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Official Rugby Thread
- Thread starter KennyD
- Start date
Magrat Garlick
Global Moderator
no chance of SARU putting a team in Perth?
makes more business sense than playing in Pontypridd every other week
makes more business sense than playing in Pontypridd every other week
BoyBrumby
Englishman
Think it's more about the potential market size for the franchise. Melbourne has well over twice the population of Perth.
My take is the ARU preferred a foothold in the second biggest marketplace based on what might be rather than what is.
However one looks at it the Australian union have moved their own goalposts though. Something about WA convinced them to make the Force Australia's fourth Super franchise but now, despite outperforming the Rebels on field and off, they're being sacrificed on the alter of the nebulous potential of the market in Melbourne.
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Tbh, the culling of the Force is really just the public face of the train wreck that is Australian rugby
Fact is that the sport is dying a slow death with participation rates in the toilet (Rugby union popularity rates plummeting in Australia | Newshub) and general interest as low as I have ever seen it
How did it come to this?
The ARU took the short term gain option and, as a result, very little of the game can be seen on free tv apart from the Wallabies
Unfortunately, the Wallabies are basically a standing joke atm so TV ratings are down with only 2 matches in 2016 being among the top 100 most watched football matches of 2016 with its best performance coming in at no. 50
Aside from the odd match or highlight package, no Super Rugby is seen on free to air and that competition's issues are compounded by the fact that its format is not only incomprehensible to most but the majority have no allegiance to the franchise system anyway
Factor in the ARU's top-down approach where most of the game's (limited) financial resources are directed at the pro game plus rabid competition from other sports and union in this country is literally staring into the abyss with a lot more pain coming its way
Fact is that the sport is dying a slow death with participation rates in the toilet (Rugby union popularity rates plummeting in Australia | Newshub) and general interest as low as I have ever seen it
How did it come to this?
The ARU took the short term gain option and, as a result, very little of the game can be seen on free tv apart from the Wallabies
Unfortunately, the Wallabies are basically a standing joke atm so TV ratings are down with only 2 matches in 2016 being among the top 100 most watched football matches of 2016 with its best performance coming in at no. 50
Aside from the odd match or highlight package, no Super Rugby is seen on free to air and that competition's issues are compounded by the fact that its format is not only incomprehensible to most but the majority have no allegiance to the franchise system anyway
Factor in the ARU's top-down approach where most of the game's (limited) financial resources are directed at the pro game plus rabid competition from other sports and union in this country is literally staring into the abyss with a lot more pain coming its way
_Ed_
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StephenZA
Hall of Fame Member
No.... playing in Pontypridd makes more logistic sense for SA, and opens up another money making market. Better than playing in Aus where there is no money for rugby anyway.
StephenZA
Hall of Fame Member
With the players in Europe this is a real possibility if not reality.... it would make certain of the mouth breathers in SA happy and the local politicians in SA kinda happy with the SH team... of course we will lose every international game here on out for the next 20 years.
Spark
Global Moderator
From the Super Rugby I watched this year (admittedly the least I've watched since I was in primary school) I don't think selection would make one whit of difference
Don't think they would have a prayer against the ABs in any event but they are making it doubly hard by playing with an unbalanced back row, players being selected out of position and are implementing ridiculously complicated defensive structures to compensate for guys that can't defend in the positions in which they are picked
It's a cluster ****
Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
A great man. NZ is in mourning today. I hope the All Blacks play for 80 minutes instead of 50 as a mark of respect.
