1
Please stop throwing good money at the Rebels
I doubt many people would lament the passing of the Melbourne Rebels.
Certainly not anyone who regards professional sport as the survival of the fittest.
Be it on the park or off, sports teams need to pull their weight. If it proves the Rebels can’t be financially sustained beyond 2024, then so be it.
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Rugby has been a hard sell in Melbourne.
I keep hearing it’s one of the great sports cities of the world and Victorians would turn up in their droves to watch a game of marbles or two flies crawl up the wall.
The success, or otherwise, of Super Rugby Pacific’s annual Super Round at AAMI Park would probably give lie to that theory.
Australia has too many Super Rugby franchises, from a high-performance perspective.
Yes, having a team in Melbourne, along with the Perth-based Western Force, broadens rugby’s footprint in the country and exposes more players to professional footy.
But, as I’ve argued before, fans don’t want to watch development competitions. They want to see the best of the best, not youngsters on the way up with a few stars reluctantly having a game between rest weeks and sabbaticals.
Super Rugby enthusiasts yearn for the competition of yesteryear, when Australia had just the Brumbies, Waratahs and Reds and regularly contested the playoff places.
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Three franchises didn’t hurt the Wallabies, either. Far from it in fact.
That model built elite teams and combinations that proved similarly effective on the international stage.
I’m not sure five similarly inept Australian franchises has done much to help or enthuse anyone.
The Melbourne Storm rugby league franchise worked in that city because they’re winners.
Yes, it was the beneficiary of a merger between the old Australian Rugby League competition and Super League, which meant players from suddenly-defunct clubs were going spare back in 1998, but it was titles that earned the Storm a fanbase.
The Storm won the NRL competition in just its second season and have been consistently excellent for much of the time since, notwithstanding salary cap indiscretions.
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The team isn’t wildly popular – Melbourne being an AFL town and all – but fans know the Storm’s best players will take the park most weeks and the team contest the playoffs every year.
The Rebels, in comparison, have lacked an identity, stars or success and fans have voted accordingly.
At some point you have to stop throwing money at a concept that isn’t working.
The loss of a team probably wouldn’t augur well for Super Rugby Pacific as a whole. But, then again, the model’s not really working anyway.
If 2024 does mark the end of the Rebels, I hope that provides the impetus for administrators to make some hard decisions about the future of the competition.
Will guys simply become full-time All Blacks or Wallabies one day? Should Super Rugby be a semi-professional development tool to replace our outdated and unloved NPC?
Do we adopt a model where international rugby is the vehicle for the professional game and players play tests across the globe for 10 months of the year?
Maybe our franchises become based in Europe and play in their league and cup competitions, if tests aren’t deemed the way forward?
Everything has to be looked at, as we face the inconvenient truth that Super Rugby Pacific cannot pay its way.
Comments on RugbyPass
Grt bench player..keep him there..
3 Go to commentsA Springbok 2-0 win: haha told you we were champions now shut up An Irish 2-0 win: the referee was under orders from world rugby to cheat us but luckily we don’t care because this is part of Rassie’s grand world Cup plan.
103 Go to commentsI hope they didn’t pay Jones fee?
2 Go to commentsTo be fair, the teams he's had to put out are reminiscent of those available to Gatland during his horrible run at the Chiefs in late 2020. Anyway, he's only got a two year contract and Wellingtonian Tamati Ellison will be ready by then, as will a lot of talented youngsters (like the Chiefs Gatland blooded). The Crusaders are planning for the long term.
5 Go to commentsGreat to see more community spending leading to higher participation in the community. It's a long road but that's a good first step.
2 Go to commentsPoetic justice for trying to sell him to Australia as another kiwi saviour coach, not ! Deans was just as bad actually but McCaw and Carter covered up for him. That’s why they didn’t want him as All Black coach, even after Graeme Henry’s bumbling effort in 2007.
