Aussie Pro Rugby
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby in general:
The natives are restless...
The Australian Super Rugby saga is getting messy, with the Victorian Rugby Union and the Players' Association voting for a special general meeting of the ARU board.
To be held as soon as possible, the meeting will seek transparency from the ARU regarding the decision as to whether the Force or Rebels will be cut.
It will also move to bring all board members together to determine the best course of action regarding rugby's future in Australia.
RUPA officials met with Rebels players in Melbourne after training yesterday and action has now followed.
RUPA CEO Ross Xenos was scathing in a RUPA statement released this afternoon.
"The ARU’s intent to axe an Australian Super Rugby team has lacked transparency and consultation with key stakeholders," he said.
"Today’s unanimous RUPA Board resolution illustrates the commitment of players from all across the country to take action towards a constructive solution to this ongoing fiasco.
“The ongoing uncertainty and secrecy of this process continues to do unprecedented damage to the reputation of the game and has placed unacceptable distress on players and their families.
"In every Australian team there are players and staff whose livelihoods and wellbeing have been compromised through this protracted process.
"If there is no clear way forward for Australian rugby that provides the necessary cost savings to justify altering our current professional rugby footprint in the middle of this broadcast cycle, then it’s about time we stopped uppercutting ourselves, backed the retention of five Super Rugby teams and got on with fighting our common enemies outside the tent."
Xenos also questioned the ARU's rumoured move to buy the Rebels from Andrew Cox - for a reported asking price of $6 million.
"The most consistent narrative we hear from the ARU is about the financial challenges the game faces and how tough times are," he said.
"Axing an Australian team and disenfranchising a rugby community was justified five weeks ago by the ARU based on financial savings.
"Now, anywhere between six to ten million dollars promised to be invested into the game, including at the grassroots level, could be burned so that the ARU can cull a team and save face around the SANZAAR table.
"Why are we are cutting a team at all and limiting Australian rugby’s future if there are such discretionary funds within the game that ARU can afford to buy a license, only to scrunch it up and throw it away?"
Interesting how the players reconcile their on field performances (tackling, passing, chasing kicks for example) with the pitfalls of their administrators.
I mean is the ARU also responsible for the poor on field performances?
And while I'm being uncharitable, I feel the angst at not knowing if you're going to have an extremely well paid job - well welcome to our world fuckers! (except the well paid bit).
You're working for an organisation that's not making money - but I'm sure that's not your fault. Poor wee bubsMight be better to resist slagging off the bosses and instead start making a few tackles for now
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Does RUPA not realise that the ARU, through SANZAAR, sell a product and they need to provide the best product to the buyer?
What would happen if broadcasters said to SANZAAR that they will only pay for a 10 team comp? where do the excess teams go?
I'm quite curious on how it works contract wise with the franchises. NZRU has sold 7 year licences to run it's franchises to various commercial parties. I wonder how those get dealt with should we ever be in Australia's position. -
RUPA - like most unions - gives a serious shit about how many paying members it has.
What's confusing for them here is the slice of the pie doesn't change for the players. Player contracts are a guaranteed percentage of the broadcast contract.
I'm not sure whether the players pay a percentage to be part of RUPA or a flat fee.
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@Crucial said in Aussie Rugby in general:
Does RUPA not realise that the ARU, through SANZAAR, sell a product and they need to provide the best product to the buyer?
What would happen if broadcasters said to SANZAAR that they will only pay for a 10 team comp? where do the excess teams go?
I'm quite curious on how it works contract wise with the franchises. NZRU has sold 7 year licences to run it's franchises to various commercial parties. I wonder how those get dealt with should we ever be in Australia's position.Good points. I assume/hope that something is written into the contract for broadcaster and performance contingencies, much like players often have various 'out' clauses.
Force gave another inspired example of why the Aussies have too many teams, but hey, happy to wake up to yet another shellacking of an Aussie team.
