Have you heard about the NRC in Australia?
No, it is not an Aussie Rules competition and no it is also not a Rugby League competition!
It is all Rugby Union, a new National Domestic Rugby Union competition in Australia.
Story Source: http://www.rugby.com.au and http://RugbyRedefined.com
What is the NRC?
The Buildcorp NRC is a new domestic Rugby competition in Australia, which will kick off in August this year.
It will involve nine teams – two from Queensland, four from New South Wales, and one each from the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Western Australia.
The 2014 NRC teams will be:
- Brisbane City
- Queensland Country
- Macquarie University North Harbour Rays
- Sydney Stars
- Greater Sydney Rams
- NSW Country Eagles
- University of Canberra Vikings
- Melbourne Rising
- Perth Spirit
It presents a great opportunity to grow the game in Australia and is designed to give players, coaches and match officials another link in their development pathway.
What is the rationale for the competition?
For Rugby fans, it will showcase some of the best emerging talent in Australian Rugby and will provide an opportunity to engage with an elite Rugby competition during the second half of the year.
For players, it represents the missing link in their development pathway towards Super Rugby and Wallaby selection.
The NRC will also create additional compelling content for broadcasters with a quality local competition to rival New Zealand’s ITM Cup and South Africa’s Currie Cup.
How is the competition structured?
The Buildcorp NRC will run for 11 weeks from 21 August to 1 November. It will include preliminary rounds, with each team playing each other once (four home and four away games), one bye week per team and a finals series (semi-finals and final).
Who will play in the NRC?
All Super Rugby players not selected for the Qantas Wallabies will play in the Buildcorp NRC.
There will be a quota on the number of Super Rugby players in each of the nine teams, so every team will be a mixture of Super Rugby players and the best up and coming Club Rugby players.
Even though the Qantas Wallabies will be involved in international fixtures whilst the NRC is on, each member of the Wallabies squad will be allocated across the nine teams. These players will provide support to the teams and play if they become available.
Which law variations will be trialled in the NRC?
LAW VARIATIONS
Australian Rugby Union launched a campaign in early 2014 for the Rugby community to suggest possible law variations and law principles that could be trialled during the inaugural Buildcorp National Rugby Championship.
The promotion drew over 600 suggestions from the public and over 6000 votes on the final 12 law variation submissions.
The principles guiding this process have been to maintain the fabric of the game, whilst enhancing exciting play.
In the coming weeks, the final 12 proposed variations, which are listed below, will be discussed in detail with the nine NRC teams. The changes that will be trialled in this year’s tournament will be announced soon after.
Competition points
No 1: Instead of 4 try bonus point, winning team is awarded a bonus point for finishing 3 or more tries ahead of their opponents To encourage try-scoring, and retain interest in matches even after 4 tries are scored by one or either team
Kicks for goal
No 2: Reduced time limits for conversions and penalty kick attempts To speed up the game and increase ball-in-play time
No 3: After a successful or unsuccessful penalty goal attempt, play is restarted with a scrum to the non-kicking team at the place of the penalty – To discourage overly speculative shots at goal from long range, and encourage kicking to touch to attack instead
- To discourage defending teams from giving away penalties inside their red zone
Scrum
No 4: Time limit for both teams to form a scrum To speed up the game and increase ball-in-play time
No 5: No option to kick for goal from a scrum penalty (kick to touch allowed). If penalty becomes a ‘repeated infringement’ then kick at goal is allowed. To increase ball-in-play time, but reward dominant scrums when their opponents repeatedly infringe
No 6: Scrum-half of non-feeding team is compulsory, must stay within 1m of the scrum, and cannot move past the mid-line of the scrum To ensure even numbers in backline contests, and improve the quality of ball distribution at scrum
Foul Play
No 7: If a yellow card is given for repeated team infringement (excluding dangerous play), the non-offending captain chooses the opposition player who is temporarily suspended for 10 mins To further discourage repeated infringements by teams
Tackle / Ruck
No 8: Players arriving through the gate may ‘drive out’ opponents past the ruck, creating more space behind the ruck for attack To encourage more defending players into defending the channel behind the ruck, and therefore create more space out wide for attack
Lineout
No 9: If non-throwing team does not contest for the ball, the straightness of the throw is not considered To ensure the lineout remains a contest, but remove a technical decision that often has little material effect on play
Kicking
No 10: A ‘mark’ can be awarded any place on the field To discourage non-contestable and/or tactically poor kicking
No 11: After half-time and full-time, if awarded a Penalty Kick, you can kick to touch and play the lineout To discourage teams from giving away penalties at the end of a game
No 12: Free Kick for kick-off infringements as per Sevens To speed up the game and increase ball-in-play time
Consistent with our commitment to continually enhance the entertainment experience from Rugby, we will be trialling a number of law variations as well as some law application changes in this inaugural season of the Buildcorp NRC.
