LuckyPhil's Roar Profile

The future of rugby union in Australia and New Zealand brings up lots of different emotions for people. Sadness, anger, worry, optimism, scepticism, and…

Rugby

2023

LuckyPhil

Roar Rookie

To fix rugby, we must go back to the future

Rugby

2023

I’m not even sure what you are arguing about.

Given the choice between qualifying for the URC final or the CC final, of course Leinster would prioritise the CC. Luckily they have two competitions to play in, meanwhile we are stuck with a 14 week comp here in the south.

SRP is a rubbish comp for several reasons, but mainly because it does not go for long enough and it is still run at the behest of RA and NZR. As a result we get 7 home games each season, and then RA and NZR wonder why they are both struggling to get enough broadcast revenue.

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Please don’t say it isn’t true and then back it up with (I haven’t checked).

Let’s check a few for the 12 mths leading into the RWC:
Dupont – 29 games – 2073 minutes.
Will Skelton – 30 games – 1900 minutes
Julien Marchand – 29 games – 1480 minutes
Gregory Alldritt – 34 games – 2310 minutes
Fraser McReight – 20 games – 1554 minutes
Aaron Smith – 17 games – 999 minutes
Sam Whitelock – 14 games – 1000 minutes
Codie Taylor – 21 games – 1106 minutes
Ethan De Groot – 20 games – 1050 minutes
Trevor NYAKANE – 26 games – 1213 minutes
Cobus Reinach – 26 games – 1253 minutes

I didn’t say not resting players is the right thing to do, but in France they play loads more than elsewhere and hardly rest their players – also why most of the Boks now play in either the URC (where they mostly just play in the Champions Cup games) or Japan where it is about 18 games a year.

In the 1990s, the NRL, AFL and union were about equal. Union has not adapted to professionalism. If they had, Union would likely now be sharing teh same spoils the NRL and AFL now have.

If Union embraced SRP and made it into a genuine competition that went for more than 14 weeks, I believe in 5-10 years it would be in rude health and players would be paid equal to what they could get in France or Japan.

But to do that, RA and NZR would need to allow club rugby to be prioritised, with the irony being it would strengthen the national teams. Will never happen as RA and NZR would never cede control.

Settle down.

Checked out the Wisden FB page and the players listed are the ones available on the 11 June 2025. These players get the glory of carrying the drinks in the WTC final.

Clearly no Australian or Sth African’s can be picked as they will be playing in the WTC final.

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The most DP has played in the last few years is 1600 minutes, so about the same minutes as Skelton but significantly less than Dupont.

Maybe a similar comparison would be Charles Ollivon who played about 1800 minutes (note all these were for France or Toulon).

I checked two French players. Will Skelton and Antoine Dupont. Both had much higher minutes than their Australian counterparts -across different years.

Why? Maybe Joe can run a coaching academy. He’s good and there are lots of different options.

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Where do i look up the word dictionary?

Actually scrum, I think you will find that players in NH play no more minutes in general then those in SH.

France – 25-30 games and up to 2100 minutes
Aust – 20-25 games and up to 1750 minutes

Aust players typically play 15-20% less professional minutes than our French and Sth African counterparts.

The biggest mistake was NZR announcing it before they had agreed anything with RA.

I remember one URC semi final when an Irish team put up their reserves and got knocked out! Player welfare is important and unions would be foolish to disregard it. If I recall there was more to it – they were also in the Champions cup the following week and the URC semi was in South Africa. They rested their players to concentrate on the bigger fish.

My issue with SRP is more the length of it. 14 weeks is just way too short but NZR won’t budge on it for fear of upsetting the ABs and NPC. The end result is SRP costs significant money for both RA and NZR .

UF, checked the dictionary and I didn’t see Justin Marshall under “most respected voice in World Rugby”.

Marshall is the definition of clickbait, up there with Ben Youngs. As a rusted on Kiwi you may not agree, but that’s not really my concern. Who is better – Sam Warburton, Brian O’Driscoll, Michael Lynagh, Andrew Mehrtens.

SRP is a training comp and is highlighted by the fact it only runs for 14 weeks (disregarding the games players are rested for) . Beyond this, fans have to wait patiently until a few international games are played. I support the Tahs (but mainly go to watch the Brumbies) and don’t have an issue with the win loss ratio – it is the fact there are only 7 home games a season. Compare this to the NRL where every team gets more than twice as many.
Aust and NZ players play around 20 games a year. In the NH (and Sth Africa) they play 25-30.

France has an advantage because they prioritise club rugby over the national team. This results in them having a very big base of players to choose their national team from.

The NRL and AFL are just club competitions and seem to be doing ok, so to suggest it isn’t possible if Aust and NZR allowed SRP to be the best comp it can be is just sticking your head in the sand. That said, NZR and RA would never cede control, because they clearly think what they are doing is ok.

Most of the French players aren’t rested. They miss club games because of national duty, but mostly go straight back to their club games if not injured.

Alot of French players play 25-30 games a year, whereas Aust/NZ players play closer to 20.

Interestingly, many Sth African players do 25-30 games, so the lack of games does not translate into better results.

They are not in a position to make big offers just to keep players. Pretty simple really isn’t it.

This is why IMO RA and NZR need to prioritise the domestic game to generate more money. Make SRP the comp players want to go to.

He was asked a question and answered it. Given they are still working with Joe to finalise what life looks like beyond the Lions, really not sure what else you would expect him to say.

Personally I don’t care how they approach it, but the status quo of playing SRP over 14 weeks (and then having players stood down to save them for National games in July) is always going to hold it back.

Be like the French and Sth African’s and prioritise domestic rugby.

Glossing over the fact that Marshall is a long way from being one of the most respected voices in World Rugby, even if Australian teams won all their games against the kiwis, SRP would still be a half baked competition.

Whilst it is treated as a training comp for the AllBlacks and Wallabies it will struggle to attract support.

I would love it if someone like SilverLake or Twiggy or Lambo Guy came in and offered to buy it off NZR/RA and run it like a proper competition. I have no doubt in 5 years Rugby in Australia and NZR would be flourishing.

It is rare, but I agree with you on this. Who respects him?

I think Chris Orr would be better sending Dylan’s CV to Scotland.

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it says he didn’t make any of the school boys or the Gen Blue – this should give you a hint.

Anyway, born in Sydney and played for Eastwood until he went overseas.

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Why does it matter whether he was paid $1 or $1 million?

Joe was arguably the right person for the job at the time. RA needed an experienced coach who could regroup after the horror of 2023. I think it is fair to say that he has had a positive outcome with the players so far, and long may it continue.

There weren’t ,amy other coaches of his calibre available.

If it came down to him only being able to commit to the end of the Lions tour or not coming on board at all, I believe it is better going with the first one. Clearly you disagree, but that doesn’t mean he should never have signed up in the first place.

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KPM that is ridiculous. If Joe gets to spend a few years with family why couldn’t he change his mind later?

Yes but some turn anything into a blunder. If he had have been signed for 4 years they would have been criticised for that.

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