Are we at the stage yet when ideas for significant structural change for rugby are put on the table without prejudice?

Some would argue we are already past that point: the Rebels’ financial distress, Rugby Australia operating with an $80 million credit facility on an 10-per-cent-plus interest rate, the Wallabies dropping to No.9 in the world, and players in their peak years willingly walking away from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play against the British and Irish Lions next year.

That’s only a brief summation of the game’s issues, and it’s why when you speak to those involved in the game, the chat has sadly long ceased to be about Player X’s form or why he is better suited to Position Y, but what the game is going to look like in five or 10 years, if indeed there is a game at all.

Make no mistake, the spirited debates that play out on online forums are mirrored in the conversations that play out behind closed doors, and it is in that context that one insider, who works across both rugby and rugby league, had a yarn to this masthead this week.

An insider is probably a woefully inadequate description as well – more like a Wallabies tragic as well with grave fears for the game.

His proposition, in short, was this: get rugby out of the NRL’s massive shadow, align the calendar with the northern hemisphere (as South Africa have already done with significant success), and find a window where rugby isn’t being beaten up each week by league and the AFL.

Super Rugby struggles to escape the gigantic shadow cast by the NRL and AFL.Credit: Getty

Yes, that would mean a move to the summer months, or more specifically from September through to May.

Well, professional rugby at least: the Shute Shield and the Hospital Cup would be in the community window from April to August.

QOSHE - Rugby will be a winter sport forever - or will it? - Paul Cully
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Rugby will be a winter sport forever - or will it?

36 1
29.03.2024

Are we at the stage yet when ideas for significant structural change for rugby are put on the table without prejudice?

Some would argue we are already past that point: the Rebels’ financial distress, Rugby Australia operating with an $80 million credit facility on an 10-per-cent-plus interest rate, the Wallabies dropping to No.9 in the world, and players in their peak years willingly walking away from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity........

© The Sydney Morning Herald


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