Super 15 success???

[smartcooky]

I think that the consensus is there that Aus does not have the players or fan engagement at present to support 5 SR teams. They just can't do it. Hopefully in the future but not now.

Hard to get fan engagement when you cut 20% of them off at the knees

 

[mdaclarke]

It's brilliant how tight super rugby is this year.

 

[AM_Bokke]

Hard to get fan engagement when you cut 20% of them off at the knees

If you want to donate your own money to keeping 5 Aus super rugby sides alive go right ahead. No one is stopping you. But Rugby Australia ran out of money.

And the teams sucked.

 

[smartcooky]

If you want to donate your own money to keeping 5 Aus super rugby sides alive go right ahead. No one is stopping you. But Rugby Australia ran out of money.

And the teams sucked.

And they get the same amount of money out of the SANZAR deal that the NZRU does.

The shortage of money is not the issue with Aussie Rugby; its the way they squander it. Instead of spending $millions over the last fifteen years on quick fixes such as buying former Rugby League stars who have passed their use-by date, they should have been ploughing those millions into the grass roots of the game.... if you want to build something, you have to build it on strong and solid foundations... if the foundations are weak because you have spent all the money on the top structure of the building, it might look great for a while, but the whole structure will soon fall down.

 

[Penne Rara]

There are rumours (or actual news?) that three saffa teams are going to join Pro14 next season. Just heard about it, but if true it could be a devastating blow to SANZAAR and the Super Rugby comp.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Have yet to see a full stadium in any of the conferences. Is there a team in SR that can actually fill its own stadium for a game or are the grounds just too big?

Waratahs downgraded to a smaller stadium this weekend and filled it (14k I think). But yes, it's not a great spectacle having empty seats.

A shame as the league is very entertaining this year and deserves a bit better.

 

[smartcooky]

IMO, the ARU had the right idea with the NRC but they have gone about it the wrong way. The NRC is a competition that they made from scratch, consisting of made up teams that did not have a fan base. What they needed to do is tap into the tribalism of the Shute Shield (Sydney) and Hospital Cup (Brisbane), by using existing teams from those competitions and supplementing them with combination teams to make a 10 team two conference competition organised along similar lines to Super Rugby, for example

NSW Conference: The Top Four Shute Shield teams plus a Sydney Combined team drawn from the players in the seven remaining Shute Shield sides
QLD Conference: The Top Four Hospital Cup teams plus a Brisbane Combined team drawn from the players in the remaining five Hospital Cup sides.

The teams in each conference play the other teams in their own conference home and away (8 matches) , and play four of the five teams in the other conference, two home and two away (4 matches). Two teams in each conference qualify for the semi-finals which are played across the conferences. Its not perfect, but it would be be a start, and it certain wouild be cheaper to run.

 

[mania]

Rugby is being mismanaged to a point where it will die in Australia whilst it blooms in the rest of the world.

Tis sad.

aussie rugby dying isnt super rugby's fault and no one is going to be able to fix aus rugby except RA and aussies.
grow a grassroots that encompasses all of society not just the private schools. cut half the staff that work at RA and there you will have some seed money to initiate a grassroots. gimme $5Mil AU and i'll start up a grassroots that will perpetuate. within 5 years you'll start getting a better class of rookies coming up thru the ranks.