Official Rugby Thread

[Fuller Pilch]

Amazing effort by Chile

 

[ashley bach]

Wow... The fall out from this is going to be massive. All lies with the tactics and wrong selections in my opinion. Surely Foster and Cane can't survive.

An earlier post stated almost certainly nothing would change in the middle of the season, and that's fair enough.
But if change is to come, would it not be impossible to go past Scott Robertson?
You can only take so many tricks with the cards you're dealt, and while he was dealt some very good cards, the fact is he has taken just about every
trick that has been on offer to take. Surely there comes a time when guy at least deserves a crack?

 

[GotSpin]

Maybe but how many were touring fans? Perhaps it was irrelevant number but I recall seeing the Lions v Brumbies at Canberra and the crowd then was significantly boosted by touring fans. Rugby admin here has done its best do alienate fans almost as if it was a KPI. I wouldn't say its dying here but its the least popular code and has greater chance of failing over succeeding so they'd want to be judicious. I hope I'm not being indulgent saying my preferred code is league but did once play and support rugby. I much prefer watching and supporting the socceroos now and not caring too much about the wallabies. Of course I'm not saying my story is an example but the game has lost fans here and I don't think rugby in Oz are overly concerned with finding out why.

It was packed full of local fans. Don’t be ridiculous

 

[Burgey]

Australia has a golden chance for rugby's popularity to grow:

-Perfect chance to finally get the Bledisloe back
-Lions tour to Oz in 2025 will be massive (although it will be am absolutely stacked team and very hard to beat)
-2027 RWC will be even bigger

Yeah I don’t think rugby’s admin in this country has ever been more important than it is now, ahead of the WC here. Real chance for the sport to get back to something like it was late 90s/ early 2000s

 

[the big bambino]

It was packed full of local fans. Don’t be ridiculous

i asked a question, try not to be a prick mate.

 

[James]

You can pick anyone you want, nothing will change if the attack structures do not. You bring up the 10 thing again - BB and Mo'unga can't do **** when their options are pass to flat footed stationary man, run at rush defence or kick over it.

And that's down to Foster and his co-coaches isn't it. As much as Moúnga hasn't shown a lot on the international stage to date, I think he's the first-five to persist with, but like you say, if Foster stays, it doesn't matter who is selected, because he simply isn't up to the task of being All Blacks coach.

With the cancellation of the press conference today, perhaps the NZRU have already tapped him on the shoulder that he's being sacked and the lawyers are drawing it all up today. I'd be absolutely shocked if we don't hear by lunch-time tomorrow that he has been let go. The weight of public pressure on him to be sacked is not going to go away and you're throwing him into the lions den with the SA tour.

 

[James]

But if change is to come, would it not be impossible to go past Scott Robertson?

Robertson is the obvious choice, and should have got the job initially. He has the "results" to back it up, unlike Foster.

 

[StephenZA]

With the cancellation of the press conference today, perhaps the NZRU have already tapped him on the shoulder that he's being sacked and the lawyers are drawing it all up today. I'd be absolutely shocked if we don't hear by lunch-time tomorrow that he has been let go. The weight of public pressure on him to be sacked is not going to go away and you're throwing him into the lions den with the SA tour.

SA are poor favourites... if they don't get rid of him and he stays, NZ may beat SA and that may give him enough rope for the WC.

 

[James]

SA are poor favourites... if they don't get rid of him and he stays, NZ may beat SA and that may give him enough rope for the WC.

I obviously hope you're right, but I can't see it. A full strength SA team with the experience of their key players, e.g. De Allende, Pollard, Kolisi, Etzebeth to name but a few, the ABs simply don't have the players to match them anymore and the coaching/tactics is the worst its been in the modern era. Especially at the heartland of Ellis Park.

 

[social]

Dying enough to fill out the SCG. 43k not a bad attendance for a sport on its last legs, IMHO.

