Rugby News from unexpected places

[WorkingClassRugger]

Good to see that Germany (17-28 loss to Georgia) and Poland (8-20 loss to Romania) were both competitive as well. Seems like the tier 3 European countries are on the rise and that augurs well for the 24 team world cup.

Yeah some really big improvements all round. Last year Germany got belted 75-12 by Georgia so this result is a big turnaround. And Romania beat Poland 67-27. Good progress but we have to see if it's sustained.

I know WR (World Rugby) helps the likes of Chile and Uruguay with providing resources to run full time HP environments. They need to do something similar in Europe. Get these nations to contract the bulk of their domestic national teams. Expand on the Super Cup and I think we'll see some significant progress

 

[Omar Comin']

I know WR (World Rugby) (World Rugby) helps the likes of Chile and Uruguay with providing resources to run full time HP environments. They need to do something similar in Europe. Get these nations to contract the bulk of their domestic national teams. Expand on the Super Cup and I think we'll see some significant progress

Yeah that seems to be a pretty good model for getting teams up to a solid tier 2 level. It'd be interesting to see if the 6 nations unions become a little more open to expansion if a few more of these sides consistently get to say Georgia's level of the last 10 years or so (i.e. clearly at a level comparable to Italy). Especially if Germany were to get to this point.

 

[Rebel man]

Yeah that seems to be a pretty good model for getting teams up to a solid tier 2 level. It'd be interesting to see if the 6 nations unions become a little more open to expansion if a few more of these sides consistently get to say Georgia's level of the last 10 years or so (i.e. clearly at a level comparable to Italy). Especially if Germany were to get to this point.

100% they would. If nations like Germany, Spain and Portugal could compete with Italy they would be open to expansion

 

[Highlander35]

The commercial difference between a trip to Rome and a trip to Tblisi is 90%+ of the reason why the 6 Nations is a closed shop.

Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Germany are much more interesting for both your corporate types and being able to get cheap short haul flights.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Yeah that seems to be a pretty good model for getting teams up to a solid tier 2 level. It'd be interesting to see if the 6 nations unions become a little more open to expansion if a few more of these sides consistently get to say Georgia's level of the last 10 years or so (i.e. clearly at a level comparable to Italy). Especially if Germany were to get to this point.

From my perspective WR (World Rugby) should be really targeting Europe as it's biggest market. It makes sense to look to build the number of teams that can offer competitive games. Europe and the Americas are the two most important growth regions for the game in terms of competitiveness overall. Would be awesome to have a RWC where the majority of nations don't speak English as a first or second language.

I think something that could be done now and would help in generating the revenue in order to run such centralized programs would be to have the respective T1 Unions to run as many of the A programs as possible against these nations. Aus A, Moari ABs/NZ XV, Irish Wolfhounds, Saxons etc. Spain drew over 40k for a bunch of retired ABs a few years back. Around 20k for Argentina leading into the RWC. Games like that could be more regular if done right.

 

[Rebel man]

From my perspective WR (World Rugby) (World Rugby) should be really targeting Europe as it's biggest market. It makes sense to look to build the number of teams that can offer competitive games. Europe and the Americas are the two most important growth regions for the game in terms of competitiveness overall. Would be awesome to have a RWC where the majority of nations don't speak English as a first or second language.

I think something that could be done now and would help in generating the revenue in order to run such centralized programs would be to have the respective T1 Unions to run as many of the A programs as possible against these nations. Aus A, Moari ABs/NZ XV, Irish Wolfhounds, Saxons etc. Spain drew over 40k for a bunch of retired ABs a few years back. Around 20k for Argentina leading into the RWC. Games like that could be more regular if done right.

If Aus is running Aus A to try and help out world rugby then world rugby better fund it or we will end up with A teams touring here.

But outside of that I love the idea.

 

[Omar Comin']

From my perspective WR (World Rugby) (World Rugby) should be really targeting Europe as it's biggest market. It makes sense to look to build the number of teams that can offer competitive games. Europe and the Americas are the two most important growth regions for the game in terms of competitiveness overall. Would be awesome to have a RWC where the majority of nations don't speak English as a first or second language.

I think something that could be done now and would help in generating the revenue in order to run such centralized programs would be to have the respective T1 Unions to run as many of the A programs as possible against these nations. Aus A, Moari ABs/NZ XV, Irish Wolfhounds, Saxons etc. Spain drew over 40k for a bunch of retired ABs a few years back. Around 20k for Argentina leading into the RWC. Games like that could be more regular if done right.

That would be great, I'd love it if Australia A played half a dozen matches each year.

If the goal for World Rugby is to build the number of competitive teams, I'd think Africa would have a lot of potential. They'd be able to do a lot more with every $ there. You'd think it would be pretty achievable to build up the likes of Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda to be much more competitive. I'd also target Morocco and Algeria given their populations, proximity to Europe and large diasporas in France.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

Aus A should be in a pac nations tourney against USA, Canada, Tonga, Samoa and Uruguay.
Can send NZ MĀORI anywhere and they will draw a crowd. Tours v Germany etc could be good

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Netflix Korea will be producing a series on Rugby called 'The Strongest Rugby : Win or Die' which seems a bit dramatic for a title but apparently it will be in the same format as similarly titled Soccer and Baseball version. There's also a K-Drama being developed with the game as it's backdrop. Not sure what either will be like but it should good publicity for the game in Korea.