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@Godder said in Aussie Rugby in general:
@Crucial said in Aussie Rugby in general:
Does RUPA not realise that the ARU, through SANZAAR, sell a product and they need to provide the best product to the buyer?
What would happen if broadcasters said to SANZAAR that they will only pay for a 10 team comp? where do the excess teams go?
I'm quite curious on how it works contract wise with the franchises. NZRU has sold 7 year licences to run it's franchises to various commercial parties. I wonder how those get dealt with should we ever be in Australia's position.Good points. I assume/hope that something is written into the contract for broadcaster and performance contingencies, much like players often have various 'out' clauses.
Force gave another inspired example of why the Aussies have too many teams, but hey, happy to wake up to yet another shellacking of an Aussie team.
I concur that seeing them get beaten like a rented mule week after week is quite satisfying on one level on the other hand.......
......... nah I've got nothing.
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So Stephen Moore is going to be Captain this year.
Michael Cheika says Stephen Moore will keep Wallabies captaincy in June series
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika says Stephen Moore is still his first-choice captain for the three-Test series in June despite calls for Michael Hooper to take over.
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@Tim That is the oddest thing for a coach to say; that captaincy is leadership and not based on selection. So your captain may not take the field... Surely your captain has to be a bolt on starter and only come off the field in the event of injury or the game is effectively sewn up?
Then again, Cheika thinks 'Moore's playing quite well'
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby in general:
@Tim That is the oddest thing for a coach to say; that captaincy is leadership and not based on selection. So your captain may not take the field... Surely your captain has to be a bolt on starter and only come off the field in the event of injury or the game is effectively sewn up?
Then again, Cheika thinks 'Moore's playing quite well'
The Alan Shearer theory - named as captain for England because he was the first name on the team sheet.
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Moore has been shit for years, that's not a good start to selection.
They should put together a competitive 15, but it falls away fast
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby in general:
Played another full game of First Grade at loosehead yesterday. Fuck I'm old. But not quite as old as the tighthead.
"another full game of First Grade at loosehead" - as honorable endeavor as a man can pursue, well done!
It was a good day for intelligent front rowers on Saturday - I enjoyed watching the Highlander's Siosuia Halanukonuka, a red haired Tongan, motoring towards the posts in the second half there and, when he arrived just short of the line, remembering the Laws of Rugby on advancing the ball (to Lienert-Brown's benefit).
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@mariner4life you pick your 15 and then find the captain, don't name your captain then pick the team, unless your captain picks himself.
That said, I haven't watched any Aussie rugby bar when playing NZ teams so are there any better options?
IMO Moore needs to go back to playing rugby and stop being the whiney petulant baby he has been the past few seasons.
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@Tim said in Aussie Rugby in general:
clusterfuck
ˈklʌstəfʌk/
nounUSvulgar slang
noun: clusterfuck; plural noun: clusterfucks; noun: cluster-fuck; plural noun: cluster-fucks
a disastrously mishandled situation or undertaking.See also ARU
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Contract freeze lift 'no panacea' but a positive step: RUPA
Australia’s Super Rugby players have welcomed a lift on a national contracting moratorium, but Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA) boss Ross Xenos says it’s not a silver bullet for long-term anxiety. The ARU and RUPA had agreed on a contracting freeze, believed to have started in February while the Super Rugby saga played out, but with European contracting time closing and teams no clearer on their future, that has been thawed. Should the Force or the Rebels be cut in 2018, existing player contracts would be honoured, whether that player agrees to move to a new team or stay put, regardless of whether there’s a Super Rugby franchise there. Xenos said while it wasn’t a perfect solution, with no more certainty on which teams would be in Super Rugby in 2018, it was a step forward. -
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State of my club: we've been released from playing First Grade in our Division. Means we play 2s and 3s each week. Very unusual but the stipulation on other clubs is to rest legit First Grade players.
So it'll be slightly easier, but we're still up against it. At least my old blokes still get a trot against a measured opposition in Thirsty Thirds.
Only 8 weeks to go in this shitty season.
VRU, RUPA vote for ARU EGM
