All Blacks may tour Australia in 2009

[beige]

Something to tide us over before the expansion

In an enticing development for local Rugby fans, ARU CEO John O’Neill has mooted the possibility that the All Blacks may tour Australia next June to play local Super 14 teams followed by the Qantas Wallabies going to New Zealand to play Kiwi Super 14 teams.

The idea was floated yesterday as the ARU and NZRU expressed ongoing frustration at the understrength touring teams sent to tour Australia and New Zealand by northern hemisphere nations.

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[BLR]

This sucks, it's going to go to all the Eastern States, fat chance of Force getting a game, John O'Neill doesn't care about Force people!

[Scotty]

This sucks, it's going to go to all the Eastern States, fat chance of Force getting a game, John O'Neill doesn't care about Force people!

I was disappointed with the omission of the Force too. C'mon, does John O'Neill really think they'll pull a bigger crowd in Canberra than in Perth?

My vote goes for bringing the Boks over here to play the Force on a one-off tour match... that would certainly bring in a crowd...

[Moses]

Sounds alright actually, should play the Tahs twice though

[BLR]

My vote goes for bringing the Boks over here to play the Force on a one-off tour match... that would certainly bring in a crowd...

Stuff the Boks, I want the All Blacks!

[shasta]

Sounds alright actually, should play the Tahs twice though

Jeez you're boring Moses. That line has a grey beard longer than Gandalf by now.

This sucks, it's going to go to all the Eastern States, fat chance of Force getting a game, John O'Neill doesn't care about Force people!

Where does the article say only Eastern States?

[AndyS]

We should offer to let France play us. I'd pay to watch that.

That would have probably been the best response to Europe sending weak teams - make them play the provinces and send the provinces there for the EOYT...who you play depends on where you finished in the S14.

[BLR]

Sounds alright actually, should play the Tahs twice though

2 half full stadiums = 1 full stadium in the end!

Where does the article say only Eastern States?

Not in that watered down article but in another article on the subject the quote was

"The alternatives we need to look at includes whether in that window we look at the Wallabies going to New Zealand, and playing the Blues, Crusaders and Hurricanes, and the All Blacks coming to Australia and playing the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies," O'Neill said."

[Scotty]

Where does the article say only Eastern States?

Looks like its been creatively excised from the ARU press release.

Growden doesn't have any problems telling us though. And this is a direct quote from John O'Neill, not a Pie-man invention.

Trans-Tasman alliance set to serve quality - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz

"The alternatives we need to look at includes whether in that window we look at the Wallabies going to New Zealand, and playing the Blues, Crusaders and Hurricanes, and the All Blacks coming to Australia and playing the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies," O'Neill said."

EDIT: BLR by 3 seconds!

[AndyS]

OK, offer France the Force, Chiefs and Highlanders. It is still two games in NZ and one in Oz, just not against who they were expecting. We'd have to be able to fill MES for that! Given that it wouldn't shag their world ranking positions the way this years games did, the Frogs might jump at the opportunity.

I'll be interested to see how may Sydneysiders show up to watch the ritual slaughter of the Waratahs by the ABs, when they struggle to sell out a Bledisloe game (although you'd hope they would put it on at the SFS, which could solve the problem all by itself). No disrespect intended to the Tahs - either the game is a friendly (and I absolutely detest them!) or, if the ABs take it seriously, any of the sides would get 30 points stuck on them minimum. I wouldn't even say the ton was out of the question, as the Bulls nearly did that to the Reds. What would that do for player confidence leading into the 3N?

[Moses]

Against the NSW Waratahs on their 2001 tour of Australia, a near Test-strength Lions side took the field and won a bruising encounter, in which five yellow cards and one red were shown in a game that will forever be remembered for it's brutality.

The match that began with a first-minute yellow card for New South Wales lock Tom Bowman boiled over early in the second half when home full-back Duncan McRae was shown the red card for his seemingly unprovoked assault on O'Gara.

In the next passage of play another fight developed among the forwards. Cameron Blades and Brendan Cannon of New South Wales, and Danny Grewcock and Phil Vickery of the Lions, were sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes. At the time, O'Gara was still being helped from the field for stitches around a rapidly closing left eye.

At one stage in the game there were three missing from the New South Wales line-up, and the Lions two short, so the game disintegrated. But even without all the comings and goings to the sin-bin, the 10 minutes when it was 12 against 13 were, as O'Driscoll put it, "absolutely farcical".

The game ended with a convinving 17 point margin victory for the Lions though, but the injuries and brutality they faced would be remembered for a long time.

Lions coach Graeme Henry maintained that it was "a bad day for rugby. I thought the game had been cleaned up. This was a shambles". Henry is in no doubt who was to blame. "Rugby needs strong discipline from both sets of players. I was proud of the way our players kept theirs."

[BLR]

^ And?

[slomo]

Against the NSW Waratahs on their 2001 tour of Australia, a near Test-strength Lions side took the field and won a bruising encounter, .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................
The game ended with a convinving 17 point margin victory for the Lions though

convincing doesn't mean it was close.......

[welshrugbyfan]

Touring Northern Hemisphere teams will soon be a thing of the past. Clubs in Europe are playing close to 40 games a year now. They play the six nations early in the year and I can't see them sending teams down at the end of a season to be cannon fodder for pre Bledisloe/ Tri Nation warm ups for fresh NZ, Aus and SA teams to smash for too much longer.

It needs an overhaul. Theres no reason why we can't have other nations coming out to play our club sides apart from the 3 mentioned so far. US, Argentina, Japan, Canada, any of the pacific nations just to name a few would be great to watch.

I can't see why when the boks were here they couldn't have played a wednesday game against our local boys. It's always happened in the past and seems to have been lost for some reason. You can't tell me that members equity wouldn't have been filled to capacity on a wednesday evening to watch this happen even if the team wasn't packed with the top players. Seems a shame to lose this tradition.

[jargan83]

Touring Northern Hemisphere teams will soon be a thing of the past. Clubs in Europe are playing close to 40 games a year now. They play the six nations early in the year and I can't see them sending teams down at the end of a season to be cannon fodder for pre Bledisloe/ Tri Nation warm ups for fresh NZ, Aus and SA teams to smash for too much longer.

It needs an overhaul. Theres no reason why we can't have other nations coming out to play our club sides apart from the 3 mentioned so far. US, Argentina, Japan, Canada, any of the pacific nations just to name a few would be great to watch.

I can't see why when the boks were here they couldn't have played a wednesday game against our local boys. It's always happened in the past and seems to have been lost for some reason. You can't tell me that members equity wouldn't have been filled to capacity on a wednesday evening to watch this happen even if the team wasn't packed with the top players. Seems a shame to lose this tradition.

Do the Northern Unions make any money out of these tours??

Given that SANZAR is seemingly going to put their foot down in regards to the Northern sides sending pissweak teams (more so then usual) when we send close to full strength sides North in the Spring, this is no one's fault but the Northern Unions and their clubs. Problem is the clubs own the players not the National union so the club must release the player for internatioanl duty, it's becomming like Soccer.

The IRB should just get it's act together on a world wide international window, obviously not easily done as it's said.

Scrap the northern tours and expand the Super 14 pr get the Super 14 sides playing against some quality opposition, I wouldn't mind seeing the Super 14 sides take on some of the lower ranked nations that don't get as much game time either, they played a few agmes against Samoa, the first of which without the test players was quite competetive i think (in 2006), I don't remember what the crowd was like, but i don't think it was too shabby