It’s 43k for a test match in a city of 5 million

Here’s reality at other levels

Very few people attend or watch Super Rugby

The game is basically broke here so the ARU has prostituted itself to pay tv and streaming services that very few watch

Participation rates are cratering across the board & it’s now the 26th most popular sport in a country of 27 million people

26th!!!!

Social jr goes to school at one of the country’s greatest union nurseries

Every one of their top talents is contractually committed to league or AFL clubs and none of them have any interest in rugby

The northern hemisphere is very different as there’s no competition from other contact sports

Australians, in general, look at rugby as a boring & dangerous sport with no national exposure

It will get a boost from the WC but without elite junior talent playing, it will be short lived

 

[BoyBrumby]

. Participation rates are cratering across the board & it’s now the 26th most popular sport in a country of 27 million people

26th!!!!

I'd say participation rates are a pretty poor way to judge a sport's mass appeal.

I don't doubt Aussie Rules is the top dog in terms of general interest (attending games, watching it on the telly, Googling results, etc) but would it even make the top ten in terms of participation?

 

[social]

I'd say participation rates are a pretty poor way to judge a sport's mass appeal.

I don't doubt Aussie Rules is the top dog in terms of general interest (attending games, watching it on the telly, Googling results, etc) but would it even make the top ten in terms of participation?

Aussie Rules is massive compared to union with more than 5 times more male players plus they have money to expand the game

Now factor in the girls and it’s easily well over 10 times the size

Simple fact is that overwhelming majority of talented kids don’t play union unless they go to a few private schools

We live in rugby “heartland”

Area of say 2000 square ks

3 teams nominated a team for U17s so they canned the competition

A WC won’t fix a game that nobody plays

 

[GotSpin]

Yeah I don’t think the blokes running union really care about expanding the game at all. Meanwhile, AFL is slowly and surely eating away at its base

the next four years will basically decide whether it lives again

 

[social]

Rugby is controlled by the northern hemisphere and it’s flourishing there due to no competition

Very different here

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I

I obviously hope you're right, but I can't see it. A full strength SA team with the experience of their key players, e.g. De Allende, Pollard, Kolisi, Etzebeth to name but a few, the ABs simply don't have the players to match them anymore and the coaching/tactics is the worst its been in the modern era. Especially at the heartland of Ellis Park.

Also our depth in locks is shocking and Retallick is out for 2 months.

 

[James]

Also our depth in locks is shocking and Retallick is out for 2 months.

Didn't hear that , geez.

 

[James]

Terrible news this is with a Welsh rugby legend.

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[Flem274*]

I keep hearing the Fox media line that Union is dead but you keep filling up test venues, especially for the Bledisloe, and kiwis going over there aren't that ****in rich to do it all the time.

Depth seems to be more the issue with the NRL using Aus and NZ union as their other academy.

Tbh I'd say the NRL is in far more active decline atm, with pretty mediocre turnout for non-Origin games and NZ being far too significant of a player supply line for the national winter code of NSW and Queensland. Also the Melbourne Salary Sombrero keeps winning too many titles. Union over there appears to be cruising along average as ever and will only explode again when the Wallabies start winning. Honestly this might just be the squad if they can keep it on the park. The northern scum are better but the late Cheika era side would be blown off the park by England.

I've been getting into a little AFL and whatever they're doing to get the crowds in needs to be plagiarised by like every sport in the Southern Hemisphere.

Didn't hear that , geez.

I;m extremely biased but Vaai'i and Lord are outstanding talents. They have no right to be that big and still that athletic. Vaai'i especially could be an ATG.

 

[GotSpin]

will
I've been getting into a little AFL and whatever they're doing to get the crowds in needs to be plagiarised by like every sport in the Southern Hemisphere.

I;m extremely biased but Vaai'i and Lord are outstanding talents. They have no right to be that big and still that athletic. Vaai'i especially could be an ATG.

I’m no fan of AFL but it’s much much better to watch live than on TV

 

[Heboric]

Australians on here are trying so hard to convince everyone that nobody in Oz watches rugby union