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Kiwi stars say Super Rugby Aotearoa is unsustainable as they reveal preference to play South African, Australian teams

By Online Editors
(Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)

The New Zealand public and wider global rugby community may have fallen in love with the concept of Super Rugby Aotearoa, but two of the competition’s star players have described the competition as unsustainable.

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The Kiwi club game has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts since the domestic league kicked off last month following the three-month COVID-19 lockdown, with fan interest and TV audiences soaring since its return.

Much of the hype has been centred around the fact that the New Zealand teams and players have faced off against one another to create tight, tense, entertaining matches week after week.

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Such encounters were hard to come by in the initial iteration of Super Rugby, which included teams from Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Japan.

Most teams from those regions have been largely outclassed by their Kiwi counterparts in recent times, with seven of the last eight Super Rugby champions coming from New Zealand.

That lack of competitiveness, combined with the unappealing time zones that comes with playing across the Southern Hemisphere, made the original Super Rugby competition a dull product for fans in comparison to Super Rugby Aotearoa.

With a Super Rugby revamp expected for next year and various options being considered as to how the league should be formatted, many have suggested New Zealand continue to forge their own competition.

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Other suggestions have been a trans-Tasman competition with a reduced number of teams from Australia, while talk of the possible induction of a Pacific Islands team based out of South Auckland has also been prominent over the past week.

However, Chiefs and All Blacks halfback Brad Weber has revealed that he enjoys the international aspect of Super Rugby, and said that he has a preference for a format of that ilk rather than a strictly domestic league.

“I’m a little bit torn because I enjoy going to South Africa and I enjoy playing against the Australians,” he said.

“I think it’s the beauty of Super Rugby is that we do have all these different teams from around the world. I actually really enjoy that part of it. 

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“Going to Africa for two weeks, especially as a young fella, is a great learning experience, it’s a way to connect with the lads.

“Playing Super Rugby New Zealand derbies all the time probably isn’t sustainable around the athletes and player welfare. 

“It’s pretty tough, so having that time to go away – not saying that they’re easier teams or anything like that – but I do like having that there.”

Crusaders halfback and three-time Super Rugby champion Bryn Hall agreed with Weber in that Super Rugby Aotearoa isn’t the way forward, but admitted he wasn’t sure how a revamped league should be structured.

“I guess I’m just torn a little bit as well because you look at how Super Rugby’s been the last five years, and my thinking behind it is that New Zealand teams have probably dominated a lot of the competition,” he said.

“I think as a consumer, if you’re a New Zealander, you love watching it. Think about Super Rugby Aotearoa, how much it’s been packed stadiums, quality rugby every single week.

“It’s tough, and I don’t think it is sustainable if you wanted to have competition with just New Zealand teams. 

“Let’s say we played three times, we all played three times, I don’t think it’s sustainable, and it’s probably going to dilute the product as well playing every single Kiwi team.

“I think whatever the decision is moving forward, it just has to be a competition that is competitive, every team that is available.

“I know there’s been talks of dropping a couple of Australian teams to make them competitive, or a Pacific Islands [team], or whatever it looks like.

“I’m a little bit torn, what I think the right direction is, but I think competitiveness and a product that is worth watching every single week is pretty important.”

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Mzilikazi 22 minutes ago
How England reverse-engineered unlikely attacking change

Thanks, Nick, not only for this fine article, but for all the others during 6N 2024. I really enjoyed this 2024 tournament, and felt it was one of the best for many years. That final match in Lyons was really good. England were certainly unlucky when that speculative hack by Ramos lead to a French try. It could just so easily have landed in English hand.s, and they score at the other end. I did think though that the French played some great rugby, and some of their driving play in the forwards was just fearsome. I watched Meafou with interest, and he has a good start to his career. It is interesting to compare him with Will Skelton. Lot of similarities, though so far Meafou has not shown any offloading threat. All credit to Borthwick for being prepared to change, and what great result, even if that last game was lost at the death. I feel they are a real chance to cause the AB’s problems this winter/summer. Finally a comment on Ireland. I thought their last game was their worst, and they did not look like the world’s No 2 side at all. What really worries me is that the loss to England was, in my view, down to poor decision making by the coaching group, and ofc Andy Farrell wears that. It was a big mistake to move JGP away from scrum half. Murray should have been the one to go to the wing. And the “finishers” should have been on the field earlier. And this is the second time this has happened. The RWC Qf against the AB’s, and not getting Crowley onto the field was a huge mistake. Finally, finally, watching Italy play was a joy. How wonderful that they are no longer the punchbag of the 6 N.

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