The principles guiding this process have been to maintain the fabric of the game, whilst enhancing exciting play.
The ARU ran a social media campaign which allowed fans to contribute their ideas on law variations that should be trialled.
After receiving over 600 law variation suggestions from fans, a shortlist of new law variations is currently being considered. The final changes will be announced in the coming weeks.
How is this different to the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC)?
The objective of this competition and the ARC are the same – to help develop elite talent in Australian Rugby, but the funding model is the main difference between the two competitions.
The Buildcorp NRC will be self-funded, while the ARC cost Australian Rugby around $5 million in its first season, which made it financially unsustainable.
Investment from broadcast partners Foxtel and FOX SPORTS, a reduced player payment model agreed with RUPA and the commercial support of new partners in Rugby, notably a number of universities, are all significant advancements on the ARC business model from 2007.
Combined with the efforts of each of the NRC teams to generate additional funds through sponsorship and private investment, the Buildcorp NRC is fundamentally a financially sustainable business model.
Some very interesting possibilities regarding variations to the laws that might be tried out.
The Melbourne Rising…The Perth Spirit.
Who came up with these names…StephenFarkingKing?
I like no. 1, 5 and 11
I think Rule 9 has been casually used by referees for a while now.
The rest are… bleh.
Interestingly there is no changes in the maul.
@ MacroBull:
10 was already implemented during this year’s Varsity Cup.
I kind of like rule 7, a yellow for repeat infringement and the captain of the team receiving the penalty can choose which player must be sent off.
Imagine how much more Bismarck, Victor and Schalla will moan at the ref if they get their marching orders, but didn’t commit the foul
I like the fact that the Aussies have the makings of a decent domestic competition. I don’t like the fact that they are tinkering with laws of the game. Most are really silly, but I like no 1.
@ nortierd:
Did you read that piece on Danie Russouw by Ryan Vrede?
” Meyer needs no encouragement to speak on this particular subject. He slides up in his chair, loads and
shoots: ‘Something else that stood out about Danie is his fierce loyalty to me and the Bulls. A couple of
years ago the Sharks made him an offer that would have doubled the salary he was on at the Bulls. He
wasn’t starting at the time; I was using him as a replacement for Bakkies Botha and his game time was
limited. He told me about the deal and I was honest, saying that I couldn’t offer him more than he was
getting either in salary or game time. A couple of days later he said not to worry, he believed in what
we were building at the Bulls and wanted to be part of it. He also said he believed he’d become a better
player under my coaching. So he stayed and that speaks about the man’s character.’”
5 @ Lion4ever:
Yet, every year we try out new rules during the Varsity Cup as well.
The one major difference though, with the NRC the public were asked for their input regarding which law changes should be tried out.
@ MacroBull:
I saw that piece, he would have looked strange in the Black & White
@ nortierd:
The big difference is that the Varsity Cup is a fun and exciting competition aimed at Students. A bit like the Hong Kong Sevens. A party competition. Having said that, there is definitely a serious side to the Varsity Cup, and it is a launching pad for many up and coming young players, many who are starting to make a serious impact on SA rugby.
8 @ Lion4ever:
Yep, I think the Varsity Cup started out as a bit of Monday night football fun, but has become serious business, especially with the “Tukkies-Gate” scandal.
4 @ nortierd:
Yeah, but can you just imagine if I_love_you_Bakkies_Botha had to captain a team against one containing Sir Reechie…?
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
Dean Greyling would be the first name on Bakkies’ team sheet in that case
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