Force look to shore up squad for the future

[Alison]

As an aside, how is it that the French, English and Japanese clubs have so much moolah to splash around? Is it all down to much bigger TV revenue? Or is it their laissez-faire attitude to 3rd party sponsorship? Or that rugby (union) is a much more high-profile sport there than it is here?

Can anyone explain?

[Macattack]

No bloody Aussie Rules competing for players, supporters and sponsorship dollars

I am convinced the best chance we have of consistently beating the All Blacks is to export Aussie Rules to NZ!

[shasta]

Hunt didn't merely have a quick stint in Rugby. He played about 12-14 matches for Biarritz. In that small window he managed starting 10 roles and started at 12 in a Heineken Cup final. His tactical kicking game was top drawer both there and playing 5/8 for the Bronx. That would likely have only improved since. If I were in his shoes, and if it's not only about money now, I'd likely target playing for the All Blacks at RWC 2015. May have left that a little late though, unless he could do another short French stint or line up in the NPC.

[jargan83]

As an aside, how is it that the French, English and Japanese clubs have so much moolah to splash around? Is it all down to much bigger TV revenue? Or is it their laissez-faire attitude to 3rd party sponsorship? Or that rugby (union) is a much more high-profile sport there than it is here? ?

TV revenue would be a big reason especially with the rights deal that the Surrender Monkeys signed a few weeks/months ago. TV revenue is what drives sport these days.

Bigger profile may be a factor as well. With AFL taking up a lot of the news space here in WA, Victoria, SA and the NRL taking a lot of the headlines in NSW and Qld.

[beige]

TV revenue would be a big reason especially with the rights deal that the Surrender Monkeys signed a few weeks/months ago. TV revenue is what drives sport these days.

Bigger profile may be a factor as well. With AFL taking up a lot of the news space here in WA, Victoria, SA and the NRL taking a lot of the headlines in NSW and Qld.

Being owned by billionaires and large corporations doesn't hurt either.

[jargan83]

Being owned by billionaires and large corporations doesn't hurt either.

Indeed!

[Sheikh]

As an aside, how is it that the French, English and Japanese clubs have so much moolah to splash around? Is it all down to much bigger TV revenue? Or is it their laissez-faire attitude to 3rd party sponsorship? Or that rugby (union) is a much more high-profile sport there than it is here?

Can anyone explain?

TV revenue would be a big reason especially with the rights deal that the Surrender Monkeys signed a few weeks/months ago. TV revenue is what drives sport these days.

Bigger profile may be a factor as well. With AFL taking up a lot of the news space here in WA, Victoria, SA and the NRL taking a lot of the headlines in NSW and Qld.

In Britain and France rugby competes with soccer though, and if you think AFL dominates the sports pages here, you have to see papers out there. They also get very good crowds, often in their own stadiums (so they don't have to pay ground fees, just maintenance) and lucrative sponsorships (ie, third party payments but legal ones!), but yes, the TV rights are much more lucrative out there than here.

I'm not sure why that should be - they only have a populations ~3 times that of Australia (France ~66 million, UK ~64 million, Australia ~23 million) and I'm not sure that the uptake of pay TV in the UK is significantly higher than here (no idea about France), nor the cost of pay TV, so someone, somewhere is either raking the money in or doing some incredibly imaginative accounting!

[WFDom]

Any news / updates on players resigning?

I thought there may have been one or two announcements during the test window.

[The InnFORCEr]

Yeah, quiet a few Reds have gone to the Rebels and few to France as well

[WFDom]

Yeah, quiet a few Reds have gone to the Rebels and few to France as well

Sorry dude, should have been more specific. I meant our lot