'Super Rugby' 2021
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I have had a few beers tonight, but the only new NZ team should be North Auckland based in Albany. There should be a serious effort at elevating touch rugby style games and under 85 kg rugby to build youth support in an area that has almost jettisoned rugby (but is massively into basketball and football).
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Lets not kid ourselves here - the only loss is the SA money.
Outside finals, crowds at NZ-SA matches in super rugby could measured in the 100's in SA and barely in the thousands in NZ. NZ needs to jump on the Japan train, before the 6N do and literally setup a rich country tournament (for growing the game, obviously).
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@MajorRage said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
Lets not kid ourselves here - the only loss is the SA money.
Outside finals, crowds at NZ-SA matches in super rugby could measured in the 100's in SA and barely in the thousands in NZ. NZ needs to jump on the Japan train, before the 6N do and literally setup a rich country tournament (for growing the game, obviously).
Japan works with our timezones. I wonder how the Japanese would feel about jumping back into bed with us again given how badly the Sunwolves were treated?
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@MajorRage said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
Lets not kid ourselves here - the only loss is the SA money.
Outside finals, crowds at NZ-SA matches in super rugby could measured in the 100's in SA and barely in the thousands in NZ. NZ needs to jump on the Japan train, before the 6N do and literally setup a rich country tournament (for growing the game, obviously).
I can't fathom how NZ rugby hasn't offered a 4 team plus pasifika set-up to Japan, including support to get them in the Rugby Championship. It's ridiculous.
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@Derpus said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
@gt12 how does that work for Japan's current domestic comp which is owned and controlled by their major corporations?
They could keep the Top league on at a different time to Super Rugby, and have the two top red and white league placegetters join Super rugby (perhaps with some allowance to get a bigger squad).
Or they could pick winners and get bids from 4 teams to join Super rugby, which would leave them with a 12 team competition for the Top league - whether those teams could join other competitions would be another conversation.
Given that the Top League was designed to bring up the standard of Japanese rugby, I'm reasonably sure (I only know a few people involved in a roundabout way) that teams would want to be in Super Rugby if they could be, and there would be some support for it in the JRFU. I spoke with a coach of TL team not that long ago and he was telling me that the SWs were great, but always destined for failure because they didn't open up enough spots to get some of the strong company teams involved - and the better players that they have available.
It was somewhat understandable though as picking one winner (probably Panasononic) would have been very hard. However, choosing four well-financed squads though some application process would, I hope, be more manageable and would lead to Japan having a gradation in the professional leagues of its players. If they scheduled the games right, they could make the Top league the premier domestic competition, and Super the international competition. Plus, of course, the All Blacks could offer to support Japan joining the Rugby Championship, which would be a massive boost to Japan if it happened. That's a lot of dollars and sold out stadiums for the Japan NZ and Oz games, and with SA being World Champs, that would sell out too.
Whether it would work or could happen, I obviously don't know - I'm not in the industry, but if the NZRFU hasn't been actively trying to make it happen, they are idiots.
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@gt12 Sounds pretty reasonable - I think a champions league style format would make more sense personally, but either way i agree they should be trying to make it happen. I was always of the understanding those Top league teams had little interest.
I also agree that Japan would be a perfect addition to the RC.
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Sorry, I didn’t mention that as it doesn’t seem to be ok the radar, but I agree that a Champions/Ueda cup style competition would also be a great idea - probably my favored idea - as then new conferences could be added. It would also allow for an Oz conference
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@Cantab79 said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
@MajorRage said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
Lets not kid ourselves here - the only loss is the SA money.
Outside finals, crowds at NZ-SA matches in super rugby could measured in the 100's in SA and barely in the thousands in NZ. NZ needs to jump on the Japan train, before the 6N do and literally setup a rich country tournament (for growing the game, obviously).
Japan works with our timezones. I wonder how the Japanese would feel about jumping back into bed with us again given how badly the Sunwolves were treated?
Were they badly treated by us or SANZAAR? Hopefully they can differentiate.
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Working with Japan to create a champions league style cherry on top, would be great. And it appears this is in fact exactly what has been happening until the NZRU v ARU bitch fight drowned out all other news.
But, trying to create a round robin super tournament with 3 or 4 Sunwolves teams in it would be both shit, and madness. You'd be
a) battling the financial power of the Top League owners, who aren't interested, and would see it as a threat.
b) working with a union partner who appears to be totally indifferent to it (The JRFU).
c) Keeping all the disadvantages of inter-contintental travel costs.
d) Keeping all the fan engagement disadvantages of inter-contintental franchise tournaments where fans don't give a crap about opposition fake teams from countries a hemisphere away from them. -
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@Tim said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12369850
Rob Nichol making more sense in his collaborative rather than combative approach for me. Watching NZ and Aus currently is like a poor version of US politics....handbags from 5 paces, both trying to undermine each other and one dick may come out on top, but rugby wont.
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@Kiwiwomble said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:
@KiwiMurph i get that, im just saying if we're writing off next season as a stop gap...why not try and make the comp we have awesome rather than such a diluted super comp
we always hear the NPC cant be the top cop anymore...but we havent really seen a fully funded/marketed/backed NPC for a very long time, so we can know for sure and this seem like a great chance to try
I'm with ya. Have been banging that drum for weeks, or months even. And now the ABs are gone for the rest of this NPC, I'm even more for it.
Another upside with having a full-blooded NPC in lieu of a poor-mans' SR is the ability to develop players so when we go into a proper SR tournament in 2022, we're far better equipped.
