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Thread: Western Force v Fiji Drua - Round 7

  1. #46
    Senior Player Leo86's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chibi View Post
    Cutting teams worked well for the NSW sides!
    Well obviously... An Aus team won the super, Aus won the bled, crowds increased, grassroots are well financed and supported and all it took was the attitude of if the Tahs win in 2014 Aus rugby is saved... well they won and Aus rugby is...

    Thank god we have insular, elite, self centric views running the game with an organisation set up to better the game with a state that support such views otherwise we might not be super champs, might not hold the Bled, considering that Australia has 1 coast so not holding a RWC might not matter, have stadiums packed... oh wait

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  2. #47
    Veteran Bakkies's Avatar
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    The Force will be playing the semi on the Gold Coast.

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    Veteran sittingbison's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alison View Post
    Wonder if RA will carry on with the NRC if Fiji win it....
    Quote Originally Posted by Gordy1 View Post
    They will probably cut one of the Australian sides, as cutting teams obviously makes the remaining teams stronger...😡
    They will cut the underperforming Force. Save $6 which can be put into heartland grassroots. Redistribute the players between the two NSW franchises. Add in some Islands, they can then rebrand the National Rugby Championship into the more easily identifiable Pacific Rugby Championship. They wil be known as PRCs

    Simples

    edit with news below

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    Last edited by sittingbison; 15-10-18 at 08:35.
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  4. #49
    Immortal Contributor The InnFORCEr's Avatar
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    News this morning is the Tonga and Samoa are being considered to join the NRC if World Rugby cough up the cash. I wonder where they got that idea from??

    Samoa, Tonga could be next as Fiji clinch NRC minor premiership

    By Georgina Robinson
    14 October 2018 — 5:55pm

    Samoa or Tonga could be the next entrants to the National Rugby Championship as the Fijian Drua claimed a historic minor premiership just two years after entering the competition.

    Rugby Australia high-performance boss Ben Whitaker confirmed they were in early talks with World Rugby about adding another Pacific Islands nation to the third tier competition after the Drua's success.

    The Senirusi Seruvakula-coached side will host Canberra Vikings in Fiji in the first semi-final on Saturday after topping the regular season with a 33-28 win over the Western Force at the weekend.

    "We’ve had inquiries from World Rugby and clearly the other two nations they are keen to promote are Tonga and Samoa," Whitaker said. "Fiji was a good three-and-a-half years in the making so it does take a bit of time to get things in order but that is a discussion that's commenced."

    Samoa could be the frontrunners in that discussion given last week they celebrated entry to the World Rugby Council, a significant milestone that required constitutional and financial reform but now gives the national union voting powers and an audible voice on matters of national and regional significance.

    World Rugby provide most of the funding for the Drua's participation in the NRC and would have to similarly support another entrant from the region, while Rugby Australia would also have to be on board. With the next SANZAAR broadcast deal under negotiation, it would make sense for any expansion to coincide with the start of the new broadcast deal in 2021.

    The Drua's success is being quietly celebrated in the Suva headquarters of the Fiji Rugby Union.

    "We're absolutely delighted. To come in cold and make the finals two years in a row is beyond our expectations," FRU general manager Geoff Webster said. "We have always said that the NRC is one of two missing links in the Fiji talent development pathway, and the other is a professional team playing Super Rugby, based in Fiji.

    "Everyone talks about how we have the greatest talent in the world and it's just a matter of tapping into it, but we're trying to wrap some professionalism and best practice around the naturally talented players on the island."

    To that end, the Drua have been made up almost entirely of what they call "on-island" players, which is rugby speak for players who have not moved offshore to forge careers abroad. All but one of the squad members played in the Skipper Cup this year – Fiji's provincial club competition – and the odd man out, Albert Tuisue, played for West Harbour in the Shute Shield.

    Webster said the trickle-down effect had been immediate. When Fiji Test coach John McKee took some on-island players to Europe on the 2016 spring tour, they were well off the pace.

    "Last year the guys who'd played Drua were well-equipped for the intensity and played good minutes of Test rugby," Webster said. "Credit to World Rugby and credit to [Whitaker] and the ARU for the invitation, and also to Fiji Rugby for backing it. The board and my CEO have recognised that that was the next step for Fiji."

    The end goal is an improved World Cup finish for the Test team, currently ranked 10th in the world. The high-powered likes of rugby league star Semi Radrada, Toulon winger Josua Tuisova and 2018 European player of the year Leone Nakarawa will anchor the Flying
    Fijians in Japan next year but Webster believes some Drua players will also make the squad and should go on to form the Test team's beating heart in France 2023.

