John O’Neill, I think, realises that rugby in Australia will never compete with NRL and AFL, and it doesn’t need to. It is strong in parts of Sydney and Queensland, and has a decent base in Melbourne and WA, especially among migrant communities. All it needs is 150 professional players, and then a smattering of under 20s and semi-professionals in order to exist as a professional sport. That is easy enough to get, between private schools, Polynesians, former league players, the Sydney club scene and clever recruitment of young players from overseas.

The major point of difference between rugby and NRL and AFL is that rugby has an international level of genuine quality, and that is something to play on.

he has been good for oz rugby overall as well as slanting in favour of the kiwis in regards to our relations as ‘partners’ in sanzar but as you say thats the point isnt it, getting what your union/country wants out of sanzar to your own benefit. sadly i cant say the same for our ffucking admin guys wrt their ability to get whats best for sa rugby. just look at the ffucking travel schedule for next seasons four nations, another typical example of saru being fast ffucking asleep. the kiwis seem to have gotten themselves the sweetest home and away travel deal for the all blacks and oz the 2nd best.

Not sure, if you look at what they have to play with (including media support etc.) and compare to O’Neill I think he is better than both.

Agreed on Juries Roux… seems to be ticking all the boxes… however it’s the bumbling duo of front-man Hoskins and his side-kick Marinos that do the negotiating… too many cooks at SARU…

ARU hired one Guru for this…

Who do you rate better Howels?

You might not like him, and you might think he is a chump, but he is a very successful and clever sports administrator, and has left Australian rugby is a far better situation than it was when he started his second term. SANZAR is probably also stronger.

Sad thing is, he is probably the 3rd best sports administrator in Australia.

but having said that i must say i have to some extent been pleasantly surprised by jurie roux as ceo, so far. he’s still under 40 so will hopefully grow more skilled with time, thats if he stays in rugby admin.

Yet I’d have him at SARU in a flash over the incompetent dilettantes currently at the helm…

His end of term is 2013, he’s already achieved what he’s set out to… I’d think a second 3 yr stint with the ARU is enough for anyone…

i read he’s announced he’s stepping down at the end of his term. this must be due to political wrangling of sorts going on internally at the aru, no?

Which part don’t you agree with mate?

The sports-administration genius?

In that case read-up on how he transformed Australian soccer into the A league in just a few seasons… or look at the immediate effect an extra Australian team has had on the dramatic 28% in subscription television rugby union viewership in just one season (the revenue of which ALL of the SANZAR unions get to share the spoils)…

The Don of Southern Hemisphere rugby?

Well it’s very difficult to argue that he cannot just have his way with SANZ at the ‘negotiating table’ now innit?

I can see a couple of Australian franchise teams trying to sign an Argentinian prop or two.

What he is saying now is just spin to cover the fact that his view on the matter was defeated. He might as well say, “They PROMISED me they would field their best players, I’ll be the first to complain if they ever send a weakened team to Australia and ticket sales are low.”

You will notice that although Argentina have joined the Rugby Championship, they are not members of SANZAR. That is something the IRB cannot insist on. The whole idea of SANZAR is getting out of control anyway. All they do is organise two competitions, something that can probably done by a relatively small department of SARU and their partners. However, SANZAR now have a registered company (in Australia), a salaried CEO (Australian) and a salaried manager of referees (New Zealander). Funny that we don’t need a separate company to organise the England tour next June.

In the parallel universe of John O’Neill, Australia would only play the All Blacks twelve times a year and the ARU would make millions from that. They tolerate, rather than embrace, South African involvement because of the TV audience, and TV rights contracts, that South Africa brings.

It’s getting to the stage where it might be beneficial to SARU to get out of SANZAR and sell the rights for all home tests directly to Supersport, as they do now for the June tests.

Also, a word of praise for SARU who included the Pampas XV in the Vodacom Cup. Many players made their way into the Pumas World Cup team from the 2010 and 2011 Vodacom Cup squads, proving that there is an alternative to playing professional rugby in France. While Australia and New Zealand were finding reasons to exclude Argentina, SARU were actually fixing the problem.