Rugby’s club bid looking doomed
RUGBY Australia have begun formulating a plan to ditch their Super Rugby feeder competition, the National Rugby Championship, to install a Champions League-inspired national club tournament.
Australians are poised to see more club rugby on our television screens than ever before. That sounds like a good thing, right?
The preliminary concept revealed by News Corp will see the Premier Rugby clubs of Queensland and the Shute Shield clubs of Sydney merge into a two-division tournament to follow the regular 2021 club season.
The plan is for certain club matches to be shown on freeto-air TV as part of the sport’s “Whole of Rugby” broadcast package that goes to market this week.
Bond University have been pencilled in to the lower of the two divisions after finishing fifth in last year’s Premier Rugby campaign.
Again, this all sounds like good news.
Bond players hunting for the exposure to springboard their club form into professional careers will benefit from the spotlight such a competition would provide.
But that is also where the concept falls down, because the majority of players in this second division don’t fall into that category.
They’re electricians, apprentices, office workers and – unsurprisingly from a university club – students, playing for the love of the game.
Critically, they are amateur players at clubs staffed by volunteers.
Who is expected to stump up the cash for a squad of 23 players, coaches and support staff, to overnight in Sydney every other weekend as their real lives and sources of income are placed on hold?
A national club competition is a rugby fan’s dream but a logistic nightmare that could scuttle the concept before it ever gets off the ground.
CRITICALLY, THEY ARE AMATEUR PLAYERS AT CLUBS STAFFED BY VOLUNTEERS