Loophole closed as NRL star's Las Vegas request rejected<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n![\"Rugby](\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/b7e1e061-c10e-430d-8a8d-e4070275540f-scaled.jpg\")
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\ufeffSpeaking before that news became official, Wide World of Sports asked Waugh whether five Australian teams remained his preference – as long as it was financially sustainable.<\/p>\n
"We're committed to a presence in five markets," the Rugby Australia chief executive said.<\/p>\n
"There's a lot to work through in the immediate term. Assessing the situation, getting the financial analysis from their (Rebels) independent financial advisor and then we assess exactly where things are at.<\/p>\n
"I've said quite openly and overtly, it's really important for us to be fiscally responsible and look at how we can set the game up for long term success and in perpetuity.<\/p>\n
"In the next few years we have a really big revenue event with the Lions (2025), a massive revenue event with the home World Cup in '27 and hopefully a strong revenue event with the '29 women's World Cup.<\/p>\n
"There's been no secret that financially we need to stabilise the game. And this is an example of exactly why we need to do that."<\/p>\n
![\"First](\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pickerimage-177.jpg\")
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Put simply, RA doesn't have the money to help prop up the Rebels if they can't stand on their own two feet.\ufeff<\/p>\n
Australia hasn't won a combined Super Rugby title since the Waratahs in 2014\ufeff.<\/p>\n
The Rebels have played in Super Rugby since 2011 but have struggled to consistently win games or draw big crowds.\ufeff<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/61919011-661a-475b-9834-b702893202bd-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The prospect of merging with the ACT Brumbies \ufeffhas often been touted but met with resistance from the storied Canberra club.<\/p>\n
"A maximum of four (teams) would make it better, and that's when Australian rugby was really strong," legendary All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen said recently.<\/p>\n
"They had three sides that were competitive every weekend in Super Rugby, which was forcing us to get better ourselves."<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chatter of cutting teams is understandably confronting and traumatic for players and staff and the scars of 2017 are still raw.<\/p>\n
Former Wallabies forward Stephen Hoiles gets that but has consistently argued that less can be more for Australian rugby.<\/p>\n
"We're in a failing Super Rugby system," the Randwick coach told Stan Sport after the Wallabies bombed out of last year's Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2ad79e55-b550-4d87-9ead-577fe9d01f0d\")
<\/p>\n
"We went through this five years ago and it was nothing but people thinking: 'oh you hate the Force, you hate the Rebels.' I played at the Brumbies, I played at the Waratahs.<\/p>\n
"If it meant getting rid of one of them to make Australian rugby better, I'd be all for it because we don't have the depth and talent to play this many players at a professional level. All the Super teams are doing at the moment is signing foreign players, so every side's got five to six foreigners. Club footy's thriving, school footy's thriving.<\/p>\n
"When I was over there (France) last week, world rugby's pumping. It is a very healthy game at a global level. We're just not successful at state and national level at the moment… I say it on TV, getting paid from TV \u2013 broadcast wants more games and more products and more teams \u2013 but more teams makes us unsuccessful and it hasn't helped for a long time."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The irony was hard to ignore. Phil Waugh \ufeffsat high in the stands, watching a sold out, dressed up HBF Park cheer Australia to two […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363863"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363869,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363863\/revisions\/363869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}