National Rugby Competition

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The National Rugby Competition (it is unknown if this title will be official) is a rugby union competition that will commence in Australia in July 2007. The competition - similar to New Zealand's National Provincial Championship and South Africa's Currie Cup, aims to bridge the gap between club rugby and Super 14.

Contents

1 Teams
2 History
3 Format

3.1 Competition
3.2 Players

4 References

4.1 Notes
4.2 General

5 External links

Teams

The number of sides that will be competing in the competition is eight - two from Queensland, three from New South Wales and one each from ACT, Western Australia and Victoria. Each National Competition team will have 28 players, a total of 224 players across the eight teams. It is understood that the New South Wales Rugby Union gave up a fourth team to Victoria, in order to make the competition truly national. Queensland Rugby CEO Theo Psaros announced on June 2 that one of the Queensland sides will be playing out of Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane. With this annoucement, the other team has been speculatively linked to both the Gold Coast and Townsville.

Both Randwick DRUFC and Sydney University Football Club - two of Australia's oldest football clubs were not happy with the proposal, and are pushing for stand alone entry in the competition. Shortly after the official announcement of the competition, Randwick formed a committee to debate the decesion. Possible locations of the New South Wales sides have been talked about as Sydney's north, central-west and south-east and the Central Coast and Illawarra. Businessman John Singleton announced that he has the intention to get involved in this new rugby competition - as he owns the Central Coast Stadium in New South Wales. However it is beginning to become clear that the 3 NSW teams will probably all be based in Sydney, and each pool on 4 of the existing club teams as player sources. The teams are being speculatively named North Sydney (which would gain its players from Manly, Warringah, Gordon and Northern Suburbs), West Sydney (Parramatta, West Harbour, Penrith and Eastwood)and South Sydney (Randwick, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney University and Southern Districts). The fact that only three teams have been allocated to the NSWRU has all but completely ruled out Randwick and University's chances of going it alone.

There are fears that the competition will kill off some of Sydneys weaker clubs. Clubs like Randwick which own their own liscenced clubs and have strong commited fan bases will survive, even with the abbridged season that they will be given (Sydney club rugby will continue as normal during Super 14 season, but cease at it's end), however, clubs like Penrith which have been perenial battlers in the competition with not much to show for it, face extinction.

History

The development of a national competition in Australia has been talked about for over a decade. The official announcement on the agreement of a national rugby competition in Australia was made in mid-2006, following a 70-person three day summit in Sydney that determined that such a national competition would be economically sustainable and commercially attractive. Broadcasters have expressed interest in covering the competition, with the ABC being one of them.

Format

Competition

The competition will run for ten weeks, with finals being competed over an additional two weeks. Each side will play ten games, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals where the winners will move into the final. The competition will kick off in July, after club competitions finish (they will run from March to July).

Players

This timeframe will ensure the availability of Super 14 players (excluding Wallabies). There are no immediate plans for a draft, with players free to choose their team, although there will be a salary cap in place.

References

Notes

General

"[Rugby Workshop agrees to a new eight-team National Rugby Competition]". rugby.com.au. Accessed June 2, 2006.

External links

Wikinews has news related to:

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Rugby union in Australia

National Teams: Wallabies | Women's | Australian sevens team | Under 21's | Under 19's

Provincial rugby: Super 14 | NSW Waratahs | Queensland Reds | ACT Brumbies | Western Force

International Governing Bodies: International Rugby Board | SANZAR | Australian Rugby Union

Regional Governing Bodies: New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union | New South Wales Country Rugby Union

National competitions: National Rugby Competition (2007) | Australian Rugby Shield | Australian Provincial Championship

Local competitions: Shute Shield | Tooheys New Cup | Queensland Premier Rugby | Brisbane Club Rugby

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