5 Go to commentsSACK HIM !
5 Go to commentsSafas are so triggered by Ireland. 3 consecutive losses, incl RWC. 8 losses out of last 12 Tests. Always excuses, of course, with Bok fans. Now Rassie with his “88%” nonsense, the Claytons Excuse is an embarrassment to Bok teams of the past when every test mattered. Their fickle mojo will be on edge for the Ireland tour. Have the referees been appointed yet ? They will need security. Have WR laid out strict guidelines for TMO’s and replays on the stadium screens ? Will the constant stoppages from Bok forwards for cramps and bootlaces be tolerated ? We’re not talking a dominant Springbok team here, they won the LOTTO Cup and they know it whether they admit it or not. The Disney doco has their fans positively fermenting internally, its going to be a nasty hangover if they get beaten on home soil. What will the excuses be then……
103 Go to commentsGreat role model.
2 Go to commentsOne significant tell, not a single Waratahs player stopped to whinge to the ref about Finau’s tackle. They got on with playing the game. Great tackle.
8 Go to commentsWouldn’t be a bad move if Ireland pulled into SA with a young side. Particularly in Pretoria. Invaluable experience getting thumped in the bosveld.
103 Go to commentsIreland. The Princess Diana of Rugby. I never cheered so much for a team as i did for the All Blacks in that QF.
103 Go to commentsWill be great to see the Leinster first XV back in action again after their cotton wool time…
1 Go to commentsLooked up Grant Constable on google and reply was doppelgänger for Ben Smith
103 Go to commentsIt is so good that we now all get excited and debate who is best and emotionally get involved. We all back our teams which is great. Up until about 15-20 years ago, NZ was basically on its own, and then Saffa, Aussie and sometimes French and English were there. We now have at least 5-6 really top sides and another 4 who keep improving. This is so healthy. So we should not resort to rubbish comments and unhealthy debate, but rather all be chuffed that the product we watch is not competitive, exciting and often uncertain. It would be so good if World Rugger could find a way to align the rules to professional players as well as spectators. Live rugby games are SO boring as there is SO much down time as we wait for refs and TMOs and whoever else to look at every small event going back endless phases with the hope of eventually find a minute infringement to then decide cancel what was a wonderful try. This is the ultimate cork back in the bottle moment and feels like every balloon is always being popped. Come on- we must be better with the rules.
103 Go to comments“upon leaving said establishment I tripped over a stool knocking some bottles into the air and as I fell I accidently dislodged a police officer’s teaser who was passing by on an unrelated matter there by landing on said taser which caused it to discharge 50,000 watts into me. Out of shock I shouted Ireland are going to win the world cup. Upon waking up I apologised for the distress caused by my Ireland comment. The matter is closed. If you wish to pursue this matter may I remind you what I told Wayne Barnes when he sent me off. I AM A BIG ASS MAN”. Or was it “I AM A BIG ASS, MAN” or was it “I AM A BIG ASSMAN”?
2 Go to commentsThe only championship the Boks hold are: Great value for the incompetence of referees during the RWC Moaning endlessly and champions of spewing utterly ignorant 💩 at all times. Displaying the dangers of a third world education End of.
103 Go to commentsSouth Africa and Rassie do a phenomenal job of treating the 4 years in between World Cups as nothing more than a training exercise to build squad depth. The Six Nations money that keeps Irish rugby afloat is unfortunately too important to allow the same approach, and basic population size means we'll never get close to matching the depth of South Africa, England and France. That being said, Irish rugby is in a relatively good place and slowly improving inch by inch. If the other three provinces can pull the finger out and actually develop some players it'd be even better.
103 Go to commentsGood on Clarke for taking on the criticism and addressing his deficiencies, principally his laziness.
3 Go to comments“It is the people’s favourite against the actual favourite. It is the people’s champions against the actual champions. I’m joking, but it’s going to be a fantastic series.” Why did Darcy make that joke knowing it would be used as click bait? Why did RP headline it as a serious comment? Anyway, the tired comment isn’t very astute. SA players may have played more games etc. Darcy over estimated as a pundit.
103 Go to comments