The Rugby Union thread

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

France and UK not supposed to be the best teams?... lol...

[zolayes 14,489]

Final 31 Oct Australia v New Zealand ..

I hope you all got your bets on this

[Fulham Broadway 16,915]

Jonah Lomu. What a shame, only 40.

Possibly the greatest, definitely winger to have graced the game. His speed, deft turns, and strength, unparalleled.

[KEVINAA 105]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_World_Rugby_U20_Championship

2024 World Rugby U20 Championship

https://www.world.rugby/tournaments/u20/championship

The 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship will be the 14th edition of the premier age-grade rugby union competition. The tournament will be hosted in South Africa for the third time, previously being held in 2012 and 2023.

The World Rugby U20 Championship 2024 will take place in South Africa from 29 June to 19 July 2024.

Played over five match days in the Western Cape regions of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, the U20 Championship features the 12 best U20 nations in the world competing for the world title.

The 12 countries in alphabetical order.

ARGENTINA

AUSTRALIA

ENGLAND

FIJI

FRANCE

GEORGIA

IRELAND

ITALY

NEW ZEALAND

SOUTH AFRICA

SPAIN

WALES

Edited June 24 by KEVINAA

[Vesper 28,993]

‘People have lost connection to rugby’ – New Zealand’s identity crisis

https://www.thetimes.com/sport/rugby-union/article/inside-new-zealand-rugby-identity-crisis-r3qgmx5w2

 

here are many clichés about New Zealand and its love for rugby that are simply untrue. The grandmothers who are supposedly ready to heckle Marcus Smith about his Test goal-kicking percentage are yet to appear in Dunedin.

Yet where else would you earwig a lunchtime conversation between four sixtysomethings bemoaning the state of rugby union in Australia over a pint of Speight’s? One of the ladies, sitting in the Dunedin Social Club in the centre of town, concludes: “It’s just sad, eh?”

The sadder truth is that New Zealand is wrestling with its own identity as a rugby nation.

I have travelled this rapidly evolving country over the past fortnight, from the major cities on both islands to the farms of Taranaki and down to the frosty south in Otago.

It has been a journey into the soul of New Zealand rugby that has revealed huge challenges for the future, from how the sport is governed to how All Blacks are created and how to keep a diversifying population engaged in their No1 sport.

Even the great Richie McCaw, who lifted two World Cups as All Blacks captain, is a little apprehensive. “If you sit here and think you don’t need to worry about it, or take it for granted, then it will change,” he says.

If the Kiwis are concerned about their rugby future, then so should the entire game be. Rugby globally cannot afford to watch New Zealand shrivel.

A player exodus and the failure of Super Rugby

New Zealand has a rugby version of the American dream; that a boy running around barefoot in the farmyard or from a down-at-heel inner-city family can one day become an All Black.

That holds true when you look at New Zealand legends like McCaw, the farmer’s son from Kurow in Canterbury (population 390) or Jonah Lomu, born in Pukekohe near Auckland to Tongan immigrant parents. That perfectly grooved pathway, which has created the most consistently dominant rugby nation, is now riddled with potholes.

New Zealand is one of two rugby union-playing countries, along with Australia, that face a genuine threat from rugby league. NRL is booming over the Tasman Sea and the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland are suddenly the hot ticket in the country’s biggest city, selling out the Mt Smart Stadium weeks in advance despite sitting 14th in the 17-team division. Plans for a second Kiwi rugby league franchise, to be based in Christchurch, are also afoot as kids cross codes.

By contrast, Super Rugby, once seen as the world’s pre-eminent club competition, is now a shadow of its former self. The competition lost its lustre when the format became unwieldy with the addition of teams from Argentina and Japan, and then contracted again. It now goes by the title of Super Rugby Pacific and last season was made up of 12 teams (five from New Zealand, who invariably dominate the standings, and five from Australia, plus the Pacific Island sides Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika). The Melbourne Rebels are set to drop out next season after entering administration.

