Aussie Pro Rugby
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Some good points.
I think there's a risk of over-obesseing about Super Rugby's ability to prepare players for international rugby. I'm not saying it's not important, you do want and need it to be a really good step up (as well as an entertaining and healthy comp in its own right). But as the cliche goes, perfection is the enemy of good.
The club / province / regional systems in place in England, France, Ireland & Wales are far from perfect. Very very far in some cases, the Welsh regional system is an absolute basket case, the English league is a money pit, the workload in the French system would put a Soviet labour camp to shame. But somehow, the NH sometimes produce decent national teams.
Absolutely not suggesting that Aus / NZ should follow any of the NH models, just pointing out that the competition below national level is only one of many factors
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@Nepia this one?
Hamish McLennan and rugby’s schoolboy errors
The Wallabies slumped to a historic World Cup loss. It’s time for scrutiny of rugby’s administrators, chief among them chairman Hamish McLennan.
Hamish McLennan and rugby’s schoolboy errors
The Wallabies slumped to a historic World Cup loss. It’s high time for scrutiny of rugby’s administrators, chief among them, chairman Hamish McLennan.The Wallabies’ descent into national embarrassment territory on Monday morning means the knives are out for coach Eddie Jones, the moody gremlin of global sport.
Australia had their arses handed to them by Wales, inflicting the country’s largest loss in World Cup history. Or in the traditional Welsh: “ffwrch!”
Jones rightly remains the focal point of ire. But scrutiny must show up at the doorstop of Rugby Australia and its cast of administrators.
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh and chairman Hamish McLennan at Allianz Stadium. James Brickwood
What, then, of the performance of Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan? The Hammer’s blue-sky idea was to pilfer Jones. McLennan can’t be blamed for the veteran coach’s baffling selection decisions. He can cop it for signing a clearly past-it coach to a five-year contract on the eve of a World Cup.
You can imagine how it went down. Eddie comes around for dinner at the new Darling Point digs. A few chablis in, Hammer says he should come home. Save the Wallabies. He accepts on one condition, scanning around the $30 million trophy home: “Five years.”
Hammer has his guy! Lock it in, Eddie.
McLennan is a product of corporate Australia’s fail-up culture. After being part of the calamity at Channel Ten on behalf of Lachlan Murdoch, McLennan’s stunning career has soared. He now chairs not only Rugby Australia but occupies the top board seat at News Corp’s REA, media company ARN Media, and serves as deputy chairman at the little shop of horrors, Magellan Financial.
Three chairmanships. The Hammer is the east coast Richard Goyder. The very existence of the McLennans and Goyders – spread obviously too thin to actually provide adequate scrutiny for shareholders – proves the professional director class is taking the piss.
Set aside the Eddie shambles, McLennan’s rugby turnaround narrative hinges on Project Aurora, which proposes hawking off a slice of the sport to investors and private equity. That was supposed to raise $250 million. Jefferies star banker Michael Stock was tasked with finding investors to buy in.
What exactly is Stock offering up? We give you a claim to several years worth of ticket receipts and broadcast revenue to losing games, played in front of half-full stadiums. The Wallabies are going to get spanked 3-0 by the British Lions on home soil in 2025. But you and the lads can get a box on the halfway line.
Earlier this year, McLennan tapped former Wallabies flanker Phil Waugh to lead the turnaround. McLennan, graduate of the exclusive Sydney Church of England Grammar School, needed a CEO to execute the game’s vision and settled on ... another Shore boy.
Waugh was then given ample space in this newspaper to explain his “plan to save Australian rugby”. Along with trying to get PE interest and growing the game in western Sydney to fend off competition from competing codes, he had a neat idea.
“I love the concept of an old boys’ day at Allianz Stadium ... three back-to-back GPS [Great Public Schools] games at Allianz Stadium from 11am to 5pm, and you just make it a festival,” Waugh said.
The “save rugby” plan involves a “festival” of Riverview, King’s and Joeys? Phil, that’s not a plan, that’s a Betoota Advocate headline.
After the 2019 World Cup exit, no fewer than 11 former Wallabies captains wrote a letter expressing no confidence in then-CEO Raelene Castle. The group included Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan, Michael Lynagh, and successfully agitated for Castle to fall on her sword.
The Wallabies are for the first time all but guaranteed to exit a World Cup without making it out of the group stage, strapped to a checked-out coach, with a tied-up chairman. Time to get out the stationery again, boys.
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@bayimports
That's a good article, thanks for pastingThe Betoota reference is spot on. The ARU is increasingly indistinguishable from satire.
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@bayimports said in Aussie Rugby:
After the 2019 World Cup exit, no fewer than 11 former Wallabies captains wrote a letter expressing no confidence in then-CEO Raelene Castle. The group included Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan, Michael Lynagh, and successfully agitated for Castle to fall on her sword.
The Wallabies are for the first time all but guaranteed to exit a World Cup without making it out of the group stage, strapped to a checked-out coach, with a tied-up chairman. Time to get out the stationery again, boys.
Our own @barbarian tweeted something much to the same effect.
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AFR has some very good writers. I particularly enjoy reading Joe Aston's work.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
AFR has some very good writers. I particularly enjoy reading Joe Aston's work.
as do most people not called Alan, Richard or Christine
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@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:
Hoiles' comment "If it came down to cutting a Super Rugby team to improve results, I'm all for it".
