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New Japanese club competition planned post-World Cup, test stars set to be targeted
Plans for a new domestic league in Japan following on from this year’s World Cup could force current Super Rugby and Southern Hemisphere test stars to choose between the international arena and the riches on offer in the Far East.
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Japanese Rugby Football Union vice-president Katsuyuki Kiyomiya told Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei that he wants to ride the coattails of the Brave Blossoms’ unprecedented success at their home World Cup by forming a new 12-team club competition in the second half of 2021.
Interest in rugby has surged in Japan throughout the tournament as Jamie Joseph’s side remains unbeaten after having dispatched the likes of Ireland and Scotland to finish atop of Pool A and qualify for the knockout stages for the first time in their history.
“This World Cup is a big event Japanese rugby has not experienced before and we are tested on how we take the excitement and enthusiasm created by this event to the next level,” Kiyomiya said.
“Now is the chance to start a professional league, which enables Japanese spectators to see star players in the World Cup 2019 playing at first hand, right in front of their eyes.”
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Kiyomiya said he will hold a news conference in Tokyo on November 18, where he will lay out plans for the new competition, which would launch in August 2021.
The league would run through to January, thus avoiding a schedule clash with SANZAAR’s Super Rugby, which is set to run from January to July next year.
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That would allow for the Southern Hemisphere’s premier players to be recruited for the new Japanese club competition during the Super Rugby off-season.
Having such star power in the new competition would help tee up a significant broadcasting deal with streaming giant DAZN, which already holds the rights to Japan’s J-League football competition.
The Australian rugby league great joined up with Eddie Jones’ squad ahead of the World Cup quarter-final against the Wallabies. #RWC2019 https://t.co/qC1Ig2fYsL
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 14, 2019
Kiyomiya told Nikkei the league would aim to generate annual revenue of about 50 billion yen (US$460m/€420m) from the sale of media and sponsorship rights, which would be enough “to be on a par with the European market”.
Japan already has a club competition in place in the form of the Top League, but the tournament – whose 16 participating teams are mostly owned by large corporations as per Japan’s industry-led sports model – is smaller in scale than the league proposed by Kiyomiya and doesn’t generate a profit.
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News of this new league will add another layer of scrutiny for unions such as New Zealand Rugby, Rugby Australia and South Africa Rugby.
All three unions have struggled to retain their key players in recent years as the lure of the yen, pound and Euro has proven to be more and more difficult for the sport’s marquee players to turn down in place of a test career.
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Both New Zealand and Australia have strict policies regarding the selection of overseas-based players, although those laws have been loosened somewhat over the past few years to help alleviate the growing pressure surrounding the retention of those nations’ star players.
South Africa, meanwhile, have an open selection policy after having abolished their 30-cap threshold for overseas-based players last year to allow national selectors to pick any South African player from around the world.
The move came as a result of the diminishing strength of the rand compared to that of the British, European and Japanese currencies.
Should the proposed competition replace the existing Top League in the Japanese rugby calendar, players anticipating heading to Japan to take up lucrative short-term contracts – as has been commonplace in years gone by – will have to make a choice about where their priorities lie between club and country.
Ireland had flown in special legal counsel for the hearing in Tokyo, which lasted over three hours.https://t.co/iMO63eSS4w
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 14, 2019
With the competition expected to run between August and January, players from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa would be unavailable for most of the international season, which – for Southern Hemisphere nations – will take place between July and November from next year onwards.
Many high-profile players have signed deals to play in the Top League next year and beyond, but the proposition of the new league coming to fruition brings with it a sense of uncertainty.
For example, Beauden Barrett’s four-year deal with the Blues includes an option to take up a short-term contract in Japan following the 2020 Super Rugby season, but when the deal was struck, it was assumed the two-time World Player of the Year would miss a Blues campaign to play in the Top League, which will clash with Super Rugby next year.
If the new Japanese competition takes the place of the Top League at the backend of 2021, then it would instead be the majority of the All Blacks‘ campaign that Barrett would miss out on rather than a season of Super Rugby.
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That might be something that sits uncomfortably for both the 80-test veteran and NZR.
Fellow All Blacks stars Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock have already penned long-term agreements with NZR which will allow them to take up short-term deals in Japan over the next two years.
Whitelock will be unaffected by the admission of the new league, as he will only sit out next year’s Super Rugby to play for the Panasonic Wild Knights before returning to New Zealand in July to resume his duties with the national side and the Crusaders.
Retallick, however, is set to be based in Japan with the Kobe Steelers until midway through 2021, and will be unavailable for the All Blacks and Chiefs until then.
'I might be able to set him up'https://t.co/Cs9GA3qlgt
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 14, 2019
That was based on the understanding that 2021 Japanese club season would take place in the first half of the year, though, and the induction of the new competition could bring with it complications regarding Retallick’s stay in Japan.
“When we started talking to Brodie the expectation was that he’d play two competitions for Kobe and they would fall in a 12-13 month period,” NZR head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum told Stuff in June.
In securing the services of Retallick through to the 2023 World Cup, NZR had to provide plenty of flexibility in allowing the 28-year-old to head offshore, with Lendrum admitting that the deal will keep the 2014 World Player of the Year away from the Chiefs for longer than the two-time Super Rugby champions would have liked.
It seems as though the JRFU want to avoid a scheduling conflict with Super Rugby as they aim to attract SANZAAR’s star men into their new league, but that will come at a cost for the Southern Hemisphere’s national sides, whose key players may have to put their test careers on hold if they want to pursue the financial riches that comes with domestic rugby in Japan.
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Comments on RugbyPass
The rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
69 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
2 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to comments