"World Series Rugby" aka "Global Rapid Rugby"
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Instead of the Global Rapid Rugby competition, there will be a series of games showcasing the Rapid Rugby rules in 2019.
A Showcase Series will launch revolutionary sporting brand Global Rapid Rugby in the Asia Pacific region in 2019, featuring a combination of innovative new rules and spectacular off-field entertainment. Since gaining World Rugby approval to stage an elite-level competition in mid-November last year, the Rapid Rugby management team has worked to ensure the inaugural home-and-away season provides the very best on and off-field sport and entertainment. That tight time frame and the intricacies of a World Cup year have led to a decision to commence the inaugural 8-team, 56 game home-and-away season in 2020. In 2019, the Showcase Series will travel throughout Asia, the Pacific Islands and Australasia to give fans, viewers, players and coaches a live taste of what is to come in Season One in 2020, when teams will compete for an AUD$1 million first prize. ...
The 2019 Rapid Rugby Showcase Series schedule will be finalised next month.
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Experience the show! 2019 Showcase schedule released
Global Rapid Rugby will launch a unique combination of elite sport and super-charged entertainment with a 14 match Showcase Series in six venues throughout Asia, the Pacific and Australasia this year. The series kicks off in three weeks, on Friday March 22, when Perth’s Western Force goes head-to-head with the star-studded World XV combination, led by former Australian Test and New Zealand Crusaders coach Robbie Deans. Teams from Hong Kong, Fiji, Singapore and Samoa will play and host games, with venues in New Zealand and east-coast Australia part of the Showcase Series as well. On top of that, Rapid Rugby will be played on the eve of a historic Bledisloe Cup clash between the Wallabies and All Blacks in Perth.
Deans experienced a version of the Rapid Rugby rules when his Japanese club team, the Panasonic Wild Knights, played in Perth last year and believes the brand will be a big hit with players and fans alike. “The ‘All Stars’ concept of the World XV lends itself to the excitement and entertainment at the forefront of Rapid Rugby and is the perfect vehicle to promote the brand within a Showcase Series,” Deans said. “Our squad is comprised of a core of experienced Test players, 10 in all, who will lead a group that also includes a number of promising youngsters with big futures ahead of them.” After the World XV game, teams from Fiji, Samoa, Hong Kong, Singapore and Western Force will play in separate six game tri-series contests.
The Asia Showcase Series, between the South China Tigers out of Hong Kong, Asia Pacific Dragons in Singapore and the Western Force, begins on March 29. The Pacific Showcase Series will be played between the Force, Fijian Latui and Kagifa Samoa from May 18. Teams will play at least two matches in their home market; however, construction work on Samoa’s main stadium means its ‘home’ games will be played in Queensland and Auckland. Winners of the Asia and the Pacific series will access an AUD50,000 prize purse to assist local community rugby programs.
You can find the schedule here.
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Next week is the first game of the Rapid Rugby showcase series between the Western Force and a World XV squad.
The following players have been called up for the World XV squad:
Gio Aplon (South Africa), Yoshikazu Fujita (Japan), Nick Cummins (Australia), Digby Ioane (Australia), Dylan Riley (Australia), Inga Finau (New Zealand), Kosei Ono (Japan), Leon Fukofuka (Tonga), Andy Ellis (New Zealand, captain), Leonardo Senatore (Argentina), Hugh Renton (New Zealand), Michael Curry (New Zealand), Shota Fukui (Japan), Michael Oakman-Hunt (Australia), Jack Cornelsen (Australia), Hamish Dalzell (New Zealand), Tom Moloney (Australia), Chris King (New Zealand), Shohei Hirano (Japan), Wyatt Crockett (New Zealand), Greg Pleasants-Tate (New Zealand), Corey Flynn (New Zealand)
Robbie Deans is again the coach of World XV
The World XV outfit will have just four days together in Perth, with most having not experienced the rule variations of Global Rapid Rugby. But Deans is adamant his team will be ready to put on a show. “We have achieved wins off similar time frames in terms of preparation against the Japanese Test side and the players we have selected for this game won’t lack for motivation,” Deans said. “In a few short years, this team has built up an outstanding history to the extent that many who have played have said afterwards the experience ranked up there with the most enjoyable of their careers.”
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Jesus, is this crap still going?
