Russian scholarships

[legend]

I was thinking with Russia looking to be the next competitive force in international league, some sort of scholarship program could be set up with the NRL and ESL clubs.

Players are indentified and then given a scholarship to train with the first grade squad of a particular team and if then give them a taste of Premier League to hone their skills. I think this is the best way to fast track talented players into future international stars.

Now, the RLIF should foot the bill and the player can get a job to subsidise their expenses and the players playing wage should not count towards the cap. We know the clubs can find jobs for the players and I doubt billetting would be a problem. Imagine if each club took one player per year in each competition, in five years you would have a great Russian team choc full of NRL and ESL experience. The same could apply to all developing nations, Russia was just the obvious choice.

 

[dimitri]

the rlif has no money to foot bills

the first thing international league needs

is a long term commitment from all league playing nations


AUS and GB need to contribute a lot more money to the rlif

and the rlif need to get more money through tv rights and sponsorship

 

[Tidus_Raider]

I was about to say the same thing. Legend, that's a great idea in essence however the RLIF would struggle to pay any bills at the moment.

 

[bazza]

If Russia want to improve in the long term - the best way would be to empoy a full-time national coach to set up systems of devleopment from youth to senior level for players as well as coaches and referees.

In Australia, players play at their local club then the better plays can play at a higher level like SG Ball and Jersey Flegg (or equivalent in Qld). There are also other representative teams e.g. NSW u/19, etc that players can aspire to

Similar system have recently been set up in England and NZ

If Russia did something similar, NRL and Superleague clubs would be pretty keen on keeping tabs of players over there and getting the better players over.

 

[legend]

All very good points Bazza but if the NRL clubs or the NRL itself could help foster the development of the game in Russia, the results would start to show a lot faster as the players who are on scholarships would get the invaluable expereince of training in a professional environment and a chance to develop their skills much faster IMO.

The stagnated, disorganised approach we have seen for the past ten years is dong nothing to nurthure the game at the international level, Desperate times call for desperate measures otherwise we will always be a localised sport played in small pockets with little or no hope of expanding.

Of course, you all know this and there is no reason why variations of the scholarship program cannot be introduced.

 

[ali]

If Russia want to improve in the long term - the best way would be to empoy a full-time national coach to set up systems of devleopment from youth to senior level for players as well as coaches and referees.

In Australia, players play at their local club then the better plays can play at a higher level like SG Ball and Jersey Flegg (or equivalent in Qld). There are also other representative teams e.g. NSW u/19, etc that players can aspire to

Similar system have recently been set up in England and NZ

If Russia did something similar, NRL and Superleague clubs would be pretty keen on keeping tabs of players over there and getting the better players over.

Russia have just picked up a Kiwi coach. I'm not sure if his contract extends past this tournmament.

I agree in essence with the original post. I can't see the current generation of russians getting much better so we should be looking towards the kids coming through. Although I wonder if any pommie clubs will look towards signing any russians after this tour. One 2nd rower seems to be getting good raps.

 

[legend]

Obviously there are plenty of things that can be done but I feel the ruling bodies in Australia and the U.K don't really care a great deal for the developing nations. So much more could be done.

Where is Tas Batieri these days? Is he still doing development work?

 

[ali]

Obviously there are plenty of things that can be done but I feel the ruling bodies in Australia and the U.K don't really care a great deal for the developing nations. So much more could be done.

Where is Tas Batieri these days? Is he still doing development work?

Yeah he's still there doing the RLIF job 3 days a week or whatever it is.

By the way, what's happening with the Russian jerseys. What happened to the banner on the front page? Have you spoken to Stefan lately? I'm still keen to buy one.