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Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent

Messages
277
Good post. Given the brutal treatment of league by union in South Africa poaching their juniors and creating nrl pathways for them in a new club like Perth is a bloody good strategy

Loads of Saffa kids would want to migrate (probably a decent opportunity for Latin American kids too).
I wonder what the visa situation would be. From what I understand, clubs have a tough time getting visas for PNG kids, i assume this would be a similar issue.
 
Messages
277
The roosters signed 2 South African union school boys stars, Du Plusis and Skosana. Neither cracked the nrl and I believe both are playing union some where around the world.

If the NRL wants to have a crack at signing the worlds best union players it’s imperative that they introduce cap incentives.

Some of the worlds best union players ( Farell, Clarke, Barrett, Savea, Mo,unga ) have said they’d love to try playing in the nrl….what has the nrl done to try and incentivise clubs to sign them ?

Just imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and Haas, Cleary and the Hamer had said they’d love to try union ? Rugby Australia, French and Japan Union clubs would be knocking at their door.

the requirement I would add is that the players cant be Australian.

you dont want to create a negative incentive to push younger Aussie kids to union in the hope of getting into the nrl through a special pathway
 

shadowformz

Juniors
Messages
95
What is actually accomplished by signing established union stats in deals equal to our best players?
I think union fans will watch the NRL games that these players play in. More ratings . The amount of fans in the crowd supporting Nawaqanitawase in his debut roosters game was awesome. More would have watched on tv.
 

bazza

Immortal
Messages
30,963
I think union fans will watch the NRL games that these players play in. More ratings . The amount of fans in the crowd supporting Nawaqanitawase in his debut roosters game was awesome. More would have watched on tv.
unless there is another Jonah Lomu superstar then no one cares after the first few games
It isn't like RU fans in Australia aren't aware that the NRL exists
 

Matt_CBY

Juniors
Messages
1,908
Great player.

I think she is one of, if not the top try scorer in the history of NZ Women's Sevens. Her balance and shift/stutter step confuses opposition and is great to watch. She may be playing under a different last name by the time the season comes around though.
 

Kurt Angle

First Grade
Messages
9,728
I think union fans will watch the NRL games that these players play in. More ratings . The amount of fans in the crowd supporting Nawaqanitawase in his debut roosters game was awesome. More would have watched on tv.

So like Aussie RU fans, upon hearing a wallaby swapped ..

"Yeah, I've heard about this Rugby League, I finally might give it a go!"

We don't lack exposure where RU is strong in Oz or NZ

We're not going to build a South African RL national team out of poaching 3-6 sevens players

The best we've done is poach a handful of Fijian players, this helped prop them up to 4th in the world across the 2008 and 2013 RLWC, and possibly... ? motivated the other Pacific nations to raise their game... maybe

Any cheap french players? If we're going to pay wages to lift a national side? Much better than paying a million for a wallaby or all black to languish in QLD cup
 
Messages
277
I seriously think that 90% of the world see rugby union and rugby league as the exact same game.

99%….

It definitely diesnt help that we are the lesser known sport, yet we use a branding that is indistinguishable from our main (and better known) competitor.

Assume that every PR win goes the RU more than to us.

If someone who hated RL was trying to sabotage the growth of the game, this is exactly what they would do. I think that tells you enough about how f*cking dumb it is to brand as “Rugby Competition “…
 

shadowformz

Juniors
Messages
95
99%….

It definitely diesnt help that we are the lesser known sport, yet we use a branding that is indistinguishable from our main (and better known) competitor.

Assume that every PR win goes the RU more than to us.

If someone who hated RL was trying to sabotage the growth of the game, this is exactly what they would do. I think that tells you enough about how f*cking dumb it is to brand as “Rugby Competition “…
Exactly, my wife and myself were at Vegas this year (it was absolutely amazing), and every single local we spoke to about referred to at as rugby, with the all blacks being the world's best mentioned in the next breath. It's going to be so hard for us to make any headway into new international markets because anything positive just boost rugby unions profile. And on the flip side , after the game we spent time in Georgia and New York , everyone I spoke to who happened to see one of the games on TV said they turned it off as soon as they seen what it was, all saying that the games to boring and slow with all the penalties, scrums, and goal kicks. Obviously a classic example of mistaken identities. Americans in particular aren't going to give the time to us to learn how different league is
 
Messages
277
Exactly, my wife and myself were at Vegas this year (it was absolutely amazing), and every single local we spoke to about referred to at as rugby, with the all blacks being the world's best mentioned in the next breath. It's going to be so hard for us to make any headway into new international markets because anything positive just boost rugby unions profile. And on the flip side , after the game we spent time in Georgia and New York , everyone I spoke to who happened to see one of the games on TV said they turned it off as soon as they seen what it was, all saying that the games to boring and slow with all the penalties, scrums, and goal kicks. Obviously a classic example of mistaken identities. Americans in particular aren't going to give the time to us to learn how different league is

I don’t understand why it is so difficult to just come up with some acronym (like MMA) for new fans who don’t immediately recognise that Rugby and Rugby are obviously two different sports (those idiots…)

RLC Football? Done.
 

gerg

Juniors
Messages
2,493
Exactly, my wife and myself were at Vegas this year (it was absolutely amazing), and every single local we spoke to about referred to at as rugby, with the all blacks being the world's best mentioned in the next breath. It's going to be so hard for us to make any headway into new international markets because anything positive just boost rugby unions profile. And on the flip side , after the game we spent time in Georgia and New York , everyone I spoke to who happened to see one of the games on TV said they turned it off as soon as they seen what it was, all saying that the games to boring and slow with all the penalties, scrums, and goal kicks. Obviously a classic example of mistaken identities. Americans in particular aren't going to give the time to us to learn how different league is

Americans don't give a shit about any non American sport. The interest we get in Vegas is predominantly expats and Australian fans travelling. We can showcase and grow it a little but NFL, MLB, NBA is all they give a shit about.
 

gerg

Juniors
Messages
2,493
I don’t understand why it is so difficult to just come up with some acronym (like MMA) for new fans who don’t immediately recognise that Rugby and Rugby are obviously two different sports (those idiots…)

RLC Football? Done.
If only our competition had an acronym or something .... anything.
 

Wb1234

Immortal
Messages
34,417
I don’t understand why it is so difficult to just come up with some acronym (like MMA) for new fans who don’t immediately recognise that Rugby and Rugby are obviously two different sports (those idiots…)

RLC Football? Done.
No

There are two rugby codes

One is union one is league

Many current rugby league clubs have been around since before the rfu even existed

1895 was a schism not a breakaway

The name of the game was literally the northern UNION

For 13 years they basically stuck with rugby union rules too
 

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