Official Rugby Thread

[Fuller Pilch]

Fortunately no one in Australia will know the 2027 Rugby WC is being held. Makes the embarrassing silver spoon closed shop that is the national team easy to ignore.

All the Kiwis over there will know

 

[Flem274*]

League's rules are far more triggering than the other two, possibly because they've been working hard to overtake Union for having the worst refs.

I like AFL because it's like adult rippa rugby with kicking, just a swarm of humans chasing a bouncing ball until someone boots it to send the swarm over the other side of the field.

 

[Burgey]

All the Kiwis over there will know

Quite right.

Sorry, no one who matters in Australia will know it's on.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I'm sure I've said it before (when one's made like 45k+ posts it's hard to be sure and/or original) but to an outsider the hardest thing to get one's head around about AFL is its lack of an offside line.

It means (IMHO, obvz) that it's probably quite poorly served by telly coverage. When one goes to an association football game the amount of action one misses on tv is immediately apparent. With AFL and its no offside coupled with a massive playing area I imagine this is double or threefold.

 

[Flem274*]

Quite right.

Sorry, no one who matters in Australia will know it's on.

Is that you ScoMo and the Australian government?

 

[social]

I'm sure I've said it before (when one's made like 45k+ posts it's hard to be sure and/or original) but to an outsider the hardest thing to get one's head around about AFL is its lack of an offside line.

It means (IMHO, obvz) that it's probably quite poorly served by telly coverage. When one goes to an association football game the amount of action one misses on tv is immediately apparent. With AFL and its no offside coupled with a massive playing area I imagine this is double or threefold.

Pretty much

Appears on tv to be a rabble with kick & hope

Going to a game is very different when you see a guy run 150m to be on the end of it

Biggest thing is that union has lost its tribalism here

Even if you have a streaming service, nobody cares about a game between 2 franchises

State of Origin - massive

Collingwood against Essendon - massive

Waratahs against Chiefs - nobody cares other than the Kiwis

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Pretty much

Appears on tv to be a rabble with kick & hope

Going to a game is very different when you see a guy run 150m to be on the end of it

Biggest thing is that union has lost its tribalism here

Even if you have a streaming service, nobody cares about a game between 2 franchises

State of Origin - massive

Collingwood against Essendon - massive

Waratahs against Chiefs - nobody cares other than the Kiwis

Is it fair to say that there is still some tribalism with the Western Force and Brumbies fans (and perhaps a bit with the Queensland Reds), but absolutely nothing with NSW and of course Melbourne? Just my 5 cents from watching games on TV.

 

[GotSpin]

Is it fair to say that there is still some tribalism with the Western Force and Brumbies fans (and perhaps a bit with the Queensland Reds), but absolutely nothing with NSW and of course Melbourne? Just my 5 cents from watching games on TV.

There used to be

 

[Burgey]

Is it fair to say that there is still some tribalism with the Western Force and Brumbies fans (and perhaps a bit with the Queensland Reds), but absolutely nothing with NSW and of course Melbourne? Just my 5 cents from watching games on TV.

I suspect it's kept alive in Qld because they're just tribal (and feral) in general up there. In WA it's the expat Saffer crowd and in Canberra not much else happens at all.

Rugby is dying in Aus. It's awesome. Chickens completely coming home to roost for Rugby Australia and the private school cabal.

 

[Spark]

Brumbies fans are pretty loyal mostly because fans have fond memories and/or grew up with the great team of the late 90s/early 00s. And we've done okay since then as well.

It's not like we have a lot of other locally successful national league sides to glom onto.

 

[Smudge]

I suspect it's kept alive in Qld because they're just tribal (and feral) in general up there. In WA it's the expat Saffer crowd and in Canberra not much else happens at all.

Rugby is dying in Aus. It's awesome. Chickens completely coming home to roost for Rugby Australia and the private school cabal.

Perhaps, in the spirit of keeping rugby union a closed shop, you could **** off out of this thread after the umpteenth attempt at trolling the sport, you sad old man?

 

[Burgey]

As I've said many times, I like the sport when it is played in the style of nations other than my own. I have no time for the code here because it almost exclusively draws its players from a small cabal of uppity private schools, despite two decades of pizzlings from our nearest neighbours who quite rightly draw their players from right across society.

 

[social]

As I've said many times, I like the sport when it is played in the style of nations other than my own. I have no time for the code here because it almost exclusively draws its players from a small cabal of uppity private schools, despite two decades of pizzlings from our nearest neighbours who quite rightly draw their players from right across society.

Totally different dynamic

Rugby is a religion in NZ so many more kids from all walks of life play the game there

What’s more, NZ rugby rapes the Pacific nations of talent in exactly the same way that the NRL does

Rugby is a niche sport in Australia with the 9th highest participation rate among kids but guess which sport has faster declining registrations

Rugby League

Hard to believe but true

 

[Flem274*]

nz export more heritage players born and developed here to the islands than islanders move here. i believe this is true for aus and the islands as well.

the drain of islands rugby (and all rugby, and tbh all sport) are northern hemisphere clubs.

 

[Spark]

For some reason that doesn't surprise me at all tbh re: league

 

[social]

Australia and NZ are both major migration targets for Pacific Islanders

Not being political here

The only rugby talent that we “export” are either not good enough or so good that they make the rules

Franchises aren’t charities

 

[Flem274*]

Australia and NZ are both major migration targets for Pacific Islanders

yeah, the parents.

of course the exported talent isn't the cream of the crop. they're kids born in nz or aus who grew up wanting to play for nz or aus. when they couldn't, they used their heritage to play test rugby.

nz and aus do indulge in some swiping of teenagers, but by far the biggest overseas draw for young islanders playing rugby in poor nations is something we can't provide - stupid amounts of european money. you can support your family on super rugby money, but you can skip the middle class and go straight to upper class on european club money.

super rugby players get to play for the islands. they're lucky to get their european based talent back for world cups. the european clubs are the greatest threat to the general player quality of test rugby and the 'nz and aus steal all their players' narrative didn't originate in the pacific islands.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Fun fact.

The country with the most foreign born players at the last world cup?

Spoiler

Tonga

Second most?

Spoiler

Samoa

I mean, NZ and Australia aren't totally innocent, but both are still net suppliers of rugby cattle.

There's a slightly ick tendency amongst certain members of the British union press (step forward Stephen Jones) to equate Wallabies or All Blacks sporting non-Anglo sounding names with being ringers.

 

[hendrix]

I always find it bemusing when certain members of the English press are surprised that the largest country in the Pacific Islands has lots of players from...the Pacific Islands.

We should all be tea drinking colonialists singing about the Queen or something.

With that said, some of the fancy private schools going on recruiting missions to villages in Fiji etc for 13 year old players does make me uncomfortable. It's not a major source of players but it definitely happens and it's weird.

 

[Shady Slim]

Totally different dynamic

Rugby is a religion in NZ so many more kids from all walks of life play the game there

What’s more, NZ rugby rapes the Pacific nations of talent in exactly the same way that the NRL does

Rugby is a niche sport in Australia with the 9th highest participation rate among kids but guess which sport has faster declining registrations

Rugby League

Hard to believe but true

yeah but what that says sort of follows from the fact rugby's a niche sport here would it not? the supporterbase is tiny but they're fairly ossified