Dragons<\/a> just signed a kid this week who is the second-best ranked rugby prospect in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\u201cJust imagine if there was a second New Zealand team and a second pathway for Kiwi kids. It could allow kids playing rugby union to make that step to playing on the big stage of the NRL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the player pool. To be honest, the next New Zealand team should\u2019ve been in place of Perth for 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christchurch bid still waiting<\/p>\n
The Southern Orcas consortium has submitted multiple bids for a Christchurch-based team in recent years, backed by former Kiwis coach Sir Graham Lowe, but none have progressed beyond the proposal stage.<\/p>\n
Many within New Zealand rugby league circles believe a second team would provide more balance to player development and help retain young talent currently lured to Australian clubs.<\/p>\n
Alexander calls for under-20s revival<\/p>\n
Fellow SEN host Greg Alexander backed Voss\u2019 concerns and said the NRL must reinvest in youth development on both sides of the Tasman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe under-20s competition should never have been axed,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was axed because of finances. It was costing clubs too much. I think we have the money now to re-introduce it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to see NSW Cup games, as many as possible, played before NRL games. You can\u2019t have NRL players playing in some back paddock in front of no one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Warriors<\/a>\u2019 reserve grade side won both the NSW Cup and NRL State Championship this year, highlighting the strength of New Zealand\u2019s rugby league talent pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Voss believes the NRL have made a major strategic error by prioritising Perth and Papua New Guinea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-248864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}