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@Stargazer said in "World Series Rugby" aka "Global Rapid Rugby":
Western Force team for the first game against World XV. The team lists are probably the only thing I'm interested in. Johan Bardoul and Jeremy Thrush still there.
Other then Thrush its a veritable whos who, of who the fuck are you!
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Twiggy to the rescue for Super Rugby's axed Sunwolves?
The Sunwolves and a Fiji team would live on in an Asian Super Rugby competition under top secret plans being worked up by SANZAAR. In a move unlikely to soften the blow to the Sunwolves, who were informed late on Wednesday they would be cut from Super Rugby from 2021, it appears there would still be a place for them in a division two-style tie-up with Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's Global Rapid Rugby. The concept is understood to be the next cab off the rank for SANZAAR, who will announce their Super Rugby plans on Friday but cannot make any broader decisions on the Rugby Championship or other competitions until there is certainty about World Rugby's Nations Championship plan. That should come by the end of the month, with the 12-team global competition to live or die by a March 29 deadline for the unions to enter an exclusive negotiation period.
The Asian Super Rugby concept has formed part of Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle's roadshow briefings to the Australian Super bosses this week. The Herald understands it would be a SANZAAR-endorsed competition part-owned by Forrest, Australia's mining billionaire, with a Japanese team to be added to the founding Rapid Rugby clubs, the Western Force, Fiji, Samoa, Hong Kong and Singapore. A Malaysian team and potentially a second Australian team could be added. The Newcastle Hunter Rugby Union was reported to be in "high level" discussions with the Rapid Rugby team about basing a team out of there from next year. GRR deflected the issue, keen to keep their focus on this weekend's opening showcase match between the Western Force and a Robbie Deans-coached World XV selection. "The drive to provide an innovative and exciting brand of rugby throughout the Asia Pacific region in 2019 remains unchanged. Global Rapid Rugby is here for the long term," a spokesperson said.
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@Stargazer Looks like Oz is furiously developing a second tier because they think that's where they'll end up.
If they are serious about developing a second tier competition, they'd be better off not subscribing to the stupid laws.
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@antipodean Yep, agree 100%.
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@Stargazer said in "World Series Rugby" aka "Global Rapid Rugby":
With World XV squad:
That's, ummm, underwhelming.
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@Kruse Yep, that's what you get when you have to assemble players who are not involved in any club competition at the moment. Basically, retirees, third stringers and players who play in the Japanese competition (the only competition having a break at the moment).
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Watched the second half of this game. Not remembering all the rule variations, I found the refereeing a bit off and I don't know whether that was because a different rule was applied, or whether the ref was shit. Some of that was definitely the latter, as high tackles and forward passes were clearly missed.
Western Force won the game 26 to 16, but obviously they've played a full season under these rules, while the World XV squad only came together early this week. If it wasn't for Nick Cummins having a mare, World XV would probably have won (their defence was excellent, except for the last 10 minutes or so, when they'd emptied the tanks). He butchered three try scoring opportunities by knocking the ball on, one of those coming from an awesome break from Spowart that was a "power try" in the making, only for Cummins to drop the ball. Has he always been that bad?
Anyway, one thing is true about "rapid rugby" and that it is indeed fast, really fast. Having rolling subs and the game only lasting 70 minutes was an absolute necessity, esp for many of the retirees in the World XV squad, although I was quite surprised how good Corey Flynn still is. Pleasants-Tate' constant niggles with the opposition were hilarious at times, as was a break he made in the second half; the surprised look on his face when he sliced through the Force' defence was gold. Ellis is still a classy player and Finau and Spowart were good, too.
One impression I got from the game was that there's a strong "AFL feel" to this format, both due to the speed and the frequent (high) kicking. Unfortunately, that also led to a lot of ball handling errors from both teams. They can keep it in Australia; I hope never to see it here, but I'm glad that the Perth crowd seemed to like it. After the Force being pulled from Super Rugby, it's good that they've games to go to that they enjoy.
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Another joke team, that South China Tigers. Not a single Chinese player in that squad.
By the way, the name Tau Kolomatangi sounds familiar. Didn't he play for Ta$man, maybe Chiefs, too? Or am I confusing him with someone else?
And Tom Hill?
Edit: I looked it up and it's a Hong Kong based team. That explains it. Tom Hill is an Aussie according to Wikipedia.