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New Zealand Rugby Team Watch

Dismal Pillock

David Codey (61)

the reason the ABs suck at the moment as per Mils is that it's all Australia's fault.

So stop arguing amongst yourselves and put the boot into the Wobs while we're down.

/End sarcasm

All Blacks centurion blames Australia for New Zealand’s lack of ‘world-class’ players​

Bit of a clickbait dummy spit of a headline. Just below it is the actual story topic:

Mils Muliaina insists that Super Rugby is a key factor in the All Blacks’ struggles this year.
“I don’t think our competitions are healthy. Our competitions aren’t turning our up-and-comers into quality, world-class All Blacks,” he said on Sky Sports’ Breakdown.

“They’re going out there in pressure situations and that’s where they’re folding. You can’t teach that at the lower grades because we’re playing against the Aussies.
Where is he wrong in this?

shrug.gif
 

John S

Chilla Wilson (44)
Hes not that wrong. I just took a bit of perverse pleasure in the ABs going through the wringer.

Edit: to be fair, there's a whole thread on this which ended up going in circles (see Where to for Super Rugby), but I actually sort of agree with him, the playing style (whatever that is) of Australia isn't as abrasive and tough as SA.
 
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MarkJ

Bob Loudon (25)
At least we might get one bit of satisfaction from the decline and fall of Australian rugby, that we’re taking the Kiwis down with us
 

Marce

John Hipwell (52)
Why is the NRL going to eat the All Blacks alive?

10 Reasons league is ready to usurp rugby as NZ’s dominant code

1: Financial firepower

The NRL made a surplus of AS$58.2m ($63m) in 2023 – and made a surplus of A$62m in 2022, and A$42m in 2021.

New Zealand Rugby [NZR] lost $9.7m in 2023, $47m in 2022, and $34m in 2021.

The NRL’s total surplus for the last three years is A$162m; NZR has lost $90m.

2: Financial viability
3: Access to content and ability to grow audience
4: Strategic vision
5: Brand power
NRL’s annual report states that $362m was distributed to clubs, average attendances were 20,000, and all 17 clubs in the NRL made a surplus, with the average commercial revenue generated standing at $15.7m.

The Rabbitohs generated a total of A$23.5m ($25.6m) according to the Sydney Morning Herald, and just how strong a hold the NRL has in the Australian market was illustrated by the $23.5m of revenue the Dolphins collected in their first year in the competition.

The fact that a new club jointly topped the table of commercial income – taking $10.1m of sponsorship income alone – suggests there is an insatiable corporate appetite for the NRL in Australia.

It’s hard to make direct comparisons as Super Rugby clubs in New Zealand don’t receive or negotiate their own broadcast deal – but clubs can generate commercial revenue from sponsorships, gate revenues and any other streams.

But they all say it is hard to break even without hosting playoff games.

The Hurricanes, who didn’t host a playoff game, lost $1.4m in 2023, while the Melbourne Rebels went into administration.

6: Player payments
NRL teams have a salary cap of $11.25m. It is estimated that the highest-paid players receive around $1.3m a season, with the average $400,000 and the minimum $130,000.

The market is competitive and because club owners are able to make decisions about who to buy and what to pay, emerging talent can be offered big pay packets at a relatively young age.

Super Rugby clubs can pay players a maximum of $195,000 and a minimum of $75,000.

But these figures can be topped up by third parties, and those players who make the All Blacks will be topped by NZR.

The highest-paid players are therefore believed to have retainers of around $1m – comparable with the highest-paid players in the NRL – with mid-tier All Blacks likely to be on around $400,000 to $600,000 and younger players with limited test experience on about $300,000 to $500,000.

Rugby’s issue is that it operates on a hierarchical, pay-your-dues scale where players must make the All Blacks to open the door to big money.

7: Market forces

The NRL has afforded clubs leeway in the salary cap to recruit players from other codes, and most recently that has led to former Wallabies Carter Gordon and Mark Nawaqanitawase switching respectively to the Titans and Roosters.

But the narrative has been powerful and consistent, that many of New Zealand’s top rugby players are big fans of the NRL and attracted to it as a career option.

All Blacks vice-captain Jordie Barrett trained with the Melbourne Storm this year. Current All Black TJ Perenara was close to signing with the Roosters in 2021, and his teammate Caleb Clarke trained with the Rabbitohs in the summer of 2022

8: Participation rates

Rugby has lost its place as the preferred sport for New Zealand’s teenagers.

9: Connecting with the young

League is connecting with teenagers in a way rugby isn’t. And unlike rugby, it is managing to avoid fostering the same fears among parents about head injuries.

The NRL’s story is well told, and the sport is supremely well marketed through concepts that are authentic and appropriate for its fan base.

It was the NRL that came up with the super round, the indigenous round and all the other themed weekends.

Super Rugby is trying to take what works in league and unsuccessfully transpose it in union, and without having carved out its own identity, or built the same suite of media programmes to engage audiences and flood social media channels, it’s no wonder that New Zealand’s most promising schoolboy rugby players are just as likely to end up playing in the NRL as they are the All Blacks.

10: Embracing and empowering Pasifika

League changed its eligibility laws to enable players of dual heritage to represent another nation and instantly made Tonga and Samoa credible, international contenders.

