Toulon has officially changed hands

Happened to Bristol too, used to being able to chuck the ball around unhindered and crumbled to that line speed.

They had no chance before a whistle was blown, they were quite literally playing against Ireland but nonetheless it was poor.

If it’s nothing (a player gets his weekly paycheck from the club and thats it (which we know is definitely not the case in Ireland and France, or SA even I think?), then maybe it would retain more SR level players given that they’ll be getting the “AB” component (which is about where things stand, Burke for instance would have had to had his Sader contract upgraded to an AB one (think above Pero levels) to be on similar money.

I’d having to imagine if a player is getting paid to do nothing over the international windows though, they are going to want to get paid extra for appear for the ABs, so in this situation, it’s hard to see many players being retained, yes.

I’m pretty sure they flew to Japan and met in person.

I’ve heard/had these discussions numerous times. I don’t think theres anyway to judge the interest that would be retain in SR. For one, it might be a more entertaining league as a result, as the JRLO is compared to Europe, despite it obviously being a lesser standard.

If SRP is of a lesser standard and now able to use Japanese and American players to bolster teams, perhaps those markets more than make up for the downturn in NZ and Aus? Perhaps it gives NZR flexibility to create a more fit for purpose interdomestic competition, and interest actually increases? All you might need is a proper pathway from school to pro?

Razor asked NZR to keep an open mind. Did NZR answer any of these questions to themself?

I haven’t been following Trump but it’s irrelevant to this discussion other than it’s a random event that might see less sponsorship, sure. But that’s the type of ridiculousness we were getting in the articles, criticizing NZR for the effects of trump tarrifs.

I didn’t think Sky had anything to do with Sky in the UK, they might have some technological sharing but I wouldn’t have thought market directions would be shared. Here NPC games used to get 500k viewership when SR was going gangbusters around 2015-17 but NZR has continuously reduced it’s relevance and now Sky is sharing that perspective purely based on costs and small margins in this market. I wouldn’t think it applies anywhere else in the world.

You’re saying SRP is on Sky in the UK too? How would you rate/compare the product Ed, the comms team and any pre/post match stuff you see?

Barrett didn’t stand out at all again?

I was just joking about the flight paths having their own quirks. But it was the same in Super back in the day as well. They really got tough on reformation there at one point so it’s easy to think it was always that bad for them.