Erasmus prefers February start for Rugby Championship, 'no reason' others can't move

Yes Razor has been trying to remove that handicap that most people think is OK for the last two years.

Oh I think most would agree that playing any comp without your best 80 odd players available would be stupid.

And that they’re not stupid!

Some would say retarded😁 but you are right about it being beyond most peoples comprehension. There is definately a % of idiots out there who believe stupid is ok.

And some are revolutionary, beyond most peoples comprehension 😁

Some ideas are just plain stupid. Worse than stupid.

So theres no such thing as a retired All Black? Your’e either an All Black or your not an All Black? Well I can say im proud to be in the same classification as Richie McCaw :D

Well I would change it so that there is.

A 38 man squad for 4 weeks of rugby? lol man you really would make any change to the game impossible wouldn’t you!

Who’s “they”? NZ doesn’t want a global calendar. They want other teams to have a global calendar, like France, so that they can send their test team on tour, but that’s not the same. They don’t really care how France can sort themselves out, they’d just be happy to make it possible. The calendar here is fine, as it was for everybody until COVID, regulations just needed to be brought in so that compls like TOP 14 couldn’t do whatever they wanted to their players.

Unless that’s what you’re saying, it helps NZ by proxy of improving everyone else, but with your idea the north aren’t at their peak now for instance. Irelands test players have had just 1 or 2 games leading into their test against the All Blacks.

RC in Feb provides more international broadcast revenue. Provides extra revenue from being able to do something locally for six weeks in August and September. Saves money on player wages as supposedly the club pays for your test players when you do it the NH way. It allows access to another group of players which means you are better able to evaluate overseas players and bring them back home, capture their International status (so actually I forgot that postive in my other posts, your backline in Feb would actually be Jamison Gibson-Park, Richie Mounga, Lester, Bundee Aki, Pita Ahki, James Lowe, Charles Piutau) and stop them playing against you, and give local loyal players some international experience earlier in their career were it might benefit they play.

There is no such thing as “ an overseas ALL BLACK. of they are overseas they arnt ABs.

Your mentioning Frizzell and Mounga is great but come up with a squad. That’s say 8 props, 3 hookers, 5 locks 6 backrowers 3 half backs, 3 10s 4 centres and 4 back 3.

That will possibly have maybe 15 worthy of being top 10 in the world. The next 8 bench players get it down to perhaps top 15-20 and its drops off the deaper into a 36 man squad that you go.

Lets see France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales to only select from outside there local comp and see how that looks. Then let’s force Arg and SA to only select domestic players.

The idea of playing test rugby without any test players available is rediculas and the concept of forcing only 2 of the top 10 nations to have no domestic rugby going into the RC is as low as it gets.

How does the 6n in June help NZ? It gives them all the global calendar THEY desperately want and gives EVERY nation the same chances to be at their Peak after completing there domestic comps.

What does playing the RC in Feb with no local players do for NZ? I’ll tell you….. NOTHING AT ALL. Absolutely nothing.

It’s the opposite of what you’re suggesting the ABs would be in Feb lol

Let a rogue team play in Feb. In another comment I suggested opening up a window for overseas All Blacks, and combine them with All Blacks that were injured and have had adequate rest and are now raring to go, along with ABs that are on sabbatical (it could be one benefit to allow more to secure sabbaticals and therefor keep the likes of Frizell and Richie who were ineligible when they left). This would make a good nucleolus for the side. So if you let them play during Feb when you say domestic players wouldn’t be peaking, that allows them create a new tournament/money making scheme in august/sept when they are.

To be honest with you until recently, like some years ago when I got interested enough following some NH rugby, I thought the NH were all starting their seasons in November, when we toured. I thought those games were the first few games most top players had for the season.

6N could easily move to June, i’m not sure how that benefits NZ though.

No idea what this “peakng” is you’re referring to but it was this goose Rassie who demanded 440mins of lower level rugby before his players were ready for tests. Yet him and by the sounds of things you, want the ABs and Wallabiee to play test rugby as their first matches back from their break.

Why doesn’t 6n move to June? It’s such a basic concept.

Gregor Paul, Rugby Pass contributor, has published an article in the NZ Herald advocating a move for professional rugby to summer for Australia and NZ. Paul is extremely well connected, knows an enormous amount about the inner workings of the game, and is a Scot based in NZ, so brings a wider and more challenging perspective to rugby reporting in NZ than your standard kiwi bloke.

Like Erasmus, Paul never says things like this because it’s just "his opinion", the only dishonest/inaccurate part of Erasmus's statement. Paul's public advocacy of September to May rugby for NZ and Australia is another volley in the barrage about to descend on them from South Africa and 6N, forcing them to take on summer rugby to prevent their professional game from collapsing.

The Northern dictatorship won't depict their attack as that of course. They will trivialise the forced change of the TRC as a "global alignment" and for the "good of the game", that the shift to summer rugby is "NZ's and Australia's choice". All the usual weasel words used when a major organisation bludgeons some of its participants into place.

Again, despite many contributors delusions about NZ's position in the game [2003 RWC, anyone] let alone Australia's, both will be forced to accept summer rugby by the Northern dictatorship. Paul's is the first of many, many articles trying to pretend summer rugby is anything other than NZ and Australia simply trying to survive.

There will be resistance, bitter and angry, then the impossible will happen.

Excellent idea. Super. Rugby starts in February, no reason international rugby can’t do the same.

For everyone complaining about heat, pick tougher players. Games are played at night anyway.

It’s a brilliant idea. Oz and Argentina are open to this, it’s just that the All Blacks still think they’re calling the shots… Fall in line NZ.

“It would be so much easier if all the teams were aligned, not having some countries flat in (July) and others are peaking in November and we are flat.”

It wouldn’t change that at all. 6N will still be flat in July and SH in Nov.

You’re not going to get rugby in hot places anymore (unless you’re stuck with it like SA etc), there is simply too much rigmarole that WR has brought in, and hour worth of down time.

I wouldn’t be against TRC being hosted in a winter country in Feb though, and different teams competing in Nov and Feb (as in ABXV goes to the NH in Nov). I would love for the NPC to return to a full competition (all players) and reduce the importance on tests.

Even that is not really going to be on at the same time is 6N though, not that Rassie has stated any benefit out of this idea so this point my be irrelevant, but 6N takes two months to get through. It’s not a tournament. Perhaps 6N could move and follow a similar concept? TRC would be over in 4-6 weeks. NZ and Aus would host their games back at home in the winter, so only away for 4 weeks of the tournament for them, SA and Arg would likely play out all their games in the feb march window?

The benefit I can see is SA and Arg players could get a good break before domestic footy starts, another positive is that their players would be more likely to play locally URC or SRA, as clubs wouldn’t want them as much.

I really like the idea, but I think it would be awkward for the Springbok to then have to play a tour series in August-Sept once every four years. They will be at a huge disadvantage in what would be the most important period I’d say.

Pointless article and statements as this just won’t happen. Super Rugby is our feeder comp and without it there are no Wallabies or All Blacks of a reasonable standard. Not to mention all the other points made here about summer etc. Injuries have already ravaged our team and this would mean a massive number more as the grounds are super hard in Feb. Super Rugby not as intense as test footy played in a different way really. So it starts then but the load is shared by 5 squads here in NZ. I don’t see why the calendar needs to be aligned. ‘I see no reason why’