Honestly, mate. If the private school system is so powerful, why is it that rugby union is currently running a poor last amongst the winter codes in Australia?
The lack of private school access in Australia does not seem to have affected rugby league at all.
If anybody has a legitimate complaint about the governance of an Olympic sport, by all means take it to the IOC. Good luck.
For a start more than a few sons of rugby league players and young former rl players attend Private schools.
Exhibit A Kurtley Beale.And the likes of Stuart ,Giteau in the past.
AFL has always been dominant in the Southern states and has TV deals well up on the NRL over the years.Soccer has always been a sleeping giant with huge grassroots players.The NRL has the Tv deal FTA and Pay.Maybe it's the convoluted ru rules which few can understand.
In fact ru was riding a wave after the RWC in England which they won .SL in 1995 -97 gave them and AFL a huge leg up.
The ARU agreed to SANZAR bringing in Japan and Argentine ,few ru fans could relate to these outsider teams ,ditto the SA ones, so TV ratings and crowds fell accordingly and TV stations steered clear.That is why union has dropped to 4.Administration has to take a swag of the blame for being no 4.
The Walls seem to be doing OK in the UK ATM,with a fair number of private schoolers and a growing number of state schoolers.
In 2003 rugby union according to ru tragics was going to push rl down the ladder.Become no 1 in the Northern states and no2 in the southern states, according to the beloved CEO John O'Neill.They had a war chest of about $43m.They blew it on administration,and the NRC and whatever else union admins do.
We had FitzSimons and Carlton predicting the demise of rugby league circa 2001/3.
Um !! SASOC is part of the SA Olympic Committee,they are hardly going to commit hare kari, by admitting they are guilty of suppressing a sport ,because they consider it part of rugby anyway.
If the private school system adheres to the principal of free enterprise, why the fear of rl in their sporting curriculum?I have no argument for any sport to be made available in all schools, in this country.