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Aussies lay down the Super 14 law
By DAVID LONG - Sunday News | Sunday, 23 December 2007
Aussies lay down the Super 14 law - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz
Daniel Carter could play for the Brumbies and Matt Giteau could run out for the Blues if the Australian Rugby Union get their way.
ARU deputy CEO Matt Carroll has raised the prospect of some major changes to the Super 14 from 2010.
One is to allow franchises to sign a marquee player from overseas. This is similar to the football A-League where teams can sign a marquee player who sits outside salary caps.
Under Carroll's plan, if an All Black, Wallaby or Springbok moved to another franchise he would still be available for his national team.
Another of Carroll's eyebrow-raising thoughts is to form a new team in Melbourne made up of Pacific Island and Argentinian players.
The ARU are desperate to tap into the sports-mad market in Melbourne but concede that Australian rugby won't stretch to a fifth team and sees this as a solution to that problem.
Carroll revealed he had met with Argentinian officials and said Sanzar partners Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were keen to find ways of "refreshing" the Super 14 and Tri-nations competitions as southern hemisphere rugby heads towards a new broadcast deal in 2010.
He also believes new ideas, like marquee players, are needed to stop the drain of players to cashed up clubs in England and France.
"We need to make sure Super 14 is powering along," Carroll said.
"Make it an attractive competition to players, and make sure it's generating good money to pay the players' salaries.
"Expansion is something we have to consider. I don't think Australia could tolerate an extra team from our own resources.
"But that doesn't mean you can't have other teams coming in made up of players who might miss out in Super 14 teams."
"Unless we have strong competitions in the southern hemisphere, both in terms of quality rugby and strong financially, then we won't be able to retain our players," Carroll said.
Carroll also raised the prospect of Argentina joining an expanded Tri-nations and hosting their tests in Melbourne.
He said he recently met officials from World Cup semi-finalists Argentina, who sit on the sidelines of both the Six Nations and Tri Nations.
"Their initial solution was to play in Europe but they've been rebuffed," he said.
"Does the Tri-nations need freshening up? Yes it does.
"Could Argentina provide that freshness? Quite possibly yes. What have we got to do? Make sure the Argentinians have their best players so we've got to find a solution for that.
"It might not seem obvious, but that solution could be Melbourne."
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Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
to stop the drain of players to cashed up clubs in England and France.
Unless I'm missing something that logic makes no sense at all.
You still have the same number of players in the comp, regardless of what jersey they wear.
Unless it was open season with unlimited Internationals then having one "marquee player" isn't going to change anything as far as the comp is concerned???
Phrase that springs to mind is "Thin edge of the wedge"![]()
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
Phrase that springs to my mind is "What an a***". The ARU tops up the salary of any prospective Wallaby (and any leaguie that the Waratahs want), so where will the money be coming from for the overseas players? Sponsorship? - Melbourne couldn't find as much as we did, which was one of the reasons they didn't get the fourth franchise. Besides, will sponsors really be tripping over themselves in Victoria to associate themselves with a bunch of expat rugby professionals? And what will be the implications for player development - sure you won't see a lot of displaced players actually heading overseas?
NO NO NO!!!!!
CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!!
I'm with you AndyS, Carroll is a tosser of a CEO. Presides over the ARC financial loss - blames it on ???? says "theres no money, we're all doomed" and now, suddenly, can find millions to subsidise non-Australian players.
Yea Matt, because the Tahs have had so much sucess at parchuting in big dollar players haven't they! Sydney folks must be the slowest learners.
The ARU need a pull through with a Xmas tree - and leave the decorations on.
ouch.....Matt Carroll is a wanker...
Proudly bought to you by a brewery somewhere....
i dont think it will work out for the best. This will just mean all of the NZ players will come over here and to South Africa to play.
once they change the rules it will be very hard to go back so i think we should leave it as it is.