Now he's defending himself in the twitterverse.
Mr "Club Rugby Is Thriving" thinks we can shrink to greatness.
Well you've already expanded to contraction.
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@antipodean very interesting chat
I feel like the super rugby chat they're both right
But I do believe that, on either side of the Ta$man, we don't play enough elite rugby. Super Rugby is too short
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@mariner4life I get their argument about three SR sides raises the level for players due to competition and that helps the Wallabies.
The problem is I don't think that helps widen the base long term.
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100%
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@antipodean Having fewer sides would allow higher quality combinations to form, no?
If they focus on the grassroots issues and develop a legitimate domestic competition, they can widen the base in the long term. It won't happen if they stick with the status quo, so why not try something innovative to allow the Wallabies to be competitive in the short term.
Ireland have 3 main provinces, and Connacht. Of the 3 main ones, Leinster dominates. When you look at the Leinster provincial development structure and you see an incredibly efficient, streamlined programme that identifies and develops young talented players, and provides a great environment for coaches.
Ireland lead the way for now. Oz could do worse than look to replicate their model, especially as they are similar to Ireland in that there are other more popular codes vying for the best young talent. How Ireland are retaining their young rugby players in the system is probably something Oz, and NZ, could well look at.
To think that rugby is dwarfed by GAA too.
"Even so, rugby is dwarfed by Gaelic games, and especially football. As things stand currently, the GAA has 85,581 adult male players, over four times the estimated 21,000 adult players registered with the IRFU. In other words, Dublin probably has a greater playing pool of talent in Gaelic football with which to take on the other 32 counties than Ireland has to compete against the leading rugby playing nations."
Gerry Thornley: The strength of Irish rugby is a minor miracle given how few play it
Expectations need to be reset, because Ireland is not a big nation in any team sport
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@stodders said in Aussie Rugby:
@antipodean Having fewer sides would allow higher quality combinations to form, no?
If they focus on the grassroots issues and develop a legitimate domestic competition, they can widen the base in the long term. It won't happen if they stick with the status quo, so why not try something innovative to allow the Wallabies to be competitive in the short term.
Ireland have 3 main provinces, and Connacht. Of the 3 main ones, Leinster dominates. When you look at the Leinster provincial development structure and you see an incredibly efficient, streamlined programme that identifies and develops young talented players, and provides a great environment for coaches.
Ireland lead the way for now. Oz could do worse than look to replicate their model, especially as they are similar to Ireland in that there are other more popular codes vying for the best young talent. How Ireland are retaining their young rugby players in the system is probably something Oz, and NZ, could well look at.
To think that rugby is dwarfed by GAA too.
"Even so, rugby is dwarfed by Gaelic games, and especially football. As things stand currently, the GAA has 85,581 adult male players, over four times the estimated 21,000 adult players registered with the IRFU. In other words, Dublin probably has a greater playing pool of talent in Gaelic football with which to take on the other 32 counties than Ireland has to compete against the leading rugby playing nations."
Expectations need to be reset, because Ireland is not a big nation in any team sport
NZ has almost exactly the same number of registered adult male rugby players as Ireland
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Agreed. But Ireland's model has shown it has the beating of NZ's right now. I will strongly caveat that by saying that the strong Euro means Ireland can retain their playing talent more easily than NZ and that is one of the big issues NZ needs to overcome right now.
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@stodders said in Aussie Rugby:
Agreed. But Ireland's model has shown it has the beating of NZ's right now. I will strongly caveat that by saying that the strong Euro means Ireland can retain their playing talent more easily than NZ and that is one of the big issues NZ needs to overcome right now.
I totally agree that the strong NH seems self-perpetuating - a good club scene, and more importantly , a competitive 6N every year, is a massive foundation for all those nations to stay strong, especially compared to what we seem to have looking forward.
I’d also make the point that the most striking and obvious thing that your graph shows, is that England clearly remain the most underperforming country on the planet…😎
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@voodoo England should be making the u20 and senior world cups every time with the financial and playing number advantages. Alas, it would appear that it is the coaching that has hindered their development. I thought that was changing several years back when they started to really make a dent at u20 level, but they appear to have regressed back to their mean performance level again.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@mariner4life I get their argument about three SR sides raises the level for players due to competition and that helps the Wallabies.
The problem is I don't think that helps widen the base long term.
Agree, their supposition that if there are only 3 super teams those other players will play club rugby for peanuts and improve the quality of that competition doesn't hold water. Not when you have 17 NRL teams looking for new talent.
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@mooshld said in Aussie Rugby:
@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@mariner4life I get their argument about three SR sides raises the level for players due to competition and that helps the Wallabies.
The problem is I don't think that helps widen the base long term.
Agree, their supposition that if there are only 3 super teams those other players will play club rugby for peanuts and improve the quality of that competition doesn't hold water. Not when you have 17 NRL teams looking for new talent.
Yup. And Australia (and NZ) are finding it difficult to pay their players enough to resist the lure of the Top 14 (and Pro D2) already. Trying to increase competition by squeezing their paypackets is not going to make them better players, it's just going to make them NRL or France based players.
