| Last chance for Norway |
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| Written by Pierre Bonnet |
| Tuesday, 01 November 2011 19:40 |
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We do not have our own future in hands. The only scenario that would keep Norway in 2C, is the triple defeat with no bonus points of either Austria or Hungary and a double victory over those two same teams in spring 2012. Austria and Hungary will have a hard time against the two leaders of the 2C group as both Denmark and Israel can still move up to 2B. That might end as one defeat, but then, Norway will have the toughest survival fight against the looser of the next weekend's match. Norway must stay in 2CAn eventual relegation to 2D would be for a minimum of 2 years and we could predict a decrease of the general interest for rugby in the country. It would also be a massive disappointment after all the efforts that have been made by the NRF to give to Rugby some media coverage. IRB might even stop ranking our nation implying that Norway is no longer a country with rugby. Norway can do betterNorway have six months to build up mentally and be ready to give 100% of their capacity to win two matches. There won’t be any place for players without guts and a minimum of pride. Norwegian XV must be a better team, a block of 22 men, a group where 21 players can rely on the last one and vice versa, and cannot afford being a collage of 22 individuals. Time for victoryThe next two games will be played in Norway, and probably shown on TV or Internet. The conditions should be perfect for two nice victories and a celebration with a true motive. Whatever happens before May 2012, let us hope that our Norwegian boys will play with courage and perseverance, so we can all be proud of them and the Norwegian Rugby that they represent. |
After another defeat in Israel 22-11 last weekend, Norway made it hard to maintain in 2C. Next weekend on Saturday the 5th, the looser of Austria vs. Hungary will be the last chance for Norway.Related Items
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Comments
If we take a step back, we can build up a team of our young, promising players, maybe with the support of just a few older with more experience. On a short term, we might get a weaker team, but we will compete with weaker teams anyway, maybe dropping a few points on the ranking system. But that really doesn’t matter in the long term. The main goal for Norwegian rugby must be to develop for the future. With a younger (and more Norwegian) national team, the gap from our oldest juniors will not be that big, and we will have a better continuity in developing those players into good national team players for the future.
1/2 part of this team is norwegian,the rest is players
living and have been MANY years in norway...
I agree with young players and development for the
future(new norwegian players came in the squad u know) but right now i dont think many young players
are the level to play international game,except if you wanna go home
with 60 points in your suitcase after every games...sorry about that.
Last thing who make me piss off is when you say:
"jolly expats having good time traveling togheter"......:0
I dont think you are the right person to say that...remember we are still paying egenandel,its alway something to pay when we travel...but whatever you have to be in the national team to understand what i mean and a lot of players will be100% agree with me
Have a nice winter;)
For what ever it is worth, Norway will be soon ranked by the IRB as it was 8 years ago. So if going backward is your idea of a strategy to develop rugby in Norway then I have good news for your young and promising players. Norway might be in 2D soon…
In Sweden, they focus on junior development, aiming for having a national team in the future with 80% players from their rugby academies, that is players that have learned their rugby in Sweden (ref http://iof3.idrottonline.se/SvenskaRugbyforbundet/Forbundet/Akademier/Nyheter/SwedenRugbyAcademy/).
Sweden has always aimed for the future, Norway always for the next game. If you take a look at the IRB ranking, you’ll have some indication of what really pays off.
"In Sweden, they focus on junior development, aiming for having a national team in the future"
In Sweden the national team is an aim, not a mean.
about sweden and rugby players development...they have
something to learn...its not pierre bonnet,me or players who
can resolve your "problems" or opinions...so thats all...
Talk with the NRF,the goverment or i can give you siv jensen
nr if you want;)'.....i ve it;)
- Rugby League is developping in areas where Union does not exist at senior level, which is a smart strategy.
- Junior rugby: well obviously there's no real strategy at clubs level to have junior teams. NRF has tried over the last couple of year to developp competitions and give structures, but if clubs do not put the effort, it can not work
- Actually, it is difficult to blame clubs to not focus too much at junior levels, knowing that, most of the time, the same guy is chairman, coach, captain and the one that must mark the pitch... Then I would not blame anybody for not spending time recruiting junior.
- At national team level, over the last years, we have been wasting money sending "national" junior teams abroad, it is a joke, I mean there's so few juniors teams, how can we pretend to have national teams???? Better not to waste money on this, and have real development program at local level, and forget about national training camp...
- About the big boys.... I'm sorry to see the results at the moment, rugby community is small in Norway, and we all have friends playing in, giving everything they have (even their MONEY) to represent the country, so we can not be happy of this. As Lars said, as long as NRF will be thinking of the next game, nothing will change, but if NRF start to see the long term perspective, things might change. One may argue that it is crucial to stay in 2C, yes for sure, but junior, long-term perspective is the only way to have a sustainable structure, and not the "we have to win the next game" though.
- last but not least, it is not acceptable to still see comments on "real" Norwegians in the national teams... First, they do not exist, it is impossible to have a squad of 22 boys with Norwegian passport... Do not forget that some of the guys selected did not even play 15s in clubs... I did not check the list carefully, but I would not be surprised to see that they all play regularly in the NM15s, meaning they spend about 5-7000 NOK per year in the domestic championship. In addition, they have the national team egenandel, I would think about 5-6000 NOK per season, it means that the "jolly expats" as you're calling them are spending at least 10 000 NOK a year for rugby, and maybe more.... These guys have to be respected at least for that, and for the commitment they're putting on the pitch
- Last 2 games of the Union national team : 50% "real" Norwegian in the squad
- Last 2 games of the League national team: respectively 59 and 53% "real" Norwegian in the squad
2 different sports, but same problem, there are both small sport in Norway, so as soon as you want to be competitive at international level you have to include a significant amount of experimented "jolly expats"