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Rugby Workshop agrees to a new eight-team National Rugby Competition
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
ARU
A 70-man Rugby Workshop, involving Australia's Rugby leaders, has agreed on a new, eight-team National Rugby Competition starting in 2007, with the prime objectives of improving the Wallabies, the four Australian Super 14 teams and importantly, providing more opportunities for club Rugby players to take the next step up the representative ladder.
The National Competition will involve three teams from NSW, two from QLD and one team each from ACT, Victoria and Western Australia.
The National Competition will run from 28 July until 14 October. This playing window has been agreed based on the following:
* It minimises the impact on Club Rugby
* The current Club Rugby seasons will no longer be broken into two separate competitions (as is currently the case). Club Rugby will run from March until July.
* It will begin after the completion of the Tooheys New Super 14 and the Australia A program
* It has been scheduled to ensure the availability of Australian Under 19 and Under 21 players
The top four teams will play in two semi finals to decide the finalists, with each team playing 10-12 top-quality, highly competitive matches.
The NSW and QLD Rugby Unions will work with the existing clubs to determine the teams in their states.
These two State Unions will also work with the clubs to nominate them as feeder clubs into the National Competition teams, providing two-way benefits for both the clubs and the National Competition teams.
The clubs, with Member Unions, will be involved in providing coaching and team management personnel, providing these people with a similar pathway to higher representation that is offered to the players.
The Victorian team will include a number of contracted players from the Super 14 teams, including Academy players.
Each National Competition team will have 28 players, a total of 224 players across the eight teams.
Current ARU/Super 14 contracted players- 132
Players unavailable due to Wallaby commitments- Up to 30
Contracted players (non-Wallabies) available for National Competition- 90 (allowing for 10 players unavailable due to injury)
Academy players available for National Competition- 60
Number of positions available for Club Rugby players to step up into a higher quality competition- Approx 75
The Workshop felt that this is an economically sustainable and commercially attractive competition that will attract sponsors, broadcasters and Rugby fans.
While there is significant additional detail yet to be announced, much of this detail has been fully discussed, analysed and committed to within the workshop, including:
* Infrastructure
* Commercial & financial model
* Collaborative investment
* Contracting and player movement
* Player development
* Maintaining club Rugby
* Additional detail of competition structure
* Vision and governance
* Implementation plan
* Integration model
All participants agreed at the beginning, and again at the end of the workshop, that they are fully committed to the outcome of the workshop.
The Workshop agreed that the three-day consultation process had been inclusive of all the major stakeholder groups and had gone through an exhaustive, and extremely cooperative and constructive process to achieve its goals.
Rugby Workshop - stakeholder group
Andrew Fagan -ACTRU Board
Ray McNichol- ACTRU management
David Usasz- ARU Board
Gary Flowers- ARU Board
Peter McGrath- ARU Board
Ashley Selwood- ARU Management
Basil Scaffidi- ARU Management
Ben Whitaker- ARU Management
Jill Davies- ARU Management
Pat Wilson- ARU Management
Rob Clarke- ARU Management
Wayne Goldsmith- ARU Management
Richard McKeon- Brothers
Laurie Fisher- Brumbies coach
Al Campbell- Contracted players
John Roe- Contracted players
John Welborn- Contracted players
Sean Hardman- Contracted players
Tim Donnelly- Contracted players
David Oliver- Eastern Suburbs
Scott Bowen- Eastern Suburbs - Coach
Michael Weibler- Easts (QLD)
Bob Shield- Eastwood President
Tim Rowlands- old Coast
Brad Royall- Gordon
Rod Macqueen- Independent
Steve Surridge- Independent
Peter Garbutt- GPS (Qld)
Frank Ellis- Manly
Dan McConaghy- Non-contracted player
Pauliasi Taumoepeau- Non-contracted player
Ivor Davies- North QUT
John Harkness- Northern Suburbs
Peter Veenstra- NSW Country
Ewen McKenzie- NSW Waratahs Coach
Arvid Petersen- NSWRU Board
Fraser Neill- NSWRU Board
Ian Ross- NSWRU Board
Tony D'Arcy- NSWRU Management
Garry Hudson- arramatta
Gary Ella- Parramatta Coach
John O'Brien- Penrith
Dick Marks- Qld Country
David Clark- Qld Premier Coaches
Mark McBain- Qld Premier Coaches
Eddie Jones- QLD Reds Coach
Andrew Cole- QRU & Aust Referee
Robin Thomson- QRU Board
Ross Williams- QRU Board
Theo Psaros- QRU Board
Alex Pope- QRU Management
Kevin Phibbs- Randwick
Geoff Stooke- RugbyWA Board
Peter O'Meara- RugbyWA CEO
Tony Dempsey- RUPA
Rob Nelson- SARU
Kevin Maloney- Southern Districts
Peter Rodgers- Souths
Neil Fawcett- Sunnybank
Russell Sheil- Sunshine Coast
Andrew Wennerbom- Sydney University
Nick Stiles- University
Dave Paull- Vikings
Ron Steiner- VRU
John Heffernan- Warringah
Matt Williams- West Harbour
John Mitchell- Western Force coach
Joe Nowak- Wests