Crossing the border: How to fix Super Rugby's imbalance between New Zealand and Australia
When it was confirmed that two Pacific Island franchises will enter Super Rugby next year, it seemed the fledgling competition had turned a corner.
The induction of Moana Pasifika and the Fijian Drua into the southern hemisphere’s premier club tournament provided fans Down Under with a beacon of hope that Super Rugby may be restored to its former glory.
Ever since the league expanded from its Super 12 heydays in 2006, public interest and competitiveness across the league had been in a steady decline largely due to mismanagement of competition organisers, leaving scoreboards lopsided and fans disenfranchised.
However, the decisions to truncate the league to 12 teams and make it an Oceanic competition, and to answer the long-awaited call of Pacific involvement in professional rugby, culminated in a feeling of anticipation about the future of Super Rugby.
Those hopes for a well-organised and competitive league have taken a hit since the makeshift Super Rugby Trans-Tasman tournament kicked-off three weeks ago.
After two seasons of Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU, the New Zealand and Australian franchises, all of whom will partake in next year’s competition, were finally allowed to square off against each other for the first time since COVID-19 ravaged the planet.
Their respective domestic competitions provided fans in each country with plenty of entertainment, especially in New Zealand, where matches between the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders were often compared to test match rugby.
The inaugural campaign of Super Rugby AU significantly lacked the speed, physicality and overall quality on offer across the ditch, but this year’s edition of the all-Australian competition was a vastly improved product.
That, among other things, helped give the sport a new lease of life within the country, which was reflected when more than 40,000 people packed into Suncorp Stadium to watch the Reds beat the Brumbies in the Super Rugby AU final to clinch their first title since 2011.
With fans warming to the XV-man code in their droves thanks to an enhanced brand of rugby compared to that of previous years, a sense of intrigue surrounded Super Rugby Trans-Tasman.
However, any expectation that the Australian franchises might foot it with their Kiwi counterparts has been blown out of the water as the New Zealanders have romped to 14 wins from 15 attempts thus far this season.
The return of cross-border Super Rugby has – excluding the Reds’ fortuitous win over the Chiefs on Saturday – brought with it the return of lopsided results, with the New Zealand teams averaging 22-point victories over their Australian rivals.
TJ Perenara hasn’t returned to the Hurricanes just yet, but assistant coach Cory Jane says he wouldn’t be surprised to see him involved soon. #SuperRugbyTT #Hurricanes https://t.co/I4PR74kdu5
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The gaping gulf in class was highlighted by Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson, who conceded there was a considerable difference in quality after his side smashed the Reds 63-28 on their home turf a week-and-a-half ago.
“I would have liked Australian teams to knock off a few of the Kiwi teams to make the ladder a little more even,” Robertson said.
“There’s a gulf isn’t there, which is a real shame. The rest of this comp’s really important for Australian rugby to show a bit for their supporters.”
This isn’t the first time that the New Zealand teams have flexed their superiority over the Australian clubs, who went 40 games without victory against the Kiwis between 2016 and 2018.
So, while many are excited about the prospect of a new Super Rugby competition coming to the fore next year, some of the problems that plagued the old format still seem to exist.
It’s a predicament that has been examined by The XV recently, and it’s not an easy issue to resolve, but there is one avenue that hasn’t been searched which could alleviate the imbalance that become evident between the two countries.
Acting in their own self-interests to maintain high standards of their national teams, New Zealand Rugby [NZR] and Rugby Australia [RA] have placed restrictions that prevent their players from being selected if they play for clubs overseas.
Alterations to those restrictions have been made by both organisations in years gone by as the financial pressure from English, French and Japanese clubs has taken its toll on NZR’s and RA’s player pool.
For example, the Giteau Law was introduced by RA in 2015 to allow offshore-based players with at least 60 tests and seven years of domestic service to still be eligible for the Wallabies.
Likewise, NZR has increasingly offered its top players the chance to take sabbaticals to either play abroad on short-term deals, or to take a break from the game for a prolonged period.
