New Zealand kings of a crumbling castle
With the Waratahs recording a comprehensive win over the Highlanders, New Zealand’s uninterrupted domination of Australia in Super Rugby has finally come to a close. The run was inevitably going to end eventually and the result was as good as guaranteed early in the match when Tevita Nabura decided to use Cam Clark’s face to support his mid-air landing – resulting in a red card.
In the lead up to the match, there were a number of ideas floated to even up the competition, which has once again been dominated by the New Zealand teams this year. In particular, former Wallaby Mark Ella has called for New Zealand to loosen up the eligibility policies for the national team and allow All Blacks to represent foreign Super Rugby franchises.
The New Zealand Rugby Union naturally is quite happy with the way things are set up at the moment – having all of its important assets located in the country. Though Australia is not quite as far away as Europe or Japan, it’s still considerably easier to monitor how players are tracking when they’re playing in your backyard, as opposed to the next yard over.
As everyone in New Zealand rugby is centrally contracted it’s also much easier to get the NZ coaches on board with losing their players to various All Blacks camps scattered throughout the season. The Chiefs had to play without their All Blacks in their match against the Sharks for this very reason – something that would be a much harder sell to David Wessels or Brad Thorn in Australia.
There’s also the small matter that letting All Blacks represent Super Rugby teams outside of New Zealand will obviously weaken the Kiwi sides – something that would seem highly undesirable to the NZRU.
All this begs the question, what does New Zealand have to gain from lessening the restrictions on which teams All Blacks can represent?
The New Zealand national team has been the apex predator in the ecosystem that is international rugby for an almost outrageous length of time now. Since the World Rugby rankings were established in 2003, only three teams have held the number one position: England (for half a year), South Africa (for just under a year), and New Zealand.
The All Blacks have utterly dominated the international game, which, although pleasing for the country itself, has somewhat dampened matches between New Zealand and the rest of the world. In the Southern Hemisphere’s premier international competition, The Rugby Championship, the question is no longer which team will win, but by how many points New Zealand will come out on top.
Whilst there will always be some interest in how the rest of the world can fair against New Zealand, there is always going to be far more investment in matches between two relatively even teams. The Six Nations is certainly the most interesting and watchable annual international tournament now, and a huge part of this is because every year it is almost impossible to predict who will be crowned champion.
Rugby in Australia is fighting an ongoing battle with other sports codes – a battle which it seems to be losing, based on both viewership and player numbers. Naturally, children will flock to sports in which they see their state and national heroes perform well in. Rugby does not fit the bill here and hasn’t for some time.
New Zealand’s dominance of the international game must be turning away a number of potential viewers – and Super Rugby is heading in the same direction. It’s reached the point now where South African teams are competing for at most two spots in the finals every year – and Australian teams
seem to be fighting it out for one spot.
Professional sport is, by its very nature, supposed to be competitive. New Zealand and its Super Rugby teams want to be top of the world, that’s a given, but when the competition isn’t up to standard and viewership is falling, it may be worth considering mixing things up a bit. New Zealand may be the kings of the castle at the moment, but this won’t be any consolation if the castle collapses beneath them.
There are always going to be mouths to feed and pockets to line – that’s how professional sport operates, money talks. But at the end of the day, sport is a spectacle. Without the audience, without the fans, the game will die. Perhaps New Zealand don’t have a lot to gain from giving some of the other Super Rugby teams a leg up in the competition, but with the way the competition is heading at the moment, New Zealand does have a huge amount to lose by sitting back and doing nothing. Will New Zealand’s continual dominance of the game ultimately be rugby’s downfall?
Comments on RugbyPass
“upon leaving said establishment I tripped over a stool knocking some bottles into the air and as I fell I accidently dislodged a police officer’s teaser who was passing by on an unrelated matter there by landing on said taser which caused it to discharge 50,000 watts into me. Out of shock I shouted Ireland are going to win the world cup. Upon waking up I apologised for the distress caused by my Ireland comment. The matter is closed. If you wish to pursue this matter may I remind you what I told Wayne Barnes when he sent me off. I AM A BIG ASS MAN”. Or was it “I AM A BIG ASS, MAN” or was it “I AM A BIG ASSMAN”?
1 Go to commentsThe only championship the Boks hold are: Great value for the incompetence of referees during the RWC Moaning endlessly and champions of spewing utterly ignorant 💩 at all times. Displaying the dangers of a third world education End of.
26 Go to commentsSouth Africa and Rassie do a phenomenal job of treating the 4 years in between World Cups as nothing more than a training exercise to build squad depth. The Six Nations money that keeps Irish rugby afloat is unfortunately too important to allow the same approach, and basic population size means we'll never get close to matching the depth of South Africa, England and France. That being said, Irish rugby is in a relatively good place and slowly improving inch by inch. If the other three provinces can pull the finger out and actually develop some players it'd be even better.
