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Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent

newc18

Juniors
Messages
248
Despite a full house at Suncorp Stadium, the game attracted an average audience of only 861,000 on Channel Nine’s free to air and streaming service 9Now, while the figures from Stan are unavailable.
Why did Buzz add the BVOD on top of the average? I thought the average always included it?
 

taste2taste

Bench
Messages
2,889
Do any of the NZ/Aussies/Saffas that play for the British Lions look like they could make it in the NRL?
It’s hard to tell because they get so few touches and no open space to show if they have any speed or footwork.

The Lions/Kiwi 9 Gibson Parker looked good, would be a good 9 in league.

The Lions stand off Finn Russell looked a gun, would be a star at 6 in league.

Im sure most of the Lions could be good league players if we ever had the salary cap to afford them.
 

Wb1234

Immortal
Messages
42,157

Warriors superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is on the verge of becoming the first NRL player to agree to a lucrative deal to join the rebel Rugby 360 competition on a deal worth close to $1 million a season.

With the future of Kalyn Ponga in rugby league appearing uncertain following revelations he has recently engaged a New Zealand-based rugby union agent to explore future opportunities, the news of Tuivasa-Sheck’s potential defection will send shockwaves through the game.

Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity due to confidentiality, said that Tuivasa-Sheck is in discussions about joining the R360 competition in 2027 as the first NRL player to jump ship.
The 32-year-old, who is on around $550,000 at the Warriors next year, still has one more year to run on his deal with the club but is set to almost double his salary in the twilight of his career if the breakaway competition gets off the ground.

The former Dally M Medal winner left the NRL in 2022, playing two seasons with the Auckland Blues in Super Rugby on his way to representing the All Blacks. He returned to the NRL last year but is set to switch codes yet again.
Warriors chief executive Cameron George is believed to be aware of the interest in his high-profile player but refused to discuss the veteran back’s future when contacted by this masthead on Wednesday. Tuivasa-Sheck’s agent Bruce Sharrock did not respond to attempts to contact him.

George raised the threat of R360 at last week’s NRL club CEO’s conference and believes the threat it poses to the sport is genuine, with the top players in line to earn close to US$2 million a season (approximately AUD$3.1 million).

It’s more than double the amount of money Ponga is paid ($1.4 million) as the highest-paid player in the NRL.

“I raised it at a recent CEO’s meeting to ensure everyone’s aware of the real and genuine Rugby 360 concept,” George said on Wednesday.

“I’m aware of players that have been interviewed and engaged with. I’m aware of the significant financial opportunities that it could bring, particularly around the branding of the players as individuals.

“I needed to alert everyone so that they are across this and what it could bring in the next few years, because it’s a real and genuine concept that is growing momentum and could be quite attractive to any number of players. My understanding is that the financial windfalls are real and they’re significant. I’m sure that the financial windfalls are far greater than anything we’ve ever seen before in rugby.”
Nine’s Danny Weidler reported on Monday that Storm superstar Ryan Papenhuyzen is also on the radar of R360 organisers. Fellow Storm teammate Nelson Asofa-Solomona is another name being discussed.

The R360 competition has private equity and speculation of Saudi Arabian money behind the concept, with organisers moving to reach their desired target of players before September to meet the contractual obligations that will trigger the financial backing it requires to get off the ground.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has bankrolled LIV Golf, the Saudi football league, which has had Cristiano Ronaldo as its marquee player, and won hosting rights for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

ormer England rugby international Mike Tindall is the public face of R360. Tindall, who is married to British royal family member Zara Phillips, is in Australia to watch the British and Irish Lions series.
The concept will follow a hybrid model of Formula 1 and the Indian Premier League, with private owners to invest in franchises all around the world.

The players who agree to sign with R360 aren’t signing for specific franchises but rather to the competition itself, with the potential of auctions and drafts being floated.
One model being discussed will see a joint Australia and New Zealand-based franchise as well as teams based in the United States, France, England, South America, Asia and South Africa in an eight-team competition that could grow to as large as 12 teams.
Competition organisers want to launch a one-off tournament next season, potentially from July to September, before adopting a regular format in 2027.
The intended format in 2027 will see the competition split into two blocks, with the first half of the tournament played between March and May and the second stage played between September and December. That window is largely in competition with the NRL, which currently runs from March to October.

“I spoke to Andrew Abdo about it too, because the NRL should be right across it as well,” George said.
“They need to understand whether there’s any opportunity with it rather than fight against it. As I understand it, current rugby jurisdictions are against it.
“Maybe it’s an opportunity for the NRL to look at having access to a talent pool at a particular time of the year. I’m not sure if those times and opportunities will come to light, but as a game we need to be across it.”

