Its Time to Bring Back Global Rapid Rugby

Over the last couple of years. I have been critical of anyone spending - or suggesting how to spend Dr. Andrew Forrest's (bless him) money.

I am about to break my own rule. SO, feel free to criticize me.

With the demise of the NRC. There is an opportunity for WA Rugby to leap ahead of our East Coast counterparts.

Here is my plan.

A Perth-based team in GRR. The team to only be filled with 18-24-year-olds who are WA born/WA-developed players.

Teams from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China, and maybe Hawaii.

Coached by Richard Kahui, Jeremy Thrush, and Greg Holmes.

At the moment the best our upcoming Rugby Players can hope for FMG Premier Grade. With perhaps a shift to Shute Shield or Hospital Cup. Let us be honest this is not the best stepping stone to Super Rugby or International Caps.

By establishing this competition, it will give our best juniors exposure to International travel, hotels, language, and touring, along with different players, teams, and tactics. With our new coaching team, they have the opportunity of learning from some of the best players with a huge amount of experience.

This will produce a group of players that will be the core of the next generation of Western Force. And give us a huge advantage over our opposition.

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Originally Posted by .X.

Over the last couple of years. I have been critical of anyone spending - or suggesting how to spend Dr. Andrew Forrest's (bless him) money.

I am about to break my own rule. SO, feel free to criticize me.

With the demise of the NRC. There is an opportunity for WA Rugby to leap ahead of our East Coast counterparts.

Here is my plan.

A Perth-based team in GRR. The team to only be filled with 18-24-year-olds who are WA born/WA-developed players.

Teams from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China, and maybe Hawaii.

Coached by Richard Kahui, Jeremy Thrush, and Greg Holmes.

At the moment the best our upcoming Rugby Players can hope for FMG Premier Grade. With perhaps a shift to Shute Shield or Hospital Cup. Let us be honest this is not the best stepping stone to Super Rugby or International Caps.

By establishing this competition, it will give our best juniors exposure to International travel, hotels, language, and touring, along with different players, teams, and tactics. With our new coaching team, they have the opportunity of learning from some of the best players with a huge amount of experience.

This will produce a group of players that will be the core of the next generation of Western Force. And give us a huge advantage over our opposition.

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I agree.
I think this would be the perfect opportunity for the Western Force Maali side to help with the player pathway through to the full Force Super Rugby squad.

GRR always seemed to be the perfect space to help further develop the next tier of WA talent while also trying to expand the game into Asia. The hardest task will be finding a window in the calendar that works well for both Force (mainly around player release) and the Asian sides (player availability, avoiding extreme weather, broadcaster interest etc).

i would think that you would need two teams, you cannot leave the force players out, as they need to continue to get better. so split the force squad into two, and make up the numbers with the next stream of West Australian players.

- Further develop core Force players
- Gives starting spots to reserve / third string force players
- Gives locals access to professional S&C, nutrition and other professional players
- More game time in a professional setting

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Originally Posted by tjs10

GRR always seemed to be the perfect space to help further develop the next tier of WA talent while also trying to expand the game into Asia. The hardest task will be finding a window in the calendar that works well for both Force (mainly around player release) and the Asian sides (player availability, avoiding extreme weather, broadcaster interest etc).

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The timing works well for Japan, as they've moved their calendar to be January-May, and the Force's new head coach has a number of contacts with Japanese Rugby!

I've been banging on about GRR being needed to develop Aussie rugby since it fell over at the start of the pandemic.

I think there's a place for it to be greater than just a development comp for the Force, every AU Super team would benefit from having it to develop players at a level that club rugby simply cannot. Even Shute Shield is miles behind what's on offer in New Zealand.

NRC, GRR, something else it doesn't really matter what, fringe Super Rugby players in Australia seem to play about 4 minutes of rugby in a season!

I agree with all but this.

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Originally Posted by .X.

A Perth-based team in GRR. The team to only be filled with 18-24-year-olds who are WA born/WA-developed players.

