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Code-hopper Hunt: 'Trans-Tasman comp would be just like the Warriors in league'

By AAP
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Wallabies and NSW Waratahs veteran Karmichael Hunt says a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition makes the most sense and he’d love to be a part of it next year. Senior rugby in Australia is set to resume in early July with a largely domestic competition replacing the five-nation Super Rugby tournament which was suspended in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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SANZAAR’s administrators have decided to return to the original round-robin format for the five-nation tournament in 2021, but it’s believed that could still change.

“It makes more sense for me that we have got a trans-Tasman competition,” said Hunt, who has been at the Waratahs since 2018. “It’s just like the Warriors in rugby league, they get the benefit of playing the top Aussie teams every weekend as well and that’s done the game in New Zealand wonders.

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“You always want to play the best teams to make sure that you are always around the mark and know where you are in relation to your competition. 

“That makes the most sense from my perspective in terms of furthering the game and growing the game here from a competitive level, but whether or not that’s financially viable is beyond me. But it sounds like it would make a lot more sense than playing South African teams and Argentine teams.”

Code-hopper Hunt, who is 33 and in his 17th year of professional sport, isn’t contemplating retiring after this season. “I’ve always been dictated to by how I’m feeling mentally, how I’m feeling physically, but most importantly what my footy form is telling me,” Hunt said. “I’m getting no indications that I want to stop playing, for me, I want to keep pushing on.”

While uncertainty surrounds rugby’s financial state for 2021, former Brisbane, Queensland and Kangaroos star Hunt isn’t contemplating a return to the 13-man code. “Personally it’s never been about just money. It’s about meaning first and foremost and about the challenge,” he said.

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“We don’t know what it’s going to look like here in Australia, but if I have a crystal ball it will be that we have a (Super Rugby) competition here next year and that I was able to stay and continue to lead these guys (the Waratahs).”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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