If this is New Zealand’s best ever Super Rugby player, the All Blacks have to find a better way to use him. @bensmithrugby https://t.co/JDCpWvZmhW
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Both instances allow for select high-reputation players to base themselves overseas, either permanently or on a loan-type basis, and still be eligible for their national sides.
But, the overwhelming majority of players still need to ply their club trade in New Zealand and Australia to have any chance of playing for the All Blacks and Wallabies.
This is where the imbalance between New Zealand’s and Australia’s franchises lies because, as Super Rugby Trans-Tasman has exemplified, the depth of quality in NZR’s player pool is far deeper than RA’s.
So, why not remove those limitations to allow unrestricted player movement between New Zealand and Australia to evenly spread the talent across the competition while still allowing all players, regardless of which side of the Tasman they play on, to be eligible for test selection?
Take, for example, the Crusaders and the ludicrous playing stocks in their backline.
Across the midfield and outside backs, they have Jack Goodhue, Braydon Ennor, Leicester Fainga’anuku, David Havili, George Bridge, Sevu Reece and Will Jordan to pick from.
All of those seven players are either All Blacks or soon-to-be All Blacks, but the Crusaders can only fit five of them into their starting XV in the midfield and back three.
That means, if all of the aforementioned names are fit and firing, two would miss out on any given game day.
All seven individuals are undoubtedly good enough to start at Super Rugby level, though, and would be heralded as superb acquisitions who could help transform an Australian franchise from easy-beats to title-chasers.
The same can’t be said of many Australian midfielders or outside backs heading to the Crusaders, which again highlights the disparities between New Zealand’s and Australia’s depth charts.
Although the Waratahs fell to yet another heavy defeat – this time at the hands of the Crusaders – last weekend, there was a bright spot for winless New South Welshmen. #SuperRugbyTT #Wallabies https://t.co/UJLs7EkqR1
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The added benefit of Australian youngsters being recruited and brought through the ranks by a Kiwi franchise, only for them to use the knowledge and skills the acquired across the ditch for the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup, shouldn’t be lost on RA.
But, with the loss of an All Blacks jersey the cost of moving to Australia, none of the Crusaders seven would make the jump to secure themselves the certainty of a starting spot.
That leaves Australian teams short-changed of Super Rugby’s top talent, but that could change if the player market was opened up to allow Kiwis to plug a hole in the backline of an Australian franchise in need, and vice versa, while still being eligible for test rugby.
It’s a concept that Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie touched on last year when discussing the Giteau Law.
Allowing any New Zealand or Australian player based overseas to play for the All Blacks or Wallabies would completely destroy Super Rugby as none of the franchises would be able to compete with the wealth of the Premiership, Top 14 or Top League clubs.
However, Rennie suggested that doesn’t mean cross-border transfers of All Blacks and Wallabies in a competition composed (mostly) of New Zealand and Australian teams should be ruled out as a possibility.
“We’ve got certain players playing in that competition [Top League] and whether that would make them eligible for selection [is worth considering] because you can compare apples with apples,” he said while toying with the idea of a Super Rugby format involving Japanese teams.
“If we had a Wallaby playing for the Blues, for example, we get to see him playing against the best Aussies. From a selection point of view, that makes sense.”
It’s hard to disagree with Rennie’s foreign policy, but it’s unlikely NZR or RA would readily approve of their top players switching allegiance because of how it might impact their national teams.
That much was made clear late last year when RA rejected a request from Wallabies star James O’Connor to play for the Chiefs this season.
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However, selecting O’Connor for the Wallabies after proving his worth against his countrymen makes more sense than plucking guys out of the northern hemisphere, as has been done before with the likes of Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and Will Genia.
The same applies for the All Blacks, who would be better off picking Kiwis who have played abroad but still in the same competition as their compatriots rather than those who opted to play in the Top League, as they will with Beauden Barrett, Brodie Retallick and TJ Perenara.
Last week’s renewed talk of Japanese involvement in Super Rugby could even work in favour of Barrett, Retallick, Perenara and the All Blacks, who could pick that trio while they play in Japan against Kiwis and Aussies in a competition that allows for unrestricted transfers.
As Rennie alluded to, it’s better to compare apples with apples than apples with oranges.
Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments