RC and 6N set to align calendar

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Aligning the international tournaments is no bad thing. it doesn't of course solve the fundamental problems of
(a) there being more rugby (at least in the NH) than the top players can play in;
(b) rugby being insufficiently popular to sustain the salaries being paid (at least in the NH) without handouts from businessman with a vanity project, or ever more Test rugby.

[Lizard]

Thanks, Lizard.

So there was some sort of balance between quality teams and international teams to make an exciting product. However, if it was working, then why did people want change it? Was it only really working for NZ? Wasn't part of the reason Aus wanted more teams was so they could expand their playing resources? I'm wondering if the real issue has been the fact that Aussie have regressed from managing to produce two generations of world class players back to their natural level. I'd be interested to know what the causes were of that if there were any.

Sounds like NZ will be better off just playing among themselves.

Do away fans travel in Aus and SA? Still awfully long trips for a weekend one would think. I guess people like to go for the European Cup weekend breaks.

It's hard to know, looking back, whether there was true balance and a lot of the excitement came from it being new. Imagine, having grown up on mythical tales of touring the forbidden land of South Africa, getting to watch your team play Western Province, or Transvaal. It really was pretty radical (also I was a student when S12 started so it was a great excuse to get on the beers and watch three games of rugby in a row).

The issue was partly that the national unions had different agendas:
NZ wanted pro rugby to be a level between provincial rugby and tests. This meant they only had to fund 5 pro teams instead of 9 or 10, and strengthened the national side.
The ARU has never been happy as the 3rd or 4th football code in Aussie and wanted to grow the game at home. Frankly, we were pretty stunned that they put together a competitive ACT side. Only NSW and QLD had ever been any good at all.
SA didn't know what it wanted. It originally put its top 4 provincial sides in (probably because their politics made combined franchises or regions almost unthinkable), then it had issues deciding how to arrange its regional sides, with the political solution being to agitate for more teams. This also meant a deeper pool of pro non-white players which was desirable.

I don't think NZ fans have ever agitated for expansion. In Aussie I guess if you weren't in NSW or QLD you would want a home team but that would be a small group - it was really driven from the top down.

There's not a heap of travelling fandom in NZ. The shortest distance would be about a 1.5 -2hr drive between Auckland and Hamilton, which I do (being a Chiefs fan in Auckland). Anywhere else you're flying and domestic travel in NZ is expensive (we don't have the population to support a budget domestic airline).

[Mr Mwenda]

Sounds like a bryan adams song.

Ta for the info