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I think you need the older heads to show and teach leadership. If you don't include other state players then that wouldn't attract them to the Force for the main season. I'd look at it the same as NRC where it was for players who didn't get international spots and for the young locals to be given a chance. This would also then add to the attraction commercially also.

I'll leave the GRR discussion aside for now as I doubt it's got legs ATM. I'll just say that should the dispute with NZ over the carve-up of the SR pie become an unlikely split, I'd love to see an SR Au run right through until a few weeks before the Rugby Championship. Expansion franchises TBC - more content for Stan, more dosh for RA.

Keep it going through the June window. The teams getting the monetary leg-ups can suck it up like the Mungos do during Origin.

Rather than create another thread, revived this one.
Whatever happened officially with GRR?
In the media when searching it was suspended and then just sort of fizzled out citing 'Rona, but no definitive statements of "that's it", or setting timeframes etc.
Is it truly officially (as opposed to speculation and wishful thinking) dead now, or is the structure still there waiting a comeback?
For all the reasons above I hope it does, but not looking particularly promising...

Answer I received from Chat GTP:

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, Global Rapid Rugby (GRR) was a rugby union competition founded by Andrew Forrest, an Australian businessman, in 2018. The league aimed to promote fast-paced and high-scoring rugby matches in the Asia-Pacific region. GRR had plans to expand its operations and include teams from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Samoa.

However, I do not have information on the specific developments or events related to Global Rapid Rugby since September 2021. For the latest updates on the league, I recommend checking news sources, official websites, or contacting the league directly for the most accurate and up-to-date information."

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Originally Posted by Burgs

Rather than create another thread, revived this one.
Whatever happened officially with GRR?
In the media when searching it was suspended and then just sort of fizzled out citing 'Rona, but no definitive statements of "that's it", or setting timeframes etc.
Is it truly officially (as opposed to speculation and wishful thinking) dead now, or is the structure still there waiting a comeback?
For all the reasons above I hope it does, but not looking particularly promising...

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I think "fizzled out" "limbo" "nothing really being done" is it's status however an ABN lookup confirms that the business is still operable to some extent. God knows whether this is just waiting for a purge cycle to deactivate the ABN or whether it's being held for a purpose.

I'll use the ABN still being active to continue spruiking this as something RA SHOULD do (but probably won't because Sydney powerbrokers won't let them)

Ï suspect that the Cheetahs 4 match series this year is the "replacement"

Most recent activity on ASIC is dated 9/5/2023 and is Appointment or Cessation of a Company Officer.

Could be good news, could be bad news

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Originally Posted by Tazzmania

Ï suspect that the Cheetahs 4 match series this year is the "replacement"

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I'm sure that is true, and there is perhaps even the seed of a genuinely unique competition if they could model a four teams-four games round-robin comp based on mini-tours out of it. But the sort of GRR competition as was and promised, featuring Asian and Pacific teams and particularly a Japanese presence, would probably be the easier sell to the market.

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Originally Posted by AndyS

But the sort of GRR competition as was and promised, featuring Asian and Pacific teams and particularly a Japanese presence, would probably be the easier sell to the market.

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And also would fill the gap between Club Rugby and Super Rugby that is so desperately needing to be filled.

Unfortunately, that would mean that Papworth and his various cronies could no longer lay claim to being (whatever the fuck it is they seem so hell bent on claiming) so it'll get torpedoed without some serious support.

Don't see that it would require any more support than the last version. Drua and Moana Pasifika would likely jump at the extra development, and don't see that any other Australian team would need to be involved any more than last time. TBH, I'd rather see a team out of Adelaide before any of the other SR teams, given the level it should be pitched/targeting.

I noticed when I searched Google gave a map with the pin on the Old Brewery (Twiggy Central), where as I recall the GRR HQ was Hong Kong when they launched yeah? Overseas somewhere anyway.

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Originally Posted by Burgs

I noticed when I searched Google gave a map with the pin on the Old Brewery (Twiggy Central), where as I recall the GRR HQ was Hong Kong when they launched yeah? Overseas somewhere anyway.

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It was based in HK to keep RUAs grubby little mits of it I think.