Aussies call for longer Super Rugby break
27 Jul 2012
The ARU is requesting a longer mid-season break for Australian teams during next year’s Super Rugby campaign because of the 2013 British & Irish Lions series.
ARU boss John O’Neill revealed on Friday that there was a possibility the 2013 Super Rugby competition could initially resume without Australian teams following the regulation break in June. This season’s first-ever break included three weeks of Test rugby.
This proved to be disaster for the Wallabies, who faced Scotland in Newcastle on the first Tuesday during this Test window. Some of the Australian players only had one or two training runs with their Wallabies team-mates before the match as they featured in Super Rugby fixtures during the previous weekend.
This resulted in a 9-3 win for Scotland – the tourists’ first win on Aussie soil in 30 years. Deans stressed that his team will need more time for preparation.
‘That [lack of training time] would obviously be a recipe for disaster,’ Deans told AAP. ‘The Lions series is an important moment in every rugby player’s life, once in every 12 years they get this opportunity.
‘We need to do the right thing by the playing group and ensure that they get the preparation that’s required to win. Anything short of that is negligence.’
O’Neill confirmed that the ARU had already started negotiations with their South African and New Zealand counterparts over next year’s schedule, and is confident that their request for an extension will be granted.
‘The window here in Australia needs to be wider than it necessarily will be for South Africa and New Zealand, because we have the Lions arriving early June and they are here till early July,’ said O’Neill. ‘We need not a three-week window, we need a five-week window. It means South Africa and New Zealand could well resume Super Rugby without us and play their local derbies.’
29 Comments
27 Jul 2012, 09:03 am
That’s fine. We can have a couple of rounds of full-strength Currie Cup/NPC (ITM Cup?) to keep us busy during the extended break.
27 Jul 2012, 09:20 am
I say nay…just out of spite.
o’neill never gave us anything we wanted.
Iike a 6th team maybe?
27 Jul 2012, 09:23 am
NO.
27 Jul 2012, 09:26 am
Were Springbok players not effected by the Tests?
Specially Sharks and BUlls had a huge amount of players out.
and of course the same with the Kiwi’s
27 Jul 2012, 09:28 am
@sharks_lover-4: aussie wanting to have their cake and eat it!
who told them to play a test on tuesday against scotland just four days before a series with wales? o’neill is a greed f.cuker!
27 Jul 2012, 09:30 am
going to be funny watching the lions win in ozzie.
27 Jul 2012, 09:31 am
@Transformation-5: Exactly
27 Jul 2012, 09:35 am
The Aussies have a break come play-off time anyway. So what’s the problem here?
27 Jul 2012, 09:37 am
@>^..^< katman-8:
27 Jul 2012, 12:18 pm
Aussies already making excuses! And it is a year out!
Also who organised that test against Scotland? Do come and make excuses about needing more time when you guys were the ones that organised that test. Idiots.
They can give three Aussies teams a bye before the window and another Three teams can get a bye after the June window.
That is all. They cannot withdraw all there teams.
27 Jul 2012, 12:19 pm
@>^..^< katman-8: lol
27 Jul 2012, 12:20 pm
@Sasuke-10: Do=Dont
27 Jul 2012, 14:00 pm
Get F d you arrogant bunch of S h I t s, we faced the number 1 Northern Hemi team this year with f all prep and we just won. It’s damm hard to prepare professionally this day an age, especially against the lions, Your all giving us Sh it about our super teams because w don’t have a team in the final, who won last year and which country was absent in the final. Show the Wallabies their due respect because Unless I’m wrong we’ve had the measure of the Bokks for some years now
27 Jul 2012, 14:02 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl-6: You know, I think you are on the money in this regard. The Aussie squad of 2001 is the greatest in that nation’s rugby union history so there’s no surprises that they shaded Uncle Ted’s Lions. While the current one has the wood on the Boks (because they actually out-think us) the Lions will be salivating at the prospect of their first series victory since 1997.
27 Jul 2012, 14:12 pm
“… there was a possibility the 2013 Super Rugby competition could initially resume without Australian teams following the regulation break in June. ” Well really now mr O’Neill – maybe you should first discuss it in the boardroom with the 2 other nations involved before blabbing about it in the media!! As already indicated above you already have a break because you don’t have any representatives in the semi finals!! Rather get your own house in order and improve your Super Rugby teams !!
27 Jul 2012, 14:32 pm
@CharlesM-15: In his mind its already been decided.
27 Jul 2012, 14:36 pm
@SAussie/QldRed-13: I think the best thing that Sanzar can do is give 3 Aussie teams a bye before the June window.
This will give them 2 weeks to prepare for the Lions.
More than enough time.
They can give byes to the Reds, Brumbies and Waratahs.
27 Jul 2012, 14:43 pm
@Sasuke-16: o’neill knows that plonker tew is his biaaaaatch, he will agree to whatever he says..
27 Jul 2012, 14:47 pm
@Sasuke-16: Agreed
27 Jul 2012, 15:45 pm
@SAussie/QldRed-13: Get screwed newt…
27 Jul 2012, 17:57 pm
Fair enough request. A Lions Tour is one of rugby’s greatest traditions and should be treated as such.
NZ & SA would do well to remember that they will be in the same boat come 2017 & 2021…
27 Jul 2012, 22:47 pm
Thanks for your comment, Which team knocked the boks out of the World Cup F uc k stain, Earn some respect Teams that are better than yours
28 Jul 2012, 04:08 am
pity o’niel didn’t think about this a little further in advance. but at end of day SANZAR has gotta make it happen for them. aussie teams are so weak and lacking in depth, that if you take out all the wobblies you’d be risking serious injury to the players who’d have to play to meet super rugby commitments.
would a longer break affect rugby championship scheduling? I think the answer is for the aussies to start the comp 2 weeks earlier than boks and kiwis, and play their derbies and also schedule their teams byes either side of the break. then boks and kiwis play 2 weeks without aussies. a solution is workable, and needn’t disadvantage anyone.
I dont see any reason why we should behave the way the aussies would if shoe was on the other foot – we’re better than them. and lets not forget… we’ll have a lions tour too one day and may need similar arrangements.
28 Jul 2012, 04:15 am
@SAussie/QldRed-22:
I have it on good authority that Bryce Lawrence knocked the boks out of the world cup
.
I have never before seen the boks dominate the opposition, the way we dominated the aussie scum that day, and lose…
And if you dont like what South Africans have to say why visit a South African rugby blog? I don’t go trolling on Aussie blogs. I find if you converse with aussies too long it starts to lower your IQ….
.
28 Jul 2012, 06:34 am
Give the Aussies what they want, no big deal, but if they lose to those Anglo Saxon/ Gaelic/Pict mongrels then no more favours for them.
28 Jul 2012, 07:29 am
@munkiboi-24: And then his daddy voted him ref of the year too above a girl and a sheep.
28 Jul 2012, 09:46 am
“Too Much Rugby” has an extremely appropriate nic.
Tour runs from 1st June to 6th July with the first of three Tests on 22 June, four days after we’ve klapped those Poms!!!
28 Jul 2012, 10:38 am
@BrumbiesBoy-27: why have the first test so late? Why not let the Lions come in May play against the aussie universities and clubs for warm up and then have the first test on the first Saturday of the month with more midweek games to follow
28 Jul 2012, 10:53 am
@Sasuke-28: Agreed, but ask the greedy administrators and TV-moguls; they probably won’t want to jeopardise the Super Rugby viewership figures.
Professional game run by amateurs and greed…
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