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Ali Baba to invest $100m to grow Rugby in China.

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Rugbynutter39

Michael Lynagh (62)
I personally think it is great news, anything that helps spread rugby is brilliant in my opinion
With this sort of investment in rugby being made in china I could see as part of future plans Chinese interests buying out a super rugby franchise in Australia which would not be a bad thing...aquis as sponsor of brumbies I know have talked about taking a super rugby exhibition game to china - expect that will happen in the next few years


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wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
AFL have already had a few chomps at breaking into the Chinese market with no success, whilst the AFL has a brilliant domestic strategy, they have been unable to transfer this to international markets.


The main reason being that AFL is a game that needs a very big playing area. The vast majority of playing areas for winter sports are of course soccer fields.
 

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
I was once told the "good thing" about Eastwood rugby club was that they kept the place white.


When was that said? By whom? And what was the context?


I grew up in Eastwood, the place is now unrecognisable compared to what it once was. That is just a fact of life, it is neither good nor bad.


The fact that the Rugby Club has survived in the midst of this huge demographic change could be seen as a good thing, if you are a rugby supporter, like me.


But to my knowledge there has never been any kind of overt or covert racial, religious, economic, or any other kind of discrimination. The only exception to this, many years ago, was that rugby league players, or ex-players were banned. That was not uncommon, of course, a rugby player who was proven to have played a single minute of rugby league was deemed to be a professional, and that was the end of his rugby career.


Frankly, the idea that any prospective player, supporter or spectator might not be made welcome because of their skin colour is just preposterous.
 

maxdacat

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
I
AFL have already had a few chomps at breaking into the Chinese market with no success, whilst the AFL has a brilliant domestic strategy, they have been unable to transfer this to international markets.
i dunno....maybe aerial ping pong translates nicely into Chinese :)
 
T

TOCC

Guest
The main reason being that AFL is a game that needs a very big playing area. The vast majority of playing areas for winter sports are of course soccer fields.

Yes but even in countries like South Africa with crickey pitches they have struggled, there was a big push a few years ago into South Africa... but again they given up in that venture... this most recent China push is been driven by a club and not the governing body
 

RugbyFuture

Lord Logo
When was that said? By whom? And what was the context?


2014, someone in the management of the club, talking about the status of all the local clubs in the shute shield and their survival method.

It was put across in the context of the way the club survived was being the last harboured bastion of whiteness in the area. At least how it came across to me. It was also said to me that making the food more traditionally australian chinese than becoming more genuine was a deliberate strategy off the back of that.

The person saying this to me didn't realise I was half asian and was ultimately dismissive of me altogether anyway. But that's when I stopped supporting Eastwood having grown up there, (Born at Ryde, went to st kevins and many EDRUFC games, had lived there from 0-22/23, now 26).

It's their prerogative but ultimately, will be the death of that place. St Andrews Eastwood Soccer is already huge and will continue to get bigger and has the advantage of operating out of Eastwood Oval.

When was the last time the station sign was fixed up and displaying the correct info? When was the last time they interacted with the very large community events of Granny Smith, Moon Festival, Chinese New Year? Correct me if I'm wrong on this but I don't remember seeing them there for many years when I still lived there.

Rise of chinese rugby is great, but don't expect them to support that kind of support.
 

Rugbynutter39

Michael Lynagh (62)
2014, someone in the management of the club, talking about the status of all the local clubs in the shute shield and their survival method.

It was put across in the context of the way the club survived was being the last harboured bastion of whiteness in the area. At least how it came across to me. It was also said to me that making the food more traditionally australian chinese than becoming more genuine was a deliberate strategy off the back of that.

The person saying this to me didn't realise I was half asian and was ultimately dismissive of me altogether anyway. But that's when I stopped supporting Eastwood having grown up there, (Born at Ryde, went to st kevins and many EDRUFC games, had lived there from 0-22/23, now 26).

It's their prerogative but ultimately, will be the death of that place. St Andrews Eastwood Soccer is already huge and will continue to get bigger and has the advantage of operating out of Eastwood Oval.

When was the last time the station sign was fixed up and displaying the correct info? When was the last time they interacted with the very large community events of Granny Smith, Moon Festival, Chinese New Year? Correct me if I'm wrong on this but I don't remember seeing them there for many years when I still lived there.

Rise of chinese rugby is great, but don't expect them to support that kind of support.

Personally the beauty of rugby is an international game that crosses borders and cultures. I personally look forward to the day we have our first wallaby of Asian heritage as the game and its participants should reflect the make up of our society.


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wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
Rugbynutter39,

I will not quote your post. I would be interested to know who made the comments you referred to.


I too grew up in the place, in fact I was born there (St Edmund's Private Hospital) - it's a nursing home now (I might end up there!).


As with a lot of other criticism about the lack of community involvement, I suspect that the problem is lack of resources rather than any deliberate slight.


Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds to me as though the person you were talking to was trying to find an excuse for the Club's lack of available resources to cultivate the local community.


Anybody who has the slightest interest in the game, and/or reads the Northern Districts Times, knows that Milner is there, and rugby is played there. I would be stunned to think that there is some sort of untapped potential, and if only we got the station sign right, and/or had the resources to participate in more community events, everything would change.


Soccer is a far more popular game in the countries where many of Eastwood's more recent citizens were born.
 

USARugger

John Thornett (49)
Yes but even in countries like South Africa with crickey pitches they have struggled, there was a big push a few years ago into South Africa. but again they given up in that venture. this most recent China push is been driven by a club and not the governing body

To be fair it's a very, very alien game from an outsider's perspective and I can't think of a single sport in any other region of the world that could be used as an effective analogue to help people begin to understand the game without being directly to exposed to it before.

Aside from the scoring many of the rules can be pretty confusing, particularly those surrounding contact and dribbling. It's similar to Rugby in that sense (that ascertaining the legal intricacies of the game is very difficult for a new viewer without referencing the laws themselves) but without that analogue sport (whereas rugby has soccer, gridiron, and even basketball to draw from to varying degrees) to base a comparison on it is a very hard sell in my opinion.
 

RugbyFuture

Lord Logo
Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds to me as though the person you were talking to was trying to find an excuse for the Club's lack of available resources to cultivate the local community.


You got something right.

In any case, this investment is going to go a long way in Chinese rugby. Hong Kong rugby still goes relatively strong too. I look forward to seeing what will develop, hopefully it doesn't have the same match fixing problems they have in soccer.
 

half

Alan Cameron (40)
A business friend of mine has recently returned from China and because of his interest in rugby he was take to a army base where Chinese soldiers are trained.

He says the Chinese army has chosen rugby as their game over soccer as they believe it hardens up there troops. He said he believes within 16 years China will win the RWC he said they had 100 fields in one place.

China will be a huge rugby power and very quickly if their army has anything to do with it.
 
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