Is it time to expand The Rugby Championship to include Fiji and Japan?
The failed Nations Championship proposal was touted as a vehicle to promote various tier two nations like Fiji, Japan and USA into a rolling annual global tournament.
The promised riches to be shared would fill the coffers of Southern Hemisphere unions and World Rugby, while simultaneously taking from the pockets of the North, who would be forced to give up their own ‘revenue-generating’ windows to make it work.
The performances of Fiji and Japan at this year’s World Cup has given credibility to the idea that these two nations are ready for higher competition. It would be well-deserved based on their showings so far.
What Dan says ? https://t.co/SejZsTQYrE
— Ben Ryan (@benjaminryan) October 9, 2019
The question is how much of their own power would SANZAAR nations be willing to forgo to expand The Rugby Championship to include these two teams and make them competitively viable long-term. With the Nations Championship off the table, is there anything stopping SANZAAR expanding The Rugby Championship on their own?
Some have been quick to lay blame on the Northern Hemisphere, with no geographical proximity to the Pacific nations, for the failure of their development.
It is rich to see NZR figures decry the state of the Pacific countries when they themselves benefit from the systemic imbalance of power that funnels some of the best young Pacific players to always pick the black or green and gold jersey in order to provide for their families.
Fiji’s performance at the Rugby World Cup in 2019, pushing Australia and Wales in highly entertaining and absorbing fixtures, also wouldn’t be possible without one nation – France.
Had a player like Australian rugby league representative Semi Radradra not been locked into representing Fiji after playing Sevens for them in 2011, it is almost certain that another tier one nation would have secured his services after his NRL career with the hopes of him representing their nation.
Because he isn’t eligible for any other nation but Fiji, the highest wage he can earn in rugby union is in the Top 14 in France, or perhaps the Gallagher Premiership, where a privatised club largely free from national interests, can offer him a job which keeps him in the game.
The offers from Super Rugby clubs without the support from Rugby Australia would be far less (if at all on the table) without the carrot of becoming a Wallaby. The same applies to New Zealand.
Whether by design or coincidence, the careers of Pacific players ineligible for the All Blacks do not last long in New Zealand.
Compare the careers of Fijian-natives Sitiveni Sivivatu and Rupeni Caucaunibuca. After the 2003 World Cup, Caucaunibuca was a prized signature sought after by French clubs after just three seasons and 14 games for the Blues.
Sivivatu, arriving in New Zealand at 15-years-old, had an illustrious career in New Zealand spanning 11 seasons. Without being eligible for the All Blacks, Caucau could never earn close to what was on offer overseas. Sitivatu could.
Looking at a more recent example, had Sevu Reece represented his native Fiji, how long would it have been before he would have forced to go overseas to reach somewhere near his real market value?
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3YATZVAQk3/
It would be plausible that as a result, Radradra stays in rugby league or finds a Super League club to continue his life as a professional athlete without a Top 14 contract, robbing fans of his fantastic 2019 Rugby World Cup showing and some of Fiji’s ability to compete.
Semi Radradra could not feasibly represent Fiji and make a decent living as a professional rugby player without a private league like the Top 14. This is also the case with many of the other Fijian players.
The French domestic league isn’t perfect by any means*, but the removal of national interests by some degree from contracting gives every elite Pacific player a chance to play rugby professionally and represent their home nation that can only offer ‘pocket money’ as match fees.
*The FFR has added further restrictions recently, which is creating adverse effects towards creating French eligible players through Pacific talent exploitation. They are also known to encourage pacific players not to play internationally in order to turn out for the clubs.
This is currently both the only way to make Fiji competitive internationally and also a roadblock to Fiji reaching its full potential.
The irony of Steve Hansen’s finger-pointing and blame towards the Northern Hemisphere countries for the state of Pacific rugby is that one of them is actually enabling them to be somewhat competitive.
France is providing the bulk of the pro system for the Fiji national side, that pays the players and keeps them playing at a high level but on increasingly difficult terms. Six of the seven starting backline against Wales currently play for French clubs. The FFR is also looking to get the next generation of them wearing blue, not white in the future.
The conundrum for NZR and RA is whether they will actively go out of their way to concede power in order to strengthen Pacific unions, taking steps to end their own benefit they receive of holding systemic financial power over them.
Would the NZR pool together SAANZAR broadcast rights revenue from an expanded Rugby Championship and share with the Fiji Rugby Union, in the same way they wanted the RFU to split the Twickenham-gate earnings or pool and share Nations Championship revenue? It’s a bit different when the shoe is on the other foot and it’s coming out of your pocket and not into it.
Imagine if the Fiji Rugby Union could pay proper match payments to players that would start to even out the imbalance through a cut of say $25m to $30m of an expanded SANZAAR pie. However, if each SANZAAR participant just continued to take their home rake and only pool non-core markets, an expanded competition wouldn’t change much.
Would SAANZAR allow for and partly subsidise a Pacific-island Super Rugby franchise, to give Fijian-players a pathway through to the top side in their own backyard instead of France? This is the organisation that just cut Japan’s only Super Rugby club past-2020, making Japan’s future path to The Rugby Championship that much harder to come to fruition.
There are many structural issues at hand that need to be overcome to push tier two nations into tier one status and part of it includes tier one nations abdicating and acting outside their ‘own interests’ to make it happen. It would take nations to undertake extensive work outside their bordered jurisdictions. If they don’t want to, then that’s perfectly fine, but don’t finger point at others for ‘protecting their own interests’.
It’s the Southern Hemisphere nations that probably hold the most influence over whether it does or not.
If this is what Fiji can do with basically only grants from World Rugby, imagine what could happen if they were on a more level playing field. But perhaps the thought of what they could do is too much for some to make it happen.
Rugby World Cup predictions:
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments