0
I reckon this sounds pretty good though I wonder how prepared NZ are to give Australia any "aid" post 2011 vote?
The reality is, outside of Australia we are considered as one of the leaders of the Rugby World and as such I don't think we can realistically expect to be getting or asking for help.
The only possible way may be at a Governmental level if the leaders have any sway using the inclusion of NZ teams in Australian competitions (League, Netball, Soccer etc) as leverage to reciprocate.
On the ARC, I think it is really poor form to have eminent Australian Rugby voices bagging it before we have even blown the first whistle.
Give it a chance, it is as much (or more) about developing the semi pro players as it is about improving the bottom fully S14 pro players!
A combination of these two concepts to me would be ideal however I believe we need to establish the ARC to strengthen our mid range playing stocks before stretching again to make another four teams for an extended NPC.
Long term this would see a mixed pro/am Perth Gold in our ARC and a fully pro Perth Spirit in the NPC.
Australia 'needs New Zealand aid'
By Peter Jenkins
April 13, 2007
AUSTRALIA great Simon Poidevin last night proposed a radical solution to fast-track the country's emerging talent - a plan that received a ringing endorsement from Queensland and former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones.
Poidevin believs the lack of big-game experience for fringe New South Wales and Queensland players called into Super 14 action this season, because of injury plagues in both camps, has been a major contributor to the franchises' failures. (der...)
As the two sides prepare for a likely wooden spoon battle at Aussie Stadium tomorrow night, Poidevin said the eight-team third-tier national competition to kick off later this season did not provide a long-term answer.
He claimed the way forward was for the Australian Rugby Union to broker a deal with the New Zealand Rugby Union to allow the Waratahs, Reds, Western Force and the Brumbies to play in the Air New Zealand Cup, the Kiwis' national provincial championship from July each season.
"When the SANZAR broadcasting rights deal with News Limited was signed in 1995, it was a fantastic and transforming moment for the game," Poidevin, a former Australia captain, said.
"It led to the establishment of Super 12 and the Tri-Nations series.
"But here we are 12 years later and it's time for the next big reinvention for rugby. There has to be a coming together of the top teams in Australia with the NPC sides in New Zealand.
"The Super 14 is a great competition but we need to extend the number of games for our professional teams below Test level into the second half of the season.
"We need the next lot of players coming through to step up.
"We've seen they've had problems doing that this season. But they were not well prepared. We have to give them better opportunities.
"They're not going to get it from the ARU's ridiculously designed national competition. So put them on a bigger stage.
"They will be able to test themselves every week in the NPC.
"It's clear to me we've come to another watershed period in the history of the game and the past shows we can learn from competition with the Kiwis.
"How do you think Sydney and NSW and Queensland became great sides back in the 1980s and 1990s? We played games against New Zealand sides.
"We had tours to New Zealand, where we went to battle every week."
NPC sides in New Zealand usually compete with only fleeting appearances from their All Blacks, who play the Tri-Nations series into August or September and then take a break to prepare for November tours to Europe.
The same would apply for Australians sides if they went into the competition.
But, as Jones pointed out, that would be the beauty of the move.
The next generation of players would be handed starting spots and the chance to develop in a fully professional environment.
Jones this year has had to toss teenage five-eighth Quade Cooper straight into the Super 14 arena. NSW has done the same with 18-year-old pivot Kurtley Beale and 19-year-old wing Lachlan Turner.
All three are highly talented, but, in the case of Beale and Cooper, they are back on the bench for tomorrow night's game following their premature elevations, because of injury.
Jones said other players coming through would also struggle to adapt immediately to Super 14 without a transition into the professional ranks.
And he suggested the national competition to kick off in Australia this season cannot hope to give rising stars the same level of competition as the NPC because amateur club players would be interspersed with those already contracted to franchises.
"If what Poido is saying about the NPC could happen, it would be fantastic," Jones said.
"That would solve all of our problems.
"We need those non-Wallaby players getting more experience by playing against players of better quality, not lesser quality.
"That's the key, and that's why you've seen the quicker development of New Zealand and South African players. They're a couple of years ahead of us with those young guys because their players have had the chance to play in the NPC and the Currie Cup.
"Poido's exactly right.
"What we need to do with the Australian teams is play another 10 or 12 games after Super 14. Finishing the season now is the worst thing.
"The players we've brought on so far have to go back to an amateur club competition and then the semi-professional national competition.
"How do they develop?"
Jones said the national competition to be introduced in Australia this season - with three teams from NSW, two from Queensland and one each from ACT, Victoria and Western Australia - was a compromise tournament.
"The financial viability of each of the sides will decide how professional they are, and I don't think it's shaping up too well," he said.
"But what we need to have is a fully professional competition to develop our players."
Poidevin was confident that Australia could mount a strong case for NPC inclusion.
"For a start, we offer for the future a much bigger television audience," he said.
"From New Zealand's perspective, I wouldn't say their Super 14 or NPC crowds have been elevating with any momentum. In fact, they're probably stagnating.
"We would also provide that trans-Tasman rivalry element. New Zealand crowds love to go and hate Australians.
"It makes a lot of sense, and it also gives us a fuller season.
"At the moment, the rugby league and AFL air punch when Super 14 is over because of the way our season is structured."
Reply With Quote
