5
You can find Rebels jerseys pretty cheap on eBay. Should grab some and have a nice jersey burning to welcome the Rebels to NiB.
Loved the photo with twiggy , noddy, all new blue polos, .......and Hodgo has a shiner! Clearly a tough negotiator . Go the Force!
Good to see Noddy doing okay after his stroke too.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
About three years ago. Pretty scary for a bloke that is healthy and barely aged since his playing days has had a Stroke.
Eddie Jones had one around the same time.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Congratulations to Twiggy, Matt and the team at Minderoo for setting up all these fixtures and getting a squad together to bring professional rugby back to Perth. Cant wait for the 2018 season. May the 4th/force be with us all.
Yep!
World Series Rugby; new name for the IPRC
(apologies if it's a re-post)
Spiced-up rules for Twiggy’s World Series Rugby
Michael Lynagh, Twiggy Forrest and the Force’s Matt Hodgson at the launch. Picture: Michael Farnell/Sports Imagery Australian
The Australian 12:00AM March 7, 2018
WAYNE SMITH
Senior sport writer Brisbane
@WayneKeithSmith
Perth mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has channelled another billionaire sporting rebel, Kerry Packer, by naming his breakaway competition World Series Rugby. And like Packer, Forrest has promised a product that will make the traditional game look staid and stodgy.
The Western Force, closed down by Rugby Australia last year as part of the move to scale Super Rugby back to 15 teams, was relaunched yesterday as part of World Series Rugby, the new tag for the awkwardly named Indo-Pacific Rugby Championship. It is intended that WSR will apply not just to the series of matches starting in May but also to the professional competition Forrest intends taking into Asia next year.
Former Australian captain Michael Lynagh, Forrest’s adviser and chief conduit to both World Rugby and Rugby Australia, said starting a new competition in Asia in the year of a Rugby World Cup would have its challenges but also its advantages.
“With the World Cup being staged in Japan, the profile of rugby in Asia will be on a high,” Lynagh told The Australian yesterday.
He also provided the first hint that Forrest and his Mindaroo team were not intending to start from scratch in Asia but could piggyback off existing structures owned by such organisations as the Hong Kong Rugby Union and Singapore Rugby Union.
“The six-team competition that Andrew promised is still very much on the agenda,” Lynagh said.
WSR is scheduled to run parallel to Super Rugby next year but the Force side might also have a busy schedule for the rest of 2019, possibly playing matches against sides that narrowly failed to make the World Cup.
The relaunched Force will kick off its WSR schedule this year on May 4, playing a Fiji side that recently went down narrowly to Queensland in the Reds’ final pre-Super Rugby trials. Then will follow a May 13 encounter with Tonga before a scheduled clash in Perth with the Melbourne Rebels on June 9, the same day the Wallabies play their first Test of 2018 on the other side of the country, against Ireland in Brisbane.
The Rebels have not agreed to play such a match, even though half their Super Rugby side is ex- Force. The then ARU fingered either the Force or the Rebels to be culled last year and there is unease at how a Melbourne team, half-filled by Force players, would be received in Perth.
The man who coaches the Rebels is the man who mentored the Force last year, Dave Wessels, who has vowed to do all he can to keep rugby alive in Western Australia.
“We’re still considering the idea,” Melbourne CEO Baden Stephenson said.
Subsequent Force games will be against the Crusaders (June 22), Samoa (July 13), Hong Kong (August 10) and an unconfirmed opponent, possibly from Japan, on August 17. All matches will be played at nib Stadium and the Force is in negotiations to have them broadcast free-to-air.
WSR is also looking at spicing up the rules. The two biggest roadblocks to ball-in-play — scrums and lineouts — could both be turbocharged. Referees could give immediate penalties rather than order a scrum reset, while lineouts will be put on the clock and if the team that is supposed to be throwing in dithers, it will be play-on if they don’t form up in time.
There could, as well, be greater incentive to launch attacking raids from inside a team’s territory, as any tries that originate from inside the 22 could earn 10 points, not the customary five. Likewise, there could be a disincentive for short-range field goals. Those taken from point blank range will earn only one point but there will be a three-point line drawn for more ambitious attempts.
The Perth-based remnants of the Super Rugby side have been training for a month but the new Force squad began working as a group last Thursday. The squad includes two Test players, Wallabies winger Rod Davies and Springbok World Cup-winning centre Jaque Fourie and Olympic gold medallist Masivesi Dakuwaqa, a member of Fiji’s rugby sevens team that won the men’s gold at Rio in 2016.
Although Forrest’s planning is for later this year and 2019, the real benefits of his initiative might not become apparent until SANZAAR draws up a new broadcast deal at the end of 2020, under which Super Rugby might be disbanded.
If the world divides not into northern and southern hemispheres, as at present, but into compatible time zones, Australia and NZ might well be eyeing a move into Asia — especially if Forrest has already proven it a winner.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...67eb36f246172d
Last edited by Kiap; 07-03-18 at 09:16.
Romania and Canada may be free next year.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
I can’t parse one of the paragraphs - we’re playing the rebels but they haven’t agreed on it?