Too Many Teams In The Super 14

[Shifty]

I see that Eddie Jones reckons that the reason why the Reds are performing so poorly is because of the extra teams added to the Super 14. He says that move has diluted the talent and made the Aussie teams that much weaker.

Do you think he has a point? Or do you think he's talking rubbish?

[Shayne]

I thought that before the tournament but realise that the more playing, the more experience then the better the internationals.

If three countries cant handle an extra 40 players (2 teams) of high quality then rugby is surely a dying sport.

[Nyala]

I agree ( with Shayne)- surely with the increased number of players vying for a spot on the teams the standard would be a little bit higher thereby forming better players and a better class of game? More teams = work harder for the big prize.

[biffon]

i totally disagree with that (eddie jones). The talent is there, the Reds have some great youngsters and to be honest Eddie saying things like that is an insult to his own very talented boys!

kids like Quade Cooper, Berrick Barnes & Brando Va'alu

look at the Tah's : Curtley Beale, Sam Norton-knight, Tatafu Polota-nau
Brumbies: Saia Faingaa, Francis Fainifo
Force: Scott Daruda, Digby Ioane, David Pocock, Brett Stapleton

all players under 23 with little to no super12/14 experience before last year and this year..

at least 5 of those players have been earmarked as wallaby bolters for the world cup...

Eddie is just stirring like he always does.

[spuff]

Ah Biff - you would say that, it was your new team that poached all the talent!!

Union is not the most popular sport in Aus, by a long shot, so I think he probably does have a point. Look at the stats the season, by the Aussie teams - pretty ordinary reading, in terms of try's scored, try's leaked, handling errors etc. Not to mention the dour spectacles of matches involving Aussie teams, that is certainly no good advert for the sport over there. But the young up and comers just need time, granted. But the period between now and then is..? O'l Jones even called his team "stupid" couple of weeks ago - so he is not worried about hurting their feelings!

[biffon]

What happened in 2006? the Tahs were in the semi's werent they? the brumbies had a horror last three games that dropped them out of the final 4... and since then the force have only taken on three new players, Giteau & Mitchell and ryan cross from rugby league.
to me there is no arguement there....
teams will have good years and bad years, if they didnt then it would be boring as hell if the same teams kept getting into the finals.

however....

the biggest problem i see with the game in Aus is that there is no national competition for the next level of players to groom them for s14.

Hopefully when the ARC gets up and running we will start to see a bit more depth and more skilled players stepping up.
but it not going to be an overnight fix, SA and NZ have had their local comps running for many years now and have a HUGE player base from which to select from. Aus really only has city/uni club players and S14 to pick from.
eg: NZ has 26 provincial unions to pick from, SA has 14, Aus has what? 5? the 4 S14 teams and the Victorian (melbourne)RFU...cmon theres a HUGE gap in numbers there!

the new ARC competition starting in august will have 8 teams so thats effectively doubling the player base exposed to the next level of the sport (s14) hopefully that will help to set the imbalance right

[zimboykie]

I met some Aussies from Brisbane whilst in Italy last year April & the conversation switched to the S14. Being from Queensland l asked if they were Reds supporters & they said they were more rugby league fans & that RL in Oz was much more popular than union - is that true? It just seems for a country to win the RWC on 2 occaisions in 91 & 99 they surely must have a big pool of players to draw from but maybe not. Is this true?

[Nyala]

The State of Origin (RL tournament) played between Qld and NSW is huge in Oz, a good number of the Wallaby team are ex league players. Talking to Aussies it does seem like league is more popular on the east coast although I'm not sure about WA and the rest of the country. But having said that, every little counrty dorp has it's own union team and they travel around playing each other, much the same as in Zim.

[georgie]

So if a side doesnt perform it is blamed on everything other than the team itself. HaHa

[Edmonsta]

So if a side doesnt perform it is blamed on everything other than the team itself. HaHa

No, Georgie, it's true what zimboykie asked - rugby really isn't as big in Australia as many other sports.

In Victoria it's practically non-existent. There are a few clubs, but as far as supporters go, it's mostly NZ, Islanders, SA, UK and European expats that are interested. It's fairly popular in NSW and QLD, and starting to gain popularity in Western Australia, but anywhere else nobody cares.

I think Australia does pretty damn well for a pool of something like 20,000 players and not much support.

I wish it would take off though. League and AFL suck compared to Union. :whistling:

[Shayne]

I wish it would take off though. League and AFL suck compared to Union. :whistling:

Blasphemer! League has more line break, hits, tackles, playing time compared to union.

They arent pussies and dont try drop kick the ball every two minutes either.

[joemac]

I wish it would take off though. League and AFL suck compared to Union. :whistling:

Blasphemer.League has more line break, hits, tackles, playing time compared to union.

They arent pussies and dont try drop kick the ball every two minutes either.


Shayne: Off to the gay corner please.

[Edmonsta]

I wish it would take off though. League and AFL suck compared to Union. :whistling:

Blasphemer! League has more line break, hits, tackles, playing time compared to union.

They arent pussies and dont try drop kick the ball every two minutes either.

:smiley36:

That may be so, but can any of them count to ten?:smiley36:

[Springbok]

It would be a powerful league if there were 9 teams in it 3 teams from each country then it would be fantastic

[georgie]

Funny we never heard any of these excuses when the Aus side was a force to be reckoned with. At least last year it could be blamed on the World Cup.