    "If we can knock off either France or Scotland on the November tour this year that's a bloody good year for Fiji in world rugby," Webster said. "We're quietly confident of the momentum we've built over the last 12 months, we knocked off Scotland and Italy last year (in June) and got within [three] points of Ireland on the November tour. Joe Schmidt rested a few players but that's a testament to where we are and our ambitions because we cracked the shits that we didn't knock them off at Landsdowne [Road]."

    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-u...14-p509le.html

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    .......and we will use Western Sydney as their home club .....

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  6. #51
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    it would make sense for any expansion to coincide with the start of the new broadcast deal in 2021.
    I wonder which 2 teams WSR will look to add for 2019?

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    Quote Originally Posted by The InnFORCEr View Post
    Samoa, Tonga could be next as Fiji clinch NRC minor premiership
    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-u...14-p509le.html
    Apparently, this news may have upset one or more of the "Shute Shield should be the national competition" lobbies a wee bit, who then wonder:
    "If the NRC was ditched in favour of an expanded Shute Shield competition, then
    1. would World Rugby still fund teams from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga in an expanded Shute Shield, or
    2. in lieu of separate teams from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga in an expanded Shute Shield, would World Rugby fund a composite Pacific Islander team which was based in Western Sydney?"

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    Last edited by FingerTips; 16-10-18 at 12:01.

  8. #53
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    Isn't it kind of defeating the purpose of having a national rugby comp adding all these teams?

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  9. #54
    Veteran Bakkies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jules View Post
    Isn't it kind of defeating the purpose of having a national rugby comp adding all these teams?
    No doubt done just to spite Twiggy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jules View Post
    Isn't it kind of defeating the purpose of having a national rugby comp adding all these teams?
    Yes, and no. I would say mainly no for the moment. Why do I say that?

    Because the national rugby comp is teetering on the edge of existence. Longer term, a pure national comp might be the go, but it's got to stay alive first. There's no money in it. The Sydney powerbrokers want the NRC shut down ASAP. And they're doing a good job of it too. As per one rugby journo on Friday:

    And let’s not forget that the National Rugby Championship is on the endangered list. Every other state considers the NRC to be a valuable tool, all save NSW where they can barely scrape together enough quality players to make up the Sydney Rays. Waratahs boss Andrew Hore on Thursday said the NRC was not being sabotaged from within. I suspect he was being diplomatic.

    Fiji, largely funded by World Rugby and with some of their own sponsors, add a lot of interest and some good rugby to NRC - and are contributing to keep the comp alive IMO.

    There is a lot of shuffling deck chairs regarding rugby in our part of the world at the moment. It's handy to have a PI side (or two) playing within an oz controlled comp at the moment - and that's one of the reasons I raised the question in my earlier post this morning: which two teams will Twigg now look to add for the 2019 WSR?

    The Force and Fiji (plus a future PI?) would play WSR followed by NRC each year.

    The crunch point will come in 2020. That's sink or swim time for both the NRC and Soup. It's likely then a scramble to pick up the pieces of what's left for pro and semi-pro rugby here to continue.

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  11. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jules View Post
    Isn't it kind of defeating the purpose of having a national rugby comp adding all these teams?
    I would have said exactly the opposite. IMO the Fijian team has been one of the big draws for the competition. Wouldn't mind betting they consistently draw the bigger away crowds, and definitely make for an additional game each weekend for the broadcaster. Both feed the revenue potential going forward.

    Would be less certain that additional teams will have quite as noticable an effect though. TBH would have thought NZ might have been a more logical target for them. Nonetheless, my only real reservation would be that there will be an inherent limit on number of teams and I would really like to see some progress towards teams in Newcastle and Adelaide as a priority. Not that I think RA has any clue, interest or intent in that direction, with or without teams from the Islands...

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    Legend Contributor Alison's Avatar
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    What’s that saying about copying being the greatest form of flattery?

    The east coast ‘guardians’ of rugby sure are going the extra mile in flattering WSR and Andrew Forrest.

    And the extra cash from World Rugby would look good in the books too.

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  13. #58
    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    This reminds of the old Aus-Pac Super 8s that was vetoed by New Zealand years ago; it might be a roundabout way to bring that concept back. Having said that, it's interesting that it's only coming up now, now that WSR is in the air

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    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    The only reference to the IRB in that fluff piece was Ben Whittaker saying Rats Arse are in "early talks". On past history, that means they are likely doing SFA apart from asking for money to " help run it".

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    The positive ( I suppose ? ) is that AF is shaking the circus tent and the clowns are trying to become trapeze artists.... hope the safety net is strong enough ?

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