With the next Rugby Australia broadcasting deal reported to be worth just $30 million per year, Rugby Union finds itself in a very difficult position. With plummeting television ratings, broadcasters see little value in carrying Rugby Union on free to air television or pay television. This has seen long time pay tv broadcaster, Fox Sports,…
In this episode we talk about the possibility of the NRL buying Rugby Australia and the impact it would have open both codes in the country and around the world. We then talk about Ralf Rimmer’s comments on four different subjects, all of which made us incredulous. Then we talk about Valentine Holes playing for…
The Sydney Daily Telegraph is reporting that Melbourne Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu could be set to switch to Rugby Union and play for The Australian Wallabies. It has been a bit of a strange week for the Melbourne Storm try scorer, after being king hit in Bali and seeing his team mate Nelson Asofa-Solomona banned…
Fairfax media is reporting that Israel Folau and his manager met with NRL Head Of Football Todd Greenberg at a cafe at Sydney Football Stadium. The meeting may mean nothing, and all parties seem to be passing it off as a chance meeting in which all sides were just friendly with one another…but that isn’t…
News Limited is reporting that the Canterbury Bulldogs are chasing Australian Rugby Union player Kurtley Beale. Beale is off contract and has been pushing for a better deal from the ARU for a while. This could very well be a toss up by his management to get the ARU to lock him into a deal…
Israel Folau has urged the Queensland Reds Rugby Union team to chase former Rugby League player Karmichael Hunt. Hunt is off contract with the AFL at the end of the year and most expect him to end up back in the National Rugby League. The Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans and Melbourne Storm have all…
Lote Tuqiri has told Fairfax media that it is vital for the ARU to hold on to Israel Folau/ This comes as Folau put on yet another dominant display in coming back from injury, and just days after media speculation that Folau was looking to return to the National Rugby League. Tuqiri makes a very…
In a stunning turn of events, the Canterbury Bulldogs have announced that the deal to sign Andrew Fifita is now off. So, who pulled the pin? You don’t announce that you have signed a player to the richest deal for any front row forward in the games history unless you have dotted all the I’s…
Andrew Fifita will become one of the highest paid Rugby League players in the world when he joins the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2015. The deal, which New Limited is reporting to be worth $850,000 per season over four years, will see him join the Bullodogs, shunning offers from the Cronulla Sharks, South Sydney Rabbitohs and…
The Sydney Daily Telegraph is reporting that Cronulla Shark prop Andrew Fifita met with Australian Rugby Union coach Ewen McKenzie and discussed the possibility of playing Rugby Union when his NRL contract expires in 2015. The meeting included former Rugby Union player Craig Gower and Fifita’s new manager Greg Willett. A switch to Rugby Union…
In a huge story broken by Phil Rothfield in today’s Sunday Telegraph, it is being reported that an agreement has been made between the Rugby Football League and Australian Rugby Union to play a cross code match at Wembley Stadium in 2014. The game would see the Great Britain Rugby League team taking on the…
In 1999 Rugby League in Australia wasn’t in a very good position. It was still recovering from the Super League War, it was cutting back on spending, it was looking to kick teams out of the competition…basically it was in damage control. At the same time Rugby Union in Australia was starting to come to…
For well over a decade now there has been talk of an exhibition match between the Australian Kangaroos Rugby League team and the Australian Rugby Unions Mustard Disgrace. The money is supposedly being put up by ANZ Stadium and a mystery broadcaster. The money on offer is supposedly huge. It is something that is brought…
He was a superstar at the Melbourne Storm who moved to the Brisbane Broncos on the first big deal of his career. He was a walk up start to the Queensland and Australian Rugby League teams and he looked to be set to have a record breaking career in the game. The AFL came knocking…
Do you remember the Australian Rugby Championship? Chances are you don’t. Basically it was a club competition the ARU set up in the hope that they could establish a third tier of Rugby Union in Australia that wasn’t a decaying relic that the various club competition dotted around isolated areas of the country have turned…
The headline in the Sydney Daily Telegraph reads “Rugby league versus rugby union game moves closer to reality”. Wow, that is interesting, considering that Rugby League administrators are dealing with their own internal issues right now while Rugby Union administrators or on their New Zealand junket watching lost of fat blokes roll around on each…
Welcome to the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. The last World Cup in which Australia will compete as anything other than a minnow. You see, Rugby Union in Australia has a problem. It is a game that prides itself on retaining its supposed class superiority and this has seen the game remain marginalized across the wider Australian…
Phil Gould wrote an article on the weekend about junior Rugby League in western Sydney that basically went along the lines of, the AFL is a juggernaught, we are doing nothing to stop them, we need to spend more money, the sky is falling…..you get the picture. It has caused a lot of headlines and…
In 1999 the head of the ARU, John O’Neill said he would propose that the IRB give the ARU all the profits from its upcoming World Cup competition. This money would then be used to allow the ARU to “Buy Rugby League” in Australia. It was at a time of great upheaval in the game…
He should never be allowed back. Ban him for life. We don’t want him anyway. He won’t be missed. Ah yes, you know what I’m talking about don’t you? No….not that incident I had at Bra’s N Things, which was blown way out of proportion by the way….I’m talking about players who go to Rugby Union….
The idea has been around for longer than most people think. Hell, its been done before, just not in our lifetime. The Australian Rugby League team, the mighty Kangaroos, taking on the Australian rugby union team, you know, the ones that wear a mustard coloured jersey and don’t win much of anything. The concept of…
When Israel Folau exploded onto the Rugby League scene, you got the feeling that he could be anything. A huge center for the Melbourne Storm, he made a name for himself with his high flying leaps, catching kicks from Cooper Cronk, and being an amazing athlete. Ironically because of salary cap restraints, and a desire…
Rightly or wrongly, a variant of a sport was added to the Olympic Games recently when the IOC decided to add Rugby Union Sevens to their program. The move was a big boost for the IRB, who have spent a lot of money to get into the Olympics, which has included making up teams in…
The Telegraph in Sydney is today reporting that Sonny Bill Williams is getting home sick and wants to come back to Australia or New Zealand to resume his football career. You may remember that Williams had a five year contract with the Canterbury Bulldogs. Into the first year of that deal Williams got on a…
As you may know by now Timana Tahu has walked out on his contract with the Australian Rugby Union with a year and a half to still run on it. He has done it so he can return to Rugby League and the Parramatta Eels. Its funny because I seem to remember a stupid Kiwi…