No wonder Union didn’t want him
 

T to the T

Juniors
Messages
639

Wallabies need to go west for talent ... or face extinction​

Rugby league is scooping up the talented kids and leaving Rugby eating their dust, writes Peter Jenkins.

The West Indies were once the benchmark for Test cricket. Gold chains swinging, the swag in the step, but most importantly boasting bagsful of talent, they intimidated opposition teams all the while thrilling fans around the globe.
From the late 1970’s until 1995, Australia could not win a Test series against them, home or away. The Calypso kings were unstoppable. And then they lost their way.
Pathway players were lured to other sports or in more recent times to shorter forms of the game, where the dollars and coloured clothing of the T20 circuit are preferred to pulling on whites.

Once the aspirational pursuit for Caribbean youth, Test cricket has seen that once lofty status consigned to history.
A sad decline never more stark than when the Aussies skittled them for 27 last week in the second innings of the final Test in Jamaica to put an exclamation mark on a three-zip series win.

A few days later that number 27 came back to haunt another international sporting team.
The Wallabies, beaten 27-19 by the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane on Saturday night, once ruled the Rugby world like the Windies did cricket. Albeit not for as long.
But they were silverware collectors par excellence back in the early 2000s when Australia held all the game’s biggest trophies – the World Cup, the Bledisloe Cup, the Tri Nations trophy and the Tom Richards Cup for besting the Lions.

Until they too lost their way. The Wallabies have not won a World Cup since 1999. They last beat the Lions in their ‘every 12 years’ series in 2001. They have not lifted the Bledisloe Cup since 2002. They last won The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri Nations Series) in 2015.
The Wallabies are now the Windies of Rugby. But where did it all go wrong?
Certainly a refusal to fish in the country’s biggest and most impactful talent pool helps explain the demise.
In the NRL, Penrith has won four successive premierships. It is no coincidence that most of the Panthers are not only homegrown stars but a high percentage of them boast a Pacific Islander background.
Census data shows the Pasifika community in Australia reached 415,000 in 2021 – up from 279,000 in 2011.
Tellingly, there were more Pacific Islanders in Blacktown alone than in ACT, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory combined.
But what does Rugby Australia offer this Western Sydney demographic where explosive athletes abound? Doughnuts.

No Super Rugby team based in the west, no matches from the current Lions tour being played at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium, and no World Cup games scheduled there in 2027.
Rugby league are scooping up the talented kids and leaving Rugby eating their dust.
Rugby’s myopic focus on the traditional private schools system was also underscored at the recent national schoolboys’ championship.
How many boys from the Combined High Schools set-up were among the 46 players chosen for the NSW I and NSW II teams?
Three, and they were all in the NSW II team.
One from Endeavour Sports High, one from The Hills Sports High and one from Parkes High School.
Is it any wonder Rugby is losing the race for mainstream support, eyeballs and talent?
To think there were 4.8 million people tuned in to the State of Origin rugby league decider this year and just 860,000 watching the first Wallabies-Lions Test on Channel Nine and 9Now (no figures were available for Stan).
Another loss to the Lions in Melbourne this weekend and the crisis will only deepen.
 

Leighton Rhino

Juniors
Messages
165
Met a family of rhinos fans going to the dragons bulldogs game yesterday

Asked if they were going to watch the lions game after and it was a nope

Yeah hoping to do the same with my kids in next few years...we are teachers so get long holidays so should be and to take them for a few weeks...I will be doing as many NRL games as I can... Will be no where near a union or AFL game
 
Last edited:

Wb1234

Immortal
Messages
42,157
Yeah hoping to do the same with my kids in next few years...we are teachers so get long holidays so should be and to take them for a few weeks...I will be doing as many NRL games as I can... Will be no where near an AFL game!
I watched rhinos v hull around 2010 in the old south stand. It was like a mosh pit

Crazy atmosphere at a game
 

Leighton Rhino

Juniors
Messages
165
I watched rhinos v hull around 2010 in the old south stand. It was like a mosh pit

Crazy atmosphere at a game
The new south stand gets done stick for being sanituzed / half seating but I prefer it ...it's a much nicer experience and we still get to swear and shout abuse at thier outside backs all game or at the kicker to put him off

Headingly is the best club ground of either code in the UK
 

10$ Ferret

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
1,327
There is some real head in the sand stuff by rugby australia. Its not really all about the talent. The coaching is pretty ordinary. I am not necessarily talking about super and international rugby, its lower than that.
Too much nepotism in terms of player selection and coaching. not forgetting school boy rugby. People salivate over it but the coaching there is pretty ordinary too, so the players are being developed as well as they should, most of that comes from them also being in RL systems
 

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