to quit their day job on the gamble of maybe getting an NPC contract.
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@Kiwiwomble No, but for example even if you are a builder, say you are 24, have a wife and a couple of kids, it is a big call to move away without the promise of a contract.
Currently you get the likes of Josh Moorby or Freedom Vahaakolo who move without signing on the dotted line, but these are guys who aren't bound by anything.
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maybe things have changed, i know almost none of the friends i grew up with live in dunedin any more and those that do all did stints away whilst in their 20's, and that was without the excitment or even slim possibility of earning a professional rugby contract, most did stints in the uk or aus...just for fun, moved and found a job (yes, with partners and some with kids), at very least they all went to see what living somewhere else in Nz was like
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