 

[LeCheese]

'The Strongest Rugby : Win or Die'

You can’t convince me that it won’t be a rugby themed Squid Game

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

You can’t convince me that it won’t be a rugby themed Squid Game

Hey, if it gets even half as popular as Squid Game then I'd call it a huge success.

 

[Dctarget]

Hey, if it gets even half as popular as Squid Game then I'd call it a huge success.

I'd say 5% as popular and I'd call it a huge success

 

[Omar Comin']

Netflix Korea will be producing a series on Rugby called 'The Strongest Rugby : Win or Die' which seems a bit dramatic for a title but apparently it will be in the same format as similarly titled Soccer and Baseball version. There's also a K-Drama being developed with the game as it's backdrop. Not sure what either will be like but it should good publicity for the game in Korea.

Do you think Korea have any chance of beating Hong Kong in the 2027 world cup qualifiers? I've heard Asia will have a direct qualifying spot, which is understandable, but you'd hope Asian rugby can develop a few more competitive teams. Hong Kong were well beaten by Portugal and the USA in the final repechage tournament for 2023, and it seems like there's a bit of a gap between them and Korea, and then daylight to anyone else. Not sure if the likes of Malaysia, UAE, China, Sri Lanka etc have any realistic path to catch up?

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Do you think Korea have any chance of beating Hong Kong in the 2027 world cup qualifiers? I've heard Asia will have a direct qualifying spot, which is understandable, but you'd hope Asian rugby can develop a few more competitive teams. Hong Kong were well beaten by Portugal and the USA in the final repechage tournament for 2023, and it seems like there's a bit of a gap between them and Korea, and then daylight to anyone else. Not sure if the likes of Malaysia, UAE, China, Sri Lanka etc have any realistic path to catch up?

If Asia gets a spot then it's Hong Kong's to lose. Very little question about it in my mind. Korea are the only team likely to compete but would require a massive improvement on last season to do it. Which I don't see coming at least before 2027 qualifying comes round. What is needed for other nations including Korea to improve is something akin to Super Rugby Americas. Which has tentatively been announced as in the works. To be known as the Asian Rugby Grand League Was supposed to be launched this year but had to be put back until next year for undisclosed reasons. Which would be money. But if they can make it work that would be the best path forward. An alternative at least for Korea and perhaps even Hong Kong could be looking to enter a team in the 3rd Div of the Japanese competitions and look to work their way up. I know Hyundai Glovis have seriously looked at doing just that in the past and the Japanese Union were at least willing to entertain it. Hong Kong has also openly spoken about looking at something similar.

 

[Omar Comin']

If Asia gets a spot then it's Hong Kong's to lose. Very little question about it in my mind. Korea are the only team likely to compete but would require a massive improvement on last season to do it. Which I don't see coming at least before 2027 qualifying comes round. What is needed for other nations including Korea to improve is something akin to Super Rugby Americas. Which has tentatively been announced as in the works. To be known as the Asian Rugby Grand League Was supposed to be launched this year but had to be put back until next year for undisclosed reasons. Which would be money. But if they can make it work that would be the best path forward. An alternative at least for Korea and perhaps even Hong Kong could be looking to enter a team in the 3rd Div of the Japanese competitions and look to work their way up. I know Hyundai Glovis have seriously looked at doing just that in the past and the Japanese Union were at least willing to entertain it. Hong Kong has also openly spoken about looking at something similar.

I'm a little sceptical about the viability of an Asian Grand League given the distances, but HK and South Korea entering the Japanese league system could work. The HK union make a lot of money from the sevens so could probably fund a professional 15's team. Even if Japan is not an immediate option I hope they can essentially professionalise their national team for a couple of years leading up to the world cup so they're not losing by 100. I imagine they wouldn't find it too difficult to line up say 20 games a year against appropriate opposition.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I'm a little sceptical about the viability of an Asian Grand League given the distances, but HK and South Korea entering the Japanese league system could work. The HK union make a lot of money from the sevens so could probably fund a professional 15's team. Even if Japan is not an immediate option I hope they can essentially professionalise their national team for a couple of years leading up to the world cup so they're not losing by 100. I imagine they wouldn't find it too difficult to line up say 20 games a year against appropriate opposition.

The first edition is supposed to feature a team from Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia. So sort of more East/South East Asia oriented. Personally, if they are looking at expanding the competitive opportunities in Asia then they should look to expand the Asian Rugby Championship to 6 or so nations and run it home and away. This might allow these nations to professionalise a core group of players in each of the nations. WR (World Rugby) seems to be intent on giving Asia the slot. To the displeasure of the likes of South America who do make a compelling argument that the Americas should get an extra spot due to the overall level of competitiveness. So if they do then they probably should look at providing assistance in getting something more robust up and going.

On the Korean Netflix show. It's rumoured that it will be in a similar format to that of a Baseball themed show called 'A Clean Sweep' where they form a team and have them compete. Though there's a suggestion that it might involve forming a mini-league. Will be interesting to see how it shapes up.