Super Rugby Trans Tasman
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@nta said in Force v Highlanders:
@frye said in Force v Highlanders:
Almost like Australia would be better off with 3-4 teams...
Not really.
Better coaching and better systems would be more help.
Maybe, but in hindsight neither is it the height of arrogance, just to suggest it, that many thought it to be last year.
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Blues and Canes the only teams in control of their destiny atm..... That's pretty silly 40% of the way thru a comp.
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There’s now added interest in this comp with the NZ teams 10-0. Who is going to crack first?
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@act-crusader I wonder what the odds are of NZ teams going unbeaten. Could very well happen.
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@act-crusader Unless the Force prove to be a banana skin again, I can only see the Brumbies or Reds beat NZ teams. This weekend, the Brumbies play the Blues in Auckland and the Reds play the Chiefs at home.
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@sparky format change? You mean just keep it as Super Aotearoa?
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@canes4life I may be wrong, but I think @sparky means that they should no longer first have a SRA and SR AU, followed by a SR TT.
I don't think that's what it's going to be if we get a 12 team comp. I expect an 11 week round robin in which franchises play each other once, home or away, followed by a Final (maybe with semi-finals).
IIRC, Australia still hasn't agreed to a comp with Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika though.
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@nta said in Force v Highlanders:
@frye it's already on life support in a lot of ways.
We've shipped dozens of professional players overseas already. But sure, let's shrink the opportunities here further. That'll fix it. Hunnerdpahcent.
It actually would, as part of a Comp with NZ and Pacific nations. Three strong teams that actually can compete, success would help bring fans and sponsors.
Much better for the national team too.
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The fact that it is only NZ vs Oz games makes the results more stark. A few years ago OZ teams were losing everything vs NZ, but it was interspersed by games against SA, Arg, Jpn, and other Ozzies - thus didn't look so bad.
Even Razor is sad -
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@kirwan said in Force v Highlanders:
Another option would be to add one or two NZ sides to weaken them. Not sure that ends up with a marketable product though.
They're already planning on that with Moana P!
And the Ozzie comp was compelling, so when you're all playing at a similar level it is not so bad.
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@machpants said in Force v Highlanders:
@kirwan said in Force v Highlanders:
Another option would be to add one or two NZ sides to weaken them. Not sure that ends up with a marketable product though.
They're already planning on that with Moana P!
And the Ozzie comp was compelling, so when you're all playing at a similar level it is not so bad.
Yeah, certainly hides issues. The gap between playing NZ teams has them going backwards.
We need Aussie to be strong for our sake. Definitely missing the Bok sides too
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@machpants I agree with this:
Reds coach Brad Thorn, who won a title as a player with the Crusaders in 2008, said the result was proof a purely domestic format was not the answer.
"I've said all year we need to play the New Zealanders if you want to get better," he said.
"Tonight you get a punch in the face, but you sit in the locker room afterwards and think, 'that's it, that's where we want to be'.
"We need to play these guys, we want to play them and we want to win.
"But there's a team that's far superior tonight, and you've got to wear that ... welcome to world-class, now you've got to get in the ring with them."You only get better if you play against better teams. Someone has been posting here that they prefer Australian teams only to play against each other because it's more fun to watch if their teams win games, but that would mean that the standard of Australian rugby won't improve.
For the same reason, I regret that we don't have some of the South African teams in the comp anymore. No matter how bad the time difference and travel distance were, they offered the kind of opposition that challenged NZ teams in different ways from how NZ teams can challenge each other. I also think that - at the moment - Japanese Top League teams can't offer the same kind of challenges.
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The Australian teams are much worse than us. The draw does favour our teams though. The Hurricanes for instance are getting to rest some players with three easy games before taking on the Reds and the Brumbies. The Reds and Brumbies stand a chance of winning games, especially at home against our weaker sides. I think it will get tougher for them as the competition goes on.
If you had a format where you play teams for your own country twice and all the Aussie teams once, it would at least appear more even. The New Zealand teams would be more tired from playing each other.
Realistically, the best format would be 5 NZ teams, 4 Aus teams and 1 Pacific or Japanese team. That would provide the most even and balanced competition possible.
