Trouble brewing

[General Tah]

Yeah like the French will accept that!!!

The Top 14 (and other club leagues in the NH where clubs are not mere springboards to the international team like in SH), is more important than the Internationals to many, many people

Mere springboards?

Are you saying no one gives a crap about super rugby?

No idea.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Mere springboards?

Are you saying no one gives a crap about super rugby?

No idea.

Bigger reach than Michael Jackson at the end of Space Jam, that.

 

[FrenchFan]

This doesn't apply to French players, does it? Mad if it does.

yes of course it does.

 

[AzaMatt]

Bigger reach than Michael Jackson at the end of Space Jam, that.

pretty sure michael jackson wasnt in space jam, michael jordan maybe? lol

 

[TRF_heineken]

pretty sure michael jackson wasnt in space jam, michael jordan maybe? lol

Wasn't he the voice of Lola Bunny??

 

[AzaMatt]

Wasn't he the voice of Lola Bunny??

oh god *retracts childhood fantasies of lola bunny*

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Hahahah, gotta love autocorrect/auto-word-guessing

 

[AzaMatt]

Hahahah, gotta love autocorrect/auto-word-guessing

no worries, i assumed it was that pesky auto correct

 

[General Tah]

I was wondering if id seen the same movie

 

[Amiga500]

I wonder if FFr and IRB have the guts to take on any big club over this.

They don't have a set of balls between them and the horse has long since bolted.

As you say, its happened numerous times to Tier2 nations and f>>k all was done about it.



edit: I suppose all it does is only reinforce what we all already knew. Union and private ownership of teams competing for the same resource is a bad idea. The unions f**ked up badly by not thinking ahead when (and indeed before) they made the game professional.

 

[smartcooky]

edit: I suppose all it does is only reinforce what we all already knew. Union and private ownership of teams competing for the same resource is a bad idea. The Northern Hemisphere unions f**ked up badly by not thinking ahead when (and indeed before) they made the game professional.

FTFY

The NZRU should commission a statue of Jock Hobbs and place it right outside NZRU HQ. Hobbs saved rugby from Kerry Packer's WRC circus.

The Home Unions and the FFR had the opportunity in 1995 to do what Hobbs did but were too gutless to take the step. The Clubs got in and got the player contracts and it was all over red rover!!

 

[goodNumber10]

It has been known for some time that certain European clubs covertly pressure Tier 2 players to make themselves unavailable for international duty under pain of losing their jobs, and they are told that if they talk about it, that will lose them their job as well. This has been going on since the 1990's; the trouble is that knowing it is one thing, and proving it is quite another, and you have to prove it before you can enforce the regulations.

IMO, there can really only be one definitive, comprehensive answer to this and that is for WR to take control and create playing windows in the regulations for both Elite Domestic and International Rugby - no international rugby to be played in the elite domestic window, and no elite domestic rugby in the international window. Then create a third "elite rest" window (or perhaps two shorter elite rest windows) and no elite rugby at all to be played in those windows.

ALL matches in Elite Domestic competitions such as Super Rugby, Top 14, Aviva Premiership, ProD2, Pro12, ITM Cup and Currie Cup (including pre-season m,atches) must be played inside the appropriate defined window. If there are more matches than will fit (I suspect Top 14 and ProD2 would probably be the only one affected) then they have to take a leaf from NZRU's book and do what we do with the ITM Cup, where each team plays a match mid-week with a short turnaround so that the 10 rounds of the regular season can fit into 9 weeks. It works for the ITM Cup, so there is no reason whatsoever that it cannot work for any other competition. If any domestic competition wants to expand, they will have to do so within the constraints of their window.

Don't lump all of Europe in with that... We all know it's the French clubs that do it why make it out to be a systemic problem of Europe's?

I agree though, the simple answer in all of this is an organised global season that allows for proper Windowing.

Fingers crossed the NZers see sense and move the S15 window.

 

[goodNumber10]

FTFY

The NZRU should commission a statue of Jock Hobbs and place it right outside NZRU HQ. Hobbs saved rugby from Kerry Packer's WRC circus.

The Home Unions and the FFR had the opportunity in 1995 to do what Hobbs did but were too gutless to take the step. The Clubs got in and got the player contracts and it was all over red rover!!

It was easy for NZ as the game had been professional in all but name since the late 70's.... And the top tier of rugby always revolved around inter provincial rugby it was far more natural to align professionalism with the unions than the clubs.

That's a concept that's pretty alien to UK and French rugby who have always been structured around clubs.

 

[psychic duck]

FTFY

The NZRU should commission a statue of Jock Hobbs and place it right outside NZRU HQ. Hobbs saved rugby from Kerry Packer's WRC circus.

The Home Unions and the FFR had the opportunity in 1995 to do what Hobbs did but were too gutless to take the step. The Clubs got in and got the player contracts and it was all over red rover!!

The game has more money in it, more nations involved or wanting to get involved, more people watching and interested, more people able to make a living out of it, thanks to private investment in a now professional sport.

 

[FrenchFan]

Yeah like the French will accept that!!!

The Top 14 (and other club leagues in the NH where clubs are not mere springboards to the international team like in SH), is more important than the Internationals to many, many people

yeah let's copy and paste what the kiwis are doing close our eyes for 1 sec and...and..and bob's your uncle

 

[goodNumber10]

The game has more money in it, more nations involved or wanting to get involved, more people watching and interested, more people able to make a living out of it, thanks to private investment in a now professional sport.

Ssssshhhh! These things don't matter to New Zealanders, all that matters is national pride, we all know they'd play for free of they still could.

 

[Tony Manx]

Ssssshhhh! These things don't matter to New Zealanders, all that matters is national pride, we all know they'd play for free of they still could.

......and yet they didn't when the game was shamateur!!!!!!!!

 

[gaston le gaff]

Did anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Car]

It's been reported in French rugby media before how more than a few foreign internationals from Tier 2 nations in particular have been talked out of a few test games. If anyone believes it's never happened, they're in denial or just not aware of the reality of club rugby here (but that's ok ignorance is legal).

It's definitely been mentioned here that our internationals playing in France were not released for the national team by their clubs and Justin Melck was not released by Munster for our RWC qualifier against Russia. Ok, they played the same day, but it was clear he wouldn't play for them anyway and how can such important matches be on the same day anyway?

 

[Shaggy]

Don't lump all of Europe in with that... We all know it's the French clubs that do it why make it out to be a systemic problem of Europe's?

I agree though, the simple answer in all of this is an organised global season that allows for proper Windowing.

Fingers crossed the NZers see sense and move the S15 window.

... Or we could wait for Global warming to really kick in, and make it physically possible for countries like Canada to play through their winter, and thus conform to the European Calendar

I agree that a global calendar would solve a lot of problems though