The South African teams departed Super Rugby for the United Rugby Championship in 2021. That may have saved New Zealand Rugby (NZR) from going bankrupt, as travel costs made it “the most expensive club competition to run in the world,” according to the organisation’s chief executive Mark Robinson.

But that exit has left the competition poorer for developing All Blacks because they no longer have regular exposure to the South African style of rugby. Incoming, long-form tours between South Africa and New Zealand from 2026 will reduce the effects of that loss.

New Zealand’s teams are now too strong for Super Rugby, so crowd numbers are down. The first Super Rugby Pacific chief executive, Jack Mesley, appointed this year, thinks some Kiwis could play for Australian teams to redress competitive balance.

It is not all negative. New Zealand television numbers rose 18 per cent from 2023 to 2024, helped by the Blues winning an all-Kiwi final against the Chiefs at a sold-out Eden Park last month.

However, New Zealand’s top players are being lured away by euros and yen, with the pull of the black jersey no longer enough to keep them at home. Ardie Savea, the No8 and 2023 world player of the year, wants to play club rugby in Japan and for the All Blacks, an arrangement which is not currently permitted.

The two most recent All Black head coaches, Ian Foster and Steve Hansen, are against opening the doors, arguing it would invite an exodus. “If you take those guys out, who do the ones left learn from?” Hansen says.

This is Foster: “If we don’t protect our local competition that produces the All Blacks, we’re in trouble.”

NZR may revisit that policy in time. The union is trying to revamp the Under-20s side, who used to dominate the junior World Cup yet have not won one since 2017 as France plot a fourth consecutive title this month.

Having sold a commercial stake to American private equity firm Silver Lake to help boost revenues, NZR is examining many of its old structures. New Zealand are too small to sustain the All Black brand, so they are looking to new markets.

The union has launched a new streaming platform NZ+, where it will market and sell exclusive content. After the England series, the All Blacks will play Fiji in San Diego.

 

“We have got 130 years of history with the All Blacks, who are deeply connected to New Zealand, but we know that to be able to drive more revenue and create a fanbase we need to have a footprint overseas,” Robinson, who won nine All Black caps in the 2000s, says over coffee in Dunedin.

For all this global thinking, there are fundamental local issues which cut right to the heart of New Zealand as a nation and a centre of world-class rugby.

How rugby was Americanised and the grassroots game withered

Martin Dravitzki is teacher and rugby coach at Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, Taranaki. His school has produced six All Blacks: John Mitchell, Conrad Smith, Liam Coltman and the Barrett boys Beauden, Scott and Jordie.

Dravitzki is concerned that societal change, from shifting demographics to the rise of the smartphone, is damaging his community’s relationship with their sport. “People have lost their connection to rugby,” he says, looking over the playing fields.

“The Barretts are the example of the old way, that idea that you can grow up in Pungarehu kicking a ball around and then be an All Black scoring tries in the Stade de France.

“There were groups of kids like Conrad who’d play on the street — cricket, rugby, whatever, and competed hard. I don’t think that happens now. Most families don’t have five or six kids, maybe one or two. Culture is changing.”

Demographic and economic realities bite too. A cost-of-living crisis has many Kiwis moving to Australia and Europe for work. New Zealand is not the largely white country it was. Twenty-three per cent of Aucklanders are of Asian ethnicity, a continent with comparatively little rugby heritage.

NZR says that participation numbers are up by seven per cent from last year to around 150,000 rugby players, back to pre-Covid levels, although many suspect the rise of female participation masks a fall in male players. Junior figures, though, remain strong and New Zealand produces coaches for the world like no other nation.

The All Black dream still exists but there are concerns that the professional game, with more central investment in the franchises, is having a damaging impact on community rugby.

Up the hill from Francis Douglas, at Yarrow Stadium where construction workers are banging away revamping the old Rugby Park, is Neil Barnes, the coach of the National Provincial Championship (NPC) side Taranaki Bulls.

Barnes was the head coach Kieran Crowley’s right-hand man with Italy; the sharp-tongued Kiwi farmer who had a cameo on the Netflix series Six Nations: Full Contact. Barnes is 66 and has worked across every level of New Zealand rugby, as well as with Italy, Fiji and Canada.

