Australian Rugby Union Season 2016 - Super 18 so far to March

[JohnS]

To add further to the ARU's failure to build on the momentum of the Rugby World Cup in 2015 to promote Rugby at junior levels, I've read this week that administrators have finally admitted that the game needs to be promoted in the public school system in Sydney otherwise they risk losing support. Sydney, with a population the size of New Zealand, and in this same week we find that the NSW Waratahs are resistant to moving from their comfortable base in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, is a city that has plenty of juniors playing sport on the weekend, but what are they playing in winter? Answer....soccer. Now Rugby League is doing all it can to work in the school system to promote the game, and the AFL are outstanding at getting kids involved in their game, but the ARU are hopeless.

Unlike New Zealand, Rugby Union is seen as the domain of the GPS Private School system where private school kids play the game on Saturday mornings for their school. I feel sorry for the local Rugby clubs such as Rockdale and Oatley that have keen volunteers and get good support, just not from the ARU. If Rugby Union is to get a foothold in Australia, the administrators need to take a leaf out of the AFL's book and start to put money into promoting the game in the public school system.

[Ken Gargett]

To add further to the ARU's failure to build on the momentum of the Rugby World Cup in 2015 to promote Rugby at junior levels, I've read this week that administrators have finally admitted that the game needs to be promoted in the public school system in Sydney otherwise they risk losing support. Sydney, with a population the size of New Zealand, and in this same week we find that the NSW Waratahs are resistant to moving from their comfortable base in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, is a city that has plenty of juniors playing sport on the weekend, but what are they playing in winter? Answer....soccer. Now Rugby League is doing all it can to work in the school system to promote the game, and the AFL are outstanding at getting kids involved in their game, but the ARU are hopeless.

Unlike New Zealand, Rugby Union is seen as the domain of the GPS Private School system where private school kids play the game on Saturday mornings for their school. I feel sorry for the local Rugby clubs such as Rockdale and Oatley that have keen volunteers and get good support, just not from the ARU. If Rugby Union is to get a foothold in Australia, the administrators need to take a leaf out of the AFL's book and start to put money into promoting the game in the public school system.

agreed john. and a major problem for them is that where in past years, the super talent from the gps system in sydney/brisbane would go on to play rugby, now league (and even other sports) plunder the ranks. in the past, that was rare - wally lewis was one example. and the kids see no reason not to play league. it is well paid, organised in a far better way, has much bigger crowds, can offer games like origin. and it no longer has the stigma that once hung around it.

what you say about money into the schools is correct. instead, they tried to bleed the kids and families so they can maintain their excesses and occasionally spend it on something like izzy and khunt and claim that is promoting the game.

one small example - kayln ponga. if you have not seen anything of this clip, worth a look - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEyanmWO1iU. sure, a long way from schoolboy rugby to success as an adult but this kid has massive talent (was in the broncos young squad and now cowboys). he was at my old school - most talented kid since we had cooper and pocock running around together, and khunt before that). what i did not realise watching him tear this up was that he was only 15 at the time, playing 17 year olds and making them look silly. he is the reason that the cowboys will probably part ways with lachlan coote. any chance of him playing for the reds? in years gone by, it would be a given. now, not a chance. straight to league.

the ARU? they'd send a tuckshop broke. i still remember the 2003 final. packed to the gills, apparently except for one chunk of about 5,000 seats up in the nosebleed section but 5,000 seats at a world cup final - one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. i'm told by reliable sources that the reason for this was because one of o'neill's underlings stuffed up and had the tickets in a drawer at work and forgot to deal with them. that is the sort of competence rugby offers.

weekend rant over.

[Ken Gargett]

just got an email from a mate to say - Alan Jones yesterday proclaimed Queensland (not the Reds) as the best provincial rugby team in the world, over the history of the game that is. (He's said it before.).

my response was, as a tragic qld supporter of all things - Not even I would suggest that is true, if one goes back past the early 70s, but since then, we would be a contender. The crusaders may feel a claim but we’d be up there. The last couple of years have not assisted the cause.

Those of us at Ballymore in July 1980 (it really doesn’t seem that long ago – and if I recall, it was not a bad week as two days later, we all headed to lang park for the first origin game), when qld beat a full strength all blacks side, indeed kept them tryless – granted they did the same to us (9-3, after 3-3 at half time with a penalty each, McLean slotted a field goal in the 2^nd half and then Roger Gould put the cherry on top with a field goal kicked from the sideline at least 5 metres on our side of half way) – would never doubt jones.

And of course, he has the law of averages on his side. He spews forth so much nonsense that the law of averages suggests he will eventually get something right.

got another to say that the big game in paris between racing and toulon attracted just 12,000 people. seems rugby is on the nose worldwide.