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'Maybe Kearns is the Donald Trump-type character the game needs to unite the masses and Make Rugby Great Again'

By Online Editors
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images,)

Ex-Wallabies prop Ben Alexander says it’s time to stop the blame game and is offering some creative solutions for the state of rugby in Australia.

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The deep-thinking Alexander, who retired from professional rugby in 2018 with 72 Test caps to his credit, penned his thoughts on the game in the online forum Letter.

Alexander says that with global sport at a standstill thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, now is not the time to sack embattled Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle, with Phil Kearns reportedly the favoured replacement.

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“Maybe Kearns is the Donald Trump-type character the game needs to unite the masses and ‘Make Rugby Great Again’. Or will he only further divide the Australian Rugby public?” Alexander wrote.

“But now is not the time for an election, as Raelene Castle and the RA Board have urgent work to do and shouldn’t have to deal with this distraction.”

He likened RA’s financial “over-reliance” on their broadcast deal with Foxtel to the western economy’s dependence on China for cheap manufacturing including face masks and pharmaceuticals.

With a growing number of customers consuming content via the internet and deserting pay-TV Alexander said depending on an external broadcast partner was like having “tea and scones in the first-class cabin of the Titanic” and backed Castle’s call to test the open market.

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The former Brumbies forward believes RA should consider a streaming model that cuts out the middle-man, similar to the NBA’s subscription-based League Pass.

“While I’m totally clueless as to the costs involved to set something like this up, could Australian Rugby start its own streaming service, maintaining the bulk of the profits, and have rugby fans from all around the world, pay a monthly subscription to get all the great Aussie rugby content?”

Alexander said he recognised that grassroots rugby people were “fed up” with money being spent on the professional game in Australia without yielding results in the form of trophies.

Pointing to the strong and wealthy English and French domestic competitions, he pondered whether the large travel costs of Super Rugby provided value for money, in terms of breeding successful Wallabies.

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“Could we place a greater emphasis on domestic competition, while introducing a new international competition, where the travel costs are at a manageable level, and games are played in ‘Aussie fan-friendly’ timezones?” Alexander said.

– AAP

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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 10 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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