26 Go to commentsGood on Clarke for taking on the criticism and addressing his deficiencies, principally his laziness.
2 Go to comments“It is the people’s favourite against the actual favourite. It is the people’s champions against the actual champions. I’m joking, but it’s going to be a fantastic series.” Why did Darcy make that joke knowing it would be used as click bait? Why did RP headline it as a serious comment? Anyway, the tired comment isn’t very astute. SA players may have played more games etc. Darcy over estimated as a pundit.
26 Go to commentsNot sure Frisch will ever make the French team with Depoortère and Costes waiting in the wings to take over from Danty and Fickou.
1 Go to commentsThe Irish are tired and the Boks are old. The test series won't confirm who is best in the world, it will confirm which team needs to pursue the task of rebuilding with the most urgency.
26 Go to commentsGrant, the first time I have seen an article written by you. Maybe I have missed your previous stuff. These days all professional players effectively play a common season so all top players are equally tired, or rested. That is the job of the coaching ticket to build squad depth and juggle resources so players are ‘ fresh’ when the big games come. Possibly Ireland are less inclined to juggle squad compared to Rassie, who is prepared to take the risk to rest players as well as build depth throughout the year so come WC he has a full squad, experienced and rested enough to win 7 games. After all, to win WC you need to get through the tournament and then win the final big 3 games. Ireland should try and build a bit so come final 3 they are ready. So far only played final 1(QF). I am so looking forward to the Irish tour. Hopefully Rassie has enough time to align his guys, as he draws them from across the globe, and not from 2 sides locally( eg Leinster, Munster). No excuses, going to be exciting.
26 Go to commentsIn football, teams get fined and sometimes docked points for deliberately fielding weakened teams yet Leinster can pretty much do as they please with no comebacks. Could it be because Ireland run the URC? Could it be that Ireland run the ERC? Whichever it is, it stinks!!
6 Go to commentsIreland are only the People’s Champions in Irish eyes. The rest of the world do not care for them very much because of attitudes of people like Gordon, Ferris, Best, Jackman…I could go on!!
26 Go to commentsNot sure how Karl Dickson can ever ref a Quins game, he played for the club for 8 years as understudy to Care and is still close friends with half the team
3 Go to commentsAre bookies taking bets on how many times Vunipola's eventual statement will use the term “elders"? My money is on at least 4 times.
4 Go to commentsSo Ireland will be tired, despite having the most rested test squad in the world. They only play tests, champions cup and urc play off games ffs! Case in point; Leinster sent a B squad to SA for their last two games while their first xv rested up and trained at their leisure for the sf vs Saints at the so called ‘neutral venue’ of Croke Park. So tired? Do me a favour… And as for “people’s champions”? Seriously??? Outside of Ireland they are respected for their ability to win 6N. And of course plenty of inconsequential test friendlies without any real pressure. WC ko games when the pressure is white hot? Not so much…
26 Go to commentsSurprising how standing down or benching a player can do wonders for their motivation. Several players this week in that category.
2 Go to commentsHaha lads lads lads, that’s how you have a holiday In Majorca
4 Go to commentshit on Lynagh was defo late and card-worthy. The other 2 are bang on OK. Hurts you at Test level if youre timing is off and the nostrils are flared. Jerry C knew when to lean in on one, Finau just needs to keep his discipline and head straight.
7 Go to commentsSlade was exceptional against Gloucester. Not only was he doing the classic Slade stuff of running amazing lines and timing passes to perfection to put his wingers into space, he was kicking goals, flying off the line smashing people and crashing into rucks like a flanker… his hair even looked on point. 😍
1 Go to commentsThat’s really sad, hope everyone involved is ok. At least he had pants on.
4 Go to commentsTo be fair it was nowhere bear the Leinster first team (for which, btw, Leinster copped nothing like the outrage that Jake White did for sending a rotated team to the UK). But it’s fun to watch the Stormers doing their thing. They are attracting big, diverse crowds of young fans, and deservedly so. Great to see.
1 Go to commentsIt might be legal but he’s sailing pretty close to the wind. Not a lot needs to go wrong for Finau to end up in the bin. Was it late? Not quite, but borderline. High? A couple of CM within the laws, no room for error with that one. Did he wrap the arms? There was a token effort to wrap one arm, the intent was clearly to hit with the shoulder. So yeah, it’s legal, just. But as we all know, a very slight change in the dynamics could easily have him seeing red. Hopefully not when it really matters.
7 Go to comments