 

He thinks that selling kids unachievable goals creates issues for the grassroots game, which is becoming “thinner and thinner” as kids either stop playing sport or are attracted to others like basketball and rugby league.

High-school players have agents and scouts can turn up at primary school fields digging for talented 12-year-olds. The big Auckland schools have been dogged by player-poaching stories. It is all too serious and too early for some, to the point where top-flight school rugby is no longer broadcast live on television to protect child athletes from scrutiny, fame and pressure.

Some worry that rugby in New Zealand is following American sports, where there is precious little organised amateur sport after college.

“You’re either good enough to play professionally or you watch. You don’t play for fun,” Dravitzki explains. “You hear about the ones that make it, but a lot of others are gone at the age of 23, 24.”

 

“When you’re ruining people’s dreams at that age, it’s like: ‘Holy shit, they should be playing for 10-15 more years,’” Barnes says. “There are lot of people that are so desperate to make it they lose the love of the game.”

This is reflected in a winding down of the NPC — the step below Super Rugby, where all the All Blacks used to come from. NZR views it as a “development competition” now.

There is a power struggle here about governance, funding, control and influence. The provincial unions are concerned the NZR bosses do not have their traditional interests at heart, and those at the top do not want to be dictated to by the regions when they are trying to run a multi-million dollar business. They are trying to modernise after an investigation last year labelled the body as “not fit for purpose in the modern era”.

Hansen says governance reform is the key to every door. “That’s the first thing we’ve got to sort out, stop the internal bickering in the game,” he says.

“The people at the top are not doing it to harm,” Barnes reflects. “But they don’t understand the implications of what they’re doing.”

Barnes sees rugby clubs as the heart of small communities around the two main islands; the start of the pathway. Yet running a rugby club now just comes with problems and no social status.

Volunteers are hard to come by. The government’s policies — on betting regulations and alcohol prices — have had unintended consequences. Together regional pubs and rugby clubs are dwindling.

Many like Barnes want All Blacks to return home in one Super Rugby bye week to help revitalise clubs. Informally, Beauden Barrett turned out for Coastal in Rahotu last month and Savea played for Oriental Rongotai in Wellington.

Barnes feels revamping those small-town connections to the All Blacks would pour Miracle-Gro on the grassroots, educate aspiring coaches and inspire kids.

“That would create so much energy,” Barnes says. “If you only see your stars on television, where do you watch your sport? At home on TV.”

His point is, if all these traditions die, does the country as he knows it follow? Yet does this country, and system, really exist anymore?

With all this, the parallels between New Zealand and Wales are uncanny. NZR figures hate that comparison.

They are quick to state that their women’s side are world champions from 2022, the All Blacks lost the 2023 World Cup final by a point to South Africa after wins in 2011 and 2015, and their female and male sevens teams have gold and silver Olympic medals respectively to defend in Paris this summer. These are hardly Welsh levels of global success.

“We don’t fundamentally believe that the game’s all broken here,” Robinson says. “Sometimes the narrative externally doesn’t always reflect the truth. There is an inherent tension between legacy and history versus the future and the evolution of the sport.”

The Kiwis have not totally lost their swagger. One former NZR employee says: “Our skill level is world-class compared to the UK and Australia. We are still an amazing factory of young players, and always will be.”

Dravitzki, back in Taranaki, counters that view. “I think they’re dreaming,” he sighs.

New Zealanders, whether Maori or Pakeha (people of European descent), are still imbued with the pioneering spirit of their forefathers. “We’re really fortunate that rugby was at the centre of that 150 years ago and that still resonates strongly despite what anyone says,” Robinson says.

But he understands that change is paramount if they are to stay on top.

Hearteningly, despite all the challenges the country faces, New Zealand’s love of the All Blacks is undiminished. Rugby posts still sprout up around this staggeringly beautiful country and the supermarket checkout lady still asks if you are going to the game. It is comforting that some clichés remain true.