"World Series Rugby" aka "Global Rapid Rugby"
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@Stargazer said in "World Series Rugby" aka "Global Rapid Rugby":
Western Force team for the first game against World XV. The team lists are probably the only thing I'm interested in. Johan Bardoul and Jeremy Thrush still there.
Other then Thrush its a veritable whos who, of who the fuck are you!
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Twiggy to the rescue for Super Rugby's axed Sunwolves?
The Sunwolves and a Fiji team would live on in an Asian Super Rugby competition under top secret plans being worked up by SANZAAR. In a move unlikely to soften the blow to the Sunwolves, who were informed late on Wednesday they would be cut from Super Rugby from 2021, it appears there would still be a place for them in a division two-style tie-up with Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's Global Rapid Rugby. The concept is understood to be the next cab off the rank for SANZAAR, who will announce their Super Rugby plans on Friday but cannot make any broader decisions on the Rugby Championship or other competitions until there is certainty about World Rugby's Nations Championship plan. That should come by the end of the month, with the 12-team global competition to live or die by a March 29 deadline for the unions to enter an exclusive negotiation period.
The Asian Super Rugby concept has formed part of Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle's roadshow briefings to the Australian Super bosses this week. The Herald understands it would be a SANZAAR-endorsed competition part-owned by Forrest, Australia's mining billionaire, with a Japanese team to be added to the founding Rapid Rugby clubs, the Western Force, Fiji, Samoa, Hong Kong and Singapore. A Malaysian team and potentially a second Australian team could be added. The Newcastle Hunter Rugby Union was reported to be in "high level" discussions with the Rapid Rugby team about basing a team out of there from next year. GRR deflected the issue, keen to keep their focus on this weekend's opening showcase match between the Western Force and a Robbie Deans-coached World XV selection. "The drive to provide an innovative and exciting brand of rugby throughout the Asia Pacific region in 2019 remains unchanged. Global Rapid Rugby is here for the long term," a spokesperson said.
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@Stargazer Looks like Oz is furiously developing a second tier because they think that's where they'll end up.
If they are serious about developing a second tier competition, they'd be better off not subscribing to the stupid laws.
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@antipodean Yep, agree 100%.
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@Stargazer said in "World Series Rugby" aka "Global Rapid Rugby":
With World XV squad:
That's, ummm, underwhelming.
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@Kruse Yep, that's what you get when you have to assemble players who are not involved in any club competition at the moment. Basically, retirees, third stringers and players who play in the Japanese competition (the only competition having a break at the moment).
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Watched the second half of this game. Not remembering all the rule variations, I found the refereeing a bit off and I don't know whether that was because a different rule was applied, or whether the ref was shit. Some of that was definitely the latter, as high tackles and forward passes were clearly missed.
Western Force won the game 26 to 16, but obviously they've played a full season under these rules, while the World XV squad only came together early this week. If it wasn't for Nick Cummins having a mare, World XV would probably have won (their defence was excellent, except for the last 10 minutes or so, when they'd emptied the tanks). He butchered three try scoring opportunities by knocking the ball on, one of those coming from an awesome break from Spowart that was a "power try" in the making, only for Cummins to drop the ball. Has he always been that bad?
Anyway, one thing is true about "rapid rugby" and that it is indeed fast, really fast. Having rolling subs and the game only lasting 70 minutes was an absolute necessity, esp for many of the retirees in the World XV squad, although I was quite surprised how good Corey Flynn still is. Pleasants-Tate' constant niggles with the opposition were hilarious at times, as was a break he made in the second half; the surprised look on his face when he sliced through the Force' defence was gold. Ellis is still a classy player and Finau and Spowart were good, too.
One impression I got from the game was that there's a strong "AFL feel" to this format, both due to the speed and the frequent (high) kicking. Unfortunately, that also led to a lot of ball handling errors from both teams. They can keep it in Australia; I hope never to see it here, but I'm glad that the Perth crowd seemed to like it. After the Force being pulled from Super Rugby, it's good that they've games to go to that they enjoy.
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Another joke team, that South China Tigers. Not a single Chinese player in that squad.
By the way, the name Tau Kolomatangi sounds familiar. Didn't he play for Ta$man, maybe Chiefs, too? Or am I confusing him with someone else?
And Tom Hill?
Edit: I looked it up and it's a Hong Kong based team. That explains it. Tom Hill is an Aussie according to Wikipedia.