Super Rugby Pacific (2024)

[Al Bangor]

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Struggling to get my head around this trend of ageing NH Tier 1 signings.

Super Rugby imports: 7 northern hemisphere players heading south

For the longest time, Super Rugby has been a league that exports talent as opposed to imports it, but a slew of recent transfers...

www.rugbypass.com

I'd imagine they are on decent wages and other than Patchell I cannot see them making an impact. If they are struggling that much for depth I'd have looked at trying to lure some exports back into the fold, followed by Argentines then scouting the best Tier2 talent that isn't playing in the top two divisions of France. I think all of those could provide comparable quality with lower salary expectations.

Halfpenny to Crusaders is truly bizarre. He will be 35 when the season kicks off and has offered nothing in attack for about a decade.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Struggling to get my head around this trend of ageing NH Tier 1 signings.

Super Rugby imports: 7 northern hemisphere players heading south

For the longest time, Super Rugby has been a league that exports talent as opposed to imports it, but a slew of recent transfers...

www.rugbypass.com

I'd imagine they are on decent wages and other than Patchell I cannot see them making an impact. If they are struggling that much for depth I'd have looked at trying to lure some exports back into the fold, followed by Argentines then scouting the best Tier2 talent that isn't playing in the top two divisions of France. I think all of those could provide comparable quality with lower salary expectations.

Halfpenny to Crusaders is truly bizarre. He will be 35 when the season kicks off and has offered nothing in attack for about a decade.

I think you are looking at this from the wrong point of view. They are not being lured, at least not to NZ teams, they are coming in their own accord. So They will not be earning high pay in super rugby, they will be willing to accept low pay because they want to experience super rugby.

I would also say halfpenny has a lot to offer off the field, and may even be a pseudo kick coach.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Struggling to get my head around this trend of ageing NH Tier 1 signings.

Super Rugby imports: 7 northern hemisphere players heading south

For the longest time, Super Rugby has been a league that exports talent as opposed to imports it, but a slew of recent transfers...

www.rugbypass.com

I'd imagine they are on decent wages and other than Patchell I cannot see them making an impact. If they are struggling that much for depth I'd have looked at trying to lure some exports back into the fold, followed by Argentines then scouting the best Tier2 talent that isn't playing in the top two divisions of France. I think all of those could provide comparable quality with lower salary expectations.

Halfpenny to Crusaders is truly bizarre. He will be 35 when the season kicks off and has offered nothing in attack for about a decade.

they cant be on above the norm pay, rules about that, you have to be an AB to get more...which they obviously aren't

i dont think its a lack of depth thing, i think theyre trying to make some headlines in the NH, maybe get some more people up there watching Super Rugby, and if they bring a bit of info on how NH teams would do things then all the better

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Purely unofficial tan stuff but some cool concepts

 

[40/20]

Purely unofficial tan stuff but some cool concepts

Very cool... really like the Super Round concepts.

And definitely agree on the posters comment re: moving the round out of Melbourne too. Sooner the bloody better.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Very cool... really like the Super Round concepts.

And definitely agree on the posters comment re: moving the round out of Melbourne too. Sooner the bloody better.

...i mean it works for me!....but yeah, melbourne clashing with the AFL season is silly, personally i would have it at suncorp late in the season so a bit cooler with Reds v Tahs as the final game

I would take the highlanders super round concept any day

 

[40/20]

...i mean it works for me!....but yeah, melbourne clashing with the AFL season is silly, personally i would have it at suncorp late in the season so a bit cooler with Reds v Tahs as the final game

I would take the highlanders super round concept any day

Ha sorry mate didn't realise you were based across the ditch! But yes, it does feel like they're flogging a dead horse on this one.

Agree Suncorp would be great as it always is, but really, anywhere in SYD/BRI makes more sense than Melb. If they're worried about 50-80k capacity stadiums looking embarrassingly empty, CommBank has a similar capacity to AAMI.

I've never understood the rationale for trying Melb to begin with… what am I missing? To your point re: AFL, they couldn't have picked a harder market to crack if they tried.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Ha sorry mate didn't realise you were based across the ditch! But yes, it does feel like they're flogging a dead horse on this one.