Rugby‘s established heavyweights – New Zealand, Australia and France – on the other hand, continue to want to take the pick of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji’s best players for themselves and do little to help these nations grow as international entities on the world stage.


The only reason is wrong for me is the number 10. Obviously the writer doesn't know the new World Rugby laws for elegibility. Everything else makes sense
 

Marce

John Hipwell (52)
I'm sure the 12 registered league players in NZ are going to be thrilled to read this
The NRL is going to embark in NZ with new teams. Just as the AFL did in NSW and today Swans and Giants have more supporters than Waratahs.
 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
Marce me old mate, I have heard and read that League is about to take over rugby in NZ since the Warriors came into being in the 90s. They have made inroads, but not as much as they did between late 80s early 90s. Basketball is sport that's making biggest difference to Union in NZ, lague will always (and has always) take a few players, but I think we will be ok. Thanks for your concern anyway mate@
 

Marce

John Hipwell (52)
Marce me old mate, I have heard and read that League is about to take over rugby in NZ since the Warriors came into being in the 90s. They have made inroads, but not as much as they did between late 80s early 90s. Basketball is sport that's making biggest difference to Union in NZ, lague will always (and has always) take a few players, but I think we will be ok. Thanks for your concern anyway mate@
We are not in the 90s, the NRL is more powerful than ever and it keeps growing. AFL and NRL are the strongest football codes in Oceania
 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
We are not in the 90s, the NRL is more powerful than ever and it keeps growing. AFL and NRL are the strongest football codes in Oceania
Mate I not commenting on Oceania etc, and NRL may well be , I only commenting I what I have experience or knowledge of which is here in NZ. As a point if I go down to golf club, or wander around the sports fields , the fellas will be talking of rugby, and then in general among a few English soccer etc more than NRL.
 

waiopehu oldboy

George Smith (75)
@Marce

GPaul's article ignores a basic truth known to every objective NRL fan in NZ: the NRL want a NZ team in the comp & may even help set up a second (which would be a money pit, the Wahs having sucked the potential sponsorship pool all but dry) but definitely don't want them winning it.

Until a NZ team is routinely at least making the last week of playoffs, support will sit around where it currently does albeit some years it'll be up a little & others down a little.

Paul is also being his usual disingenuous self by stating that rugby is no longer the no. 1 schoolboy code, which us true, but not mentioning that it's been overtaken by basketball.

I'd also wager that GPaul has had this article in his proverbial bottom drawer waiting for an opportunity to get it published. Had AB season to date been more successful it wouldn't have seen the light of day.
 

Marce

John Hipwell (52)
I'd also wager that GPaul has had this article in his proverbial bottom drawer waiting for an opportunity to get it published. Had AB season to date been more successful it wouldn't have seen the light of day.
I don't think the ABs are gonna desappear but if they convert into a Top 5 nation would be a disaster. I mean, not even RA has disappeared but now they are a Top 9 nation, that's a pity.

If the NRL launchs a succesful second and even a third club in NZ would be a drain of top athletes. We won't see this in next five years, it's a looong career, maybe from here to 10 or 15 years like the WBs. In term of Wallabies timeline the ABs are now in year 2003, the WBs disaster was consistenly since 2020s or even before. And now you have powerful Northern Hemisphere teams, plus SA and Argentina playing at high level. The World Rugby picture would change in some years, actually it's changing right now

I don't think we are gonna see a 2015 invencibles ABs again. Look at the other power nations: Ireland, France, South Africa and look at the U20s results in the last decade.
 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
No argument with where we are on World stage @Marce , the pwoer of money may stop us ever being as dominant as we were in 2015, but teams like that basically come along a couple of times in lifetime. I not sure we are particularly weaker than other times in history, rather NH teams more powerful. Even SA, are at moment going through a 2016 stage, but you wouldn't of imagined that coming back when ABs were beating them by 57 points . But I really doubt I will see NZ have 3 NRL teams in my lifetime, and after that guess I won't care!
 

Dismal Pillock

David Codey (61)
ban this fluffybunny and his league trolling ffs

live now on youtube; Classic AB's with ref Conrad Smith wired up



.....and in the centres, who is that, be still my beating heart

heaven1_bEZ7ewJZZPwtjosm4xUhFV.jpg
 

Bullrush

Geoff Shaw (53)
I don't think the ABs are gonna desappear but if they convert into a Top 5 nation would be a disaster. I mean, not even RA has disappeared but now they are a Top 9 nation, that's a pity.

If the NRL launchs a succesful second and even a third club in NZ would be a drain of top athletes. We won't see this in next five years, it's a looong career, maybe from here to 10 or 15 years like the WBs. In term of Wallabies timeline the ABs are now in year 2003, the WBs disaster was consistenly since 2020s or even before. And now you have powerful Northern Hemisphere teams, plus SA and Argentina playing at high level. The World Rugby picture would change in some years, actually it's changing right now

I don't think we are gonna see a 2015 invencibles ABs again. Look at the other power nations: Ireland, France, South Africa and look at the U20s results in the last decade.
The Warriors have been in the NRL since 1995 and after 30 years, Aotearoa doesn't have the base or the talent for a 2nd club. The NRL might be pushing for it but it will need a lot of propping up. To think they will have enough for 3 teams in 10-15 years shows a lack of any real knowledge of Aotearoa.
 
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