Ideas for NRC

Certainly, at Vikings Park, the food and beverages could be improved imo. And perhaps the Brumbies could do a bit more promotion of the Vikings at their home matches.

Other than that, I still think there are some problems with the scoring regime. 8 points for a converted try seems to be too high to me. Reduce the conversion to 2, as with penalties. The other improvement I'd like to see is to reduce the incidence of rolling mauls leading to tries. Could perhaps be done with more critical refereeing but would an unwanted consequence be a de-skilling of an important element that is still used at Super and Test level? Conundrum.

There are a couple of elephant's in the room.
1. Waratah engagement with NSW franchises is probably less than desired and is probaly not going to be an better in 2016 and my concern is that say all there non Wallabies are injured and require surgery and are not sighted in the NRC.

2. The ARU should not allow departing Super Rugby Players leave early from their contracts this could include the 7/60 players but to be held to their contract date of 31 Oct 15. Examples in 2015 Ruan & JP Smith, Sean Doyle, Peter Betham, Zac Holmes, McDuling and Tala Gray and these players would have been added to the NSW franchises.

3. The number of Super Rugby players at the NRC franchises have been set at 17. Even with that Melbourne Rebels could provide nearly 16, Western Force 13 or 14 whilst Brumbies 7 (More Wallabies 1 Foreign Player and less contracted players 32).
Surely the Waratahs should have 25 to disburse to the 4 franchises. That is without the Reds having closed borders and probaly stealing one or two.

4. At times I am confused on who is a Super Rugby player. Previously there were 32 players contacted an 3 EPS for a total of 35. Now there is Wider Training Group, Bridging Contracts and just Academy. To play players outside the 35 they had to be replaced with ARU permission. This seem s to be watered down. The disbursement would be 165 players less Wallabies and foreign marquee or Japanese imports other non Resident players required to front up at the NRC.

Add in the big Fijian winger who went to Scotland after his 'test debut' for the Wallabies - he could have been added to a Sydney NRC team.

How do you only get 7 Brumbies available for the NRC? Ignoring current Wallabies I counted 11 from their squad on the site, and that didn't include Aidan Toua who isn't on their site yet.

Currently Brumbies signed 33 less Wallabies 8 + Cubelli +17 Vikings leaves 7. I had not counted Abel at that stage.

Yep - done.

Survey done, truth told, but I hold little hope it will be heard let alone acted upon.

I heard one of the Sydney teams will be brushed or two merged. One less Sydney team either way. Talent spread not as thin.


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Done


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So 8 teams.. Joke. Needs to be more teams.

Nah its a good move, Sydney had too many teams and there wasn't enough depth or resources in NSW to allow the NRC teams to be competitive. Currie Cup is only 8 teams and has a level of rugby well above the NRC, if the NRC is to bridge the gap between Club Rugby and Super Rugby then more teams means the talent is spread to thin and the quality of rugby drops.

New Zealand has the top 7 teams in the top Premiership Division of the ITM Cup and 7 teams in the lower Championship Division with a promotion/relegation system. There are 14 teams across both divisions, but New Zealand has had years to build the depth required to stock 14 teams.

I don't think it's a fact that Sydney had too many teams it's a fact that the rules were designed to make the lesser states competitive.

Yeah I'm happy with just 2 Sydney teams. Hopefully the Stars merge with the Rams (and keep the Rams name).

And if there's desire for more teams perhaps the Fiji Warriors and the equivalent Samoan team (local residents only) could be added - obviously they would need to find the funds through a mix of WR, government and sponsorship. They could play home games out of Western Sydney or Brisbane, and maybe a couple in the Islands too if possible.

Hopefully this doesn't happen otherwise this already financially struggling competition will struggle even more.

I'm not so sure, I'd prefer to run the same teams for one more year before tweaking things.
The Currie Cup supports your preference to reduce the number of teams.
Not so much the ITM.
An ITM 2nd div team will play v 6 2nd div teams & 4 div 1 teams in a season.
The kiwis obviously think a 7 team comp as being less than ideal.

Why? I'm saying that it shouldn't happen unless it's externally funded. And I think Fiji and Samoa would be a good drawcard at this level. There's some precedent too, as PNG play in the Queensland Cup in Rugby League. I believe they're funded by the PNG government and private sponsors.

Yep also done - thanks rugby reg - what are the channels being used to get people complete survey btw

I hear you but I see different evidence as saw a lot of feedback acted on from last year

The idea for a competition as bridge between super rugby and club rugby is much needed. Tough gig when limited financial resources behind it - which means have to work harder to find the hooks .

Because of limited financial resources able to put behind it may take longer but hopefully next season discover a few more hooks and,,/ or remove the impediments to wider interest