General Rugby Discussion 3

Maybe

Son'n Nonu ?

Felix Jones heading back to Rassie and SA

La Rochelle have lost again. This time to Stade Francais who were bottom of the table. I think O'Gara's questioning of the squad last week was a way of trying to get a traction out of them and it failed.

Watched the semi finalof rugby championchip highlights - Spain surprisingly beat Portugal. Would love to see rugby grow outside traditional small set of countrys . Ther was a very poor crowd at game , world rugby needs to do more than just expanding World cup numbers, and probable hidings , if they want to grwo game and increase world interest.

I agree, crowd seamed very small from video, similar to AIL , with a bit of decent marketing I'm sure they could have bumped up more interest. apart from Ireland, France, England, NZ and SA the game seams in trouble to me.

with Portugal doing so well in last world cup, would have expected more against ther rivals in a semi final than a near empty stadium

they've been a bit disappointing this season. Georgia hammered already. I do love the way they and Spain play the game.

The South American teams have similar vibe to them, reminds of the best of French flair. Kills me that the Tier 1 teams are so determined to ignore them

thats interesting, will have to give one of them a look!

I'd like to see more regional 6 Nations/TRC style competitions in the world. I think the key to it would be annually playing neighbouring countries. If the game is to grow we need to stop considering Georgia or Spain for the 6 Nations and instead they should form their own leagues

Spain/Portugal/Morocco/Gibraltar/Andorra

Georgia/Azerbaijan/Armenia/Turkey

Brazil/Paraguay/Bolivia/Uruguay/Chile

Forge a rivalry with your neighbours and you will get success I think. Argentina might even be better off with the South Americans

That's exactly why I didn't suggests a competition between Spain, Portugal and Georgia.

My point is simply that playing the neighbouring countries is what fosters interest. Interest = attendance = money = development. You look at the progress from the Calcutta Cup - Tripple Crown - 5 Nations - 6 Nations or the 1872 cup. It started as neighbor countries played each other year-on-year

Similarly the Irish inter-provincials, the 1872 cup, even the Bledisloe Cup are all formats where this works and generates the interest

Adding Georgia to the 6 Nations or the RC would develop interests on the level of the Nations League and interest in that after 6 seasons is flat at best

We have the world cup for the small teams to play the big ones

When people say the T1 nations need to help the T2 nations develop I think providing the money is exactly what we need to do

Not a bad shout on the club league but again misses the point of the countries being near each other. If you took 5 clubs from each of Portugal and Spain and let them loose into a league together I'd say you'd get some very interesting games.

In fairness, Georgia have played Australia, Japan, Fiji and Italy in the last 12 months and play Ireland and South Africa this summer.

It's inevitable that the professional game will follow the money. France aside, the other Tier 1 nations don't generate enough income to grow their dependent Clubs. The biggest expense that Unions face is participation in the Rugby World Cup. Unions lose money in RWC years, so if someone opted to underwrite the entire cost of hosting a RWC & all the participating Unions costs it would boost Union finances hugely. Qatar could afford to do this. So, first a RWC & later the ECPR final & then an annual tournament. Can WR say no !. Of course they can, but only if there's another route.