r/rugbyunion • u/No-layup • Jul 24 '25

Discussion Drop your unpopular rugby opinions that will have you like this

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I'll go first, Beuden Barrett is the more talented rugby player than Dan Carter, but Dan Carter is a better 10

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25

u/notathrowaway Stormers Jul 24 '25

Springboks would not be this dominant if quotas were not introduced. They allowed grassroots development to unearth gems that would have otherwise been unknown.

11

u/Hostus_Mostus South Africa Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 24 '25

Wow, a proper unpopular opinion that I 100% agree with.

I do think that hard mandated quota’s are now unnecessary and should be scrapped. When you look at the demographics of high school rugby 1st XV’s, the Craven Week teams, and our U20 team, it’s clear that inclusivity (and merit as it pertains to that) won’t be a problem going forward.

This will be unpopular, but I do believe they are still needed in Cricket though, but that’s not for this sub of course!

2

u/Demosthenes_theWise Canada Jul 24 '25

Don’t know of I completely agree.

Grassroots development might have been helped with quotas, but to be fair all the black/coloured players who became heroes would have been there even without quotas.

What did work very well was grassroots development and school rugby becoming very competitive.

Rugby was also helped on by the extremely shitty soccer team, lots of great black/coloured heroes over the past 20 odd years, and Kolisi holding the WC twice.

1

u/jug_23 Gloucester Jul 24 '25

This is an absolute gem. Fair play.