Agree Suncorp would be great as it always is, but really, anywhere in SYD/BRI makes more sense than Melb. If they're worried about 50-80k capacity stadiums looking embarrassingly empty, CommBank has a similar capacity to AAMI.

I've never understood the rationale for trying Melb to begin with… what am I missing? To your point re: AFL, they couldn't have picked a harder market to crack if they tried.

a half empty 30k stadium looks worse than a half full 80k stadium

they also do it poorly, our club games arent delayed or rescheduled or anything....meaning the biggest rugby fans in melbourne...cant get to the ground before 7 on a sat meaning any day games are buggered

 

[Umaga's Witness]

a half empty 30k stadium looks worse than a half full 80k stadium

they also do it poorly, our club games arent delayed or rescheduled or anything....meaning the biggest rugby fans in melbourne...cant get to the ground before 7 on a sat meaning any day games are buggered

I see you're a stadium half full kind of guy.

But does a half empty 30k stadium look worse? Do you agree that a full 15k stadium looks better than a half empty 30k stadium?

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Who do we think will win super rugby? And who has the best players?

No one has ever won super rugby without a good 9 10 combo, or without an international 10.

You'd have to say mounga will be a massive loss to the crusaders. So often they have relied on him doing something special. But other than at ten they have a very strong squad.

The chiefs with mckenzie have to be contenders.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

I see you're a stadium half full kind of guy.

But does a half empty 30k stadium look worse? Do you agree that a full 15k stadium looks better than a half empty 30k stadium?

you're right, was just a flippant about how poor it is when we cant even fill a small stadium, i am the first to say we should play in smaller stadiums....but thats largely so they look more full....if we cant even do that then we're in trouble

 

[40/20]

Who do we think will win super rugby? And who has the best players?

No one has ever won super rugby without a good 9 10 combo, or without an international 10.

You'd have to say mounga will be a massive loss to the crusaders. So often they have relied on him doing something special. But other than at ten they have a very strong squad.

The chiefs with mckenzie have to be contenders.

Yea I agree.... Chiefs are front runners if McKenzie stays fit throughout. And also because they're not dealing with a brand new coach as well. That's almost as influential I reckon.

As you say, Mounga aside, Saders look good on paper and if Scott Hansen had stayed on, I'd back em to keep on rolling as always. But Penney coming in new has gotta be at least a little disruptive... I know he has history with the region, but he hasn't coached here for over 10 yrs and his recent record in Aus and Japan weren't great either.

As for my Blues, no bloody idea. Perofeta and Sullivan are promising 10 options and there's stacks of talent out wider. But unless Cotter unlocks a dormant killer gene amongst the pack, that'll count for little. I'm not holding my breath unfortunately.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

all the Highlanders fans i know would just like to win more than we lose and maybe pick up a win against the odd NZ team, just a measurable improvement on last year which i think is reasonable

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Yea I agree.... Chiefs are front runners if McKenzie stays fit throughout. And also because they're not dealing with a brand new coach as well. That's almost as influential I reckon.

As you say, Mounga aside, Saders look good on paper and if Scott Hansen had stayed on, I'd back em to keep on rolling as always. But Penney coming in new has gotta be at least a little disruptive... I know he has history with the region, but he hasn't coached here for over 10 yrs and his recent record in Aus and Japan weren't great either.

As for my Blues, no bloody idea. Perofeta and Sullivan are promising 10 options and there's stacks of talent out wider. But unless Cotter unlocks a dormant killer gene amongst the pack, that'll count for little. I'm not holding my breath unfortunately.

Yeah I thought still having McMillan there is definitely a good thing for the chiefs.

But new coaches for other teams isn't necessarily bad. Sometimes a new coach can help. I think this usually occurs when a team has been developing well already, with a good culture, and benefit from some new ideas and new energy. Boyd for instance taking over from Hammett.

I think the blues and canes could both fit that description this time, so will be interesting to see. Equally they could just go backwards.

Will be interesting to see if blues go perofeta 10 Sullivan 15 or other way around.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Ours is pretty standard, nothing revolutionary, not a fan of the Blues one at all

 

[Kiwiwomble]

have to say....after seeing the crusaders and blues im pretty happy with ours, not a fan of either of those

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

It's pretty hard to mess up red and black but they've managed it.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

confirmation of heritage jerseys

 

[Kiwiwomble]