To answer more points posted before:
Um... NZ - Tri Nations, Super 14, Air New Zealand Cup, smaller leagues, SA similar (it's only Australia in this scenario that seem to not have it together) and Australia has a fair amount of players that where either born in NZ, or have played a fair bit of rugby of there. So, so what? that doesn’t make the Northern comp bigger or 'dynamic'.[/b]
They are all provincial competitions, not major, transnational cups which seek to challenge teams to innovate and develop in order to beat international competition. In the NH, we don't focus on piddly national cups such as the Anglo-Welsh cup or the crappy little provincial cups that exist in Scotland or Ireland (although they do provoke a lot of pride and passion). We focus on the big, center peice tournaments that make a difference and influence teams and nations. As such, I don't really have much time for the Currie Cup and the Air New Zealand cup because the Super 14 has devalued them that much.
We still have a lot of players moving around, and yup Southern Hemisphere countries do have a draft. We are pretty happy though to have our players at home for the better parts of their careers, the players themselves are choosing not to go for lucrative offshore contracts till their careers are on the decline - more often than not because of the quality of the competition in the SH countries (in NZ not many that go over get the nod to play in the national squad again, why? the coaches are in NZ, the resources are in NZ).[/b]
A thriving transfer market is vastly different to a draft.
It serves to show the gulf of understanding between north and south over such issues and it shows the distance yet to go before the SH emerges from its stagnant and out of date views on such matters. Players are not moving around freely between teams and between nations unless they are either pushed out to the NH or are exiled because they took a chance to play in a different environment.
There is no thriving transfer market between teams and between nations within the Super 14 or the Tri Nations. The reasons for this are barriers to entry and irrational restrictions on labour movement between nations and regions. Fact.
The idea of SH players coming to the north to play out their final days is now facing its twilight. It had its heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s where clubs fell over themselves to buy loads of out of date stars from the South to cover gaps caused by national duty. However invariably the investment was either too great due to the salary cap and for most part were wastes of money as they only lasted a few years before eventual retirement. Teams like Bristol got
really stung by this and are now picking closer to home and saving lots of money and getting the same quality as a result. Bristol's front row for example is manned mainly by a motley crew of old but very experienced English and British forwards who can do the same job just as well as any SH star close to retirement, but for the fraction of the cost.
No, the idea that a SH star can look to the north as a good pension fund is well and truly gone and now stars in their prime are now being offered the stark choice: either come up here and get the cash or stay down there with the sheep and your identi-kit teams. This is the choice that Chris Jack is facing at the moment, but do not believe what the nay sayers tell you, it is possible to have your cake (of playing in club rugby in the North) and
eat it (play for your country).
The problem is that the Unions in the south have failed to see this yet and are stubborn to change. The change-makers are now the dinosaurs, eager to live on in their fantasy world while the meteor of economic reality homes in on their garden of Eden, or should I say,
Bay of Plenty.
This is also one reason why you'll rarely see any talent from say Argentina or the NH come to the Super 14 to play or to manage, no matter how excellent they are. The SH is so determined to defend its little system and values, that by doing so, they are merely ensuring the destruction of such a system through Rhodesian style stagnation through lack of investment and innovation.
Originally posted by Prestwick
This in turn provides for a more dynamic and exciting Six Nations as players from all unions, tutored and influenced by many different national methods of playing, put on some excellent rugby.
And this is different to the Tri Nations?[/b]
Yes and its easy to point out why. None of the teams trade players in a free and open transfer market and thus all 14 teams are packed full of their own countrymen and are mainly staffed by their own countrymen. The teams may play each other in the Super 14, but they still stick rigidly to their own national methods dictated by their own agendas and not by what wins matches.
Ummm??? hold on what the hell do you think coaches do? SANZAR officials don't tell players how to play, seriously they don't. New ideas, new ways of playing? I'd be looking further down south to find that. To us Northern Hemisphere rugby always looks stale. Then again at times so can Australia, South Africa and the odd one NZ can to. But for mine, 'stale' belongs to the coaches in the NH.[/b]
I referred to SANZAR over the bigger, more strategic decisions such as transfers, structuring of tournaments and the like.
The NH is pragmatic, innovative and can claim the mantle of "change" thanks to NH coaches such as Phillipe Saint Andre, Dean Ryan, Dean Richards, Richard Hill, Pierre Berbitzier. And I could go on and on. Most of these men have (when given the budget) gone out and have formed the most dynamic and innovative squads I have seen. Some in the case of Ryan, Richards and Andre have some of the most talented and exciting backlines to be seen anywhere in the world while others like Hill have also been innovative in the practice on buying on form and not on star appeal.
The rugby scene in the NH has never been so vibrant and alive with energy. Players are willing to travel across a continent to join teams who they feel they will play best with
while at the same time making themselves available for national duty. When you look south and you see their slavish devotion to closing off their leagues and teams from letting players leave to go abroad or from allowing foreigners to enter, you can't help but smirk when you realise that they actually take such fruitcake ideas seriously.
No, we may not win world cups every time, but we have a system that will last the test of time. It is financially viable and it is exciting and that is what I love about NH rugby.
