Watched the game on the weekend and the question I have is do we have to many Western Force contacted starting players in the Perth Spirit and is that why we are winning, so is it a false economy and there is no or very little development being done for the 2017 season compared to other teams in the NRC
What is the rules regarding contracted players vs development and club players
I haven't had much chance to follow in-depth this year, but we definitely had fewer than the rising and I'm pretty sure more than the rays, not so sure about the other teams.
When they did an nrc wrap on tors this week, spirit wasn't named as one of the sides with a high number of Sr stars.
But their match against the NSW country Eagles this week was ignored as even a candidate for game of the week, so maybe they just forgot we existed.
No i don't think so. Of the 42 man squad 23 of them are Future Force and regular Premier grade players. I think its a great development tool and with each match day squad so far being approximately a 50/50 split i think we are doing the right thing. Also the contracted players who have been starting are mostly the guys who didnt get a lot of game time for the Force apart from the Wallaby squad members in McCalman and Morahan. Most of the other squads apart from the Rams are fielding a lot of Super Rugby players. Look at the Rising and the Vikings, both Qld teams and the Rays and Eagles, they are littered with contracted players.
The most important thing though is we are developing, or trying to, a more positive brand of rugby and are winning doing so. These things become infectious and will give us a good base to build into next season from.
but if you have 18 force players in the squad and you start with 13 or 15 force players then you are bound to lead 30 - 0 half time and give away 30 points in the last 20
it is a miss representation of what the NRC is about You dont see 60% of south african super rugby squads play in the Currie Cup LOL and same for the local NZ competition
Tend to disagree especially yesterday when backing up after the Test. There was more from the East Coast and WA Rugby needed to put it's best foot forward.
Have A look at the team selected
In the forwards
1. Laione Mulikihaamea - Local Pindan
2. Harry Scoble - Contracted but rookie
3. Shambeckler Vui - Future/Force and Pindan
4. Kieran Stringer - Local Pindan
5. Onehunga Havili - Future Force and Pindan
6. Ross Haylett-Petty - Contracted 2nd year still rookie
7. Kane Koteka - Contracted still rookie
8. Ben McCalman - Test Player required to prove fitness
9. Ryan Louwrens - Contracted since 2014 but has been 3rd string and signed locally
10. Jono Lance (c) - Contracted this year ready to blossom
11. Eric Vasukicakau - Local Pindan
12. Bill Meakes - Contracted but Super Rookie 4 years in UK but 3 in Premiership
13. Ammon Matuauto - Contracted EPS from Pindan
14. Marcel Brache - Contracted
15. Luke Morahan Contracted and Test player
Bench:
16. Tom Sheminant - Pindan and Under 20
17. Mees Erasmus - Future Force /Pindan
18. Jermaine Ainsley - Contracted this year Rookie
19. Russell Burges - Pindan
20. Hadleigh May - Pindan
21. Ian Prior - Contracted has been 2nd String since 2014
22. Ben Tapuai - Contracted
23. AJ Alatimu - Pindan.
Seems to be filled with mostly rookies and players in the Pindan.
Comparing the NRC to Mitre 10 cup and Currie Cup is a bit misleading. Mitre 10 cup and Currie Cup both have 14 teams, 6 more than the NRC which equates to approximately 250 extra players, and have had a lot longer than 3 yrs to estabalish and expand. Both the Currie Cup and Mitre 10 cup also have a second division which we don't have yet. This means the top end talent is a lot more concentrated in the NRC.
Looking through the squads of the Mitre 10 Cup teams and Currie Cup teams they all feature contracted Super Rugby players and internationals.
From what I can see the only Super Rugby players not playing Mitre 10 Rugby are either injured or in the National team.
Players need to play, match fitness is way better than conditioning fitness. What a wank keeping professional players off the field to concentrate on conditioning.
How much of a holiday do they want before Super Rugby stars again.
Some of them are so precious
Good points raised by all.
I am happy with the current situation, and I think it is fair.
Do not forget that as the Waratahs, Reds and Brumbies have more super rugby players on Wallaby duties and playing at that level, as well as the fact that NSW has three and QLD has two NRC teams, so the team sheets may look lopsided with the super player representation.
True Tazz, but i think the stat to look at is not the number of SR players in the team, but the comparison of how that impacts the competitiveness of the team.
I would suggest that we're batting pretty well in those stakes, looking solid against the Rising with far fewer SR contracts on the field, but not up to the standard of (say) a Brisbane City with more SR blokes on the park
Winning is infectious and builds momentum and gets the best out of all the players.
We have gone down the path of playing the youngsters the last couple of years.
I say we play our best players every week and win the whole thing and see if we can take that momentum into next super rugby season.
Have you watched Currie Cup and NRC lately. There's just a few names you might recognise!!Quote:
Originally Posted by pieter blackie
Any Saffa player who played super rugby and was offered anything overseas left immediately.
Currie cup is now a development competition in itself for other countries and European clubs.
At least the NRC is growing, the Currie cup is dying tragically.
As you are all saying good to read about the feeder club into Super rugby.. Amazing how the east say we have no depth in lower grade rugby but look the proof is in the NRC.. 8 NRC teams feeding 5 super teams that's 240 to 250 layers looking for 150 spots only 2/3 of them can get in or less with the 30 odd players on national duty.. NRC is good we just need to promote it better.. As I have said before the Admin has blinkers on they need to look out side the square..
One of the things that has to be done is to get some professional commentators. The guys we have now are embarrassing and do nothing to promote the game.