Sir Steve Hansen on Super Rugby's issues: South Africa, ego and U21 talent
The Wallabies and All Blacks have both suffered historic losses at the Rugby World Cup, fueling criticism over the state of Super Rugby and its ability to develop and ready players for the international level.
Legendary All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen has thrown his experienced two cents to the mix, highlighting the loss of South African teams from the competition, Australia’s stance on dropping to four teams and the lack of U21 competition as key areas to address as soon as possible.
The 2015 World Cup winning coach told The Platform “there’s a few issues going on in southern hemisphere rugby” and pointed to the success of the northern hemisphere, and how the European teams are developing their young talent as a reference for what needs to change.
Also highlighted were the successful Super Rugby models of the past, and while a return to those models signals big change, they’re changes that Hansen believes would benefit the competitiveness of the southern hemisphere nations moving forward.
“A maximum of four (Australian teams) would make it better and that’s when Australian rugby was really strong,” he said. “They had three sides that were really competitive every weekend in Super Rugby. It was forcing us to get better ourselves.
“We are missing having South Africa in there, that style of game and maybe bringing back the Argentinians, finding a way to get them back into the competition will be good too.”
In recent decades Super Rugby has provided the platform for players to develop into international stars, Hansen says “there’s no reason” why the competition can’t replicate that success in the future.
“But I think we’d all agree, at the moment it’s not the competition we need it to be and we have to find a willingness to work together within the country and across the countries to come up with some solutions. That’s been the stumbling block so far.
“There’s one or two things that get in the way; one is our ego of not wanting to give up a team. We saw Australia try to do that and the Western Force dug their toes in and they had nowhere to go.
“So internally, at some point, we have to say to ourselves ‘this is what’s best for our game’ and when you’re hearing the likes of (Stephen) Hoiles, the ex-Wallaby player, coming and saying the same thing then you know that that’s the obvious thing to do.
“But we have to break down the barriers that are stopping us from doing that and within Australian sport, their biggest problem is state vs state, no one wants to give an inch and if we’re not prepared to give an inch then we’re going to lose a mile at the top end.
“Look, I’m not saying for Eddie (Jones) and the players, there’s no fault of theirs in this World Cup. They’ll reflect on it and say yes, we could have done some things better.
“But Rugby Australia has a problem because it’s not producing players or coaches that can play and coach at that level, not enough of them to create competition. So, they have to do something different and they have to be prepared to challenge themselves around that. As do we.
“Now that we don’t have South Africa playing, how do we find that competition? What are we doing with our under-21s and how do we get them more games and start making that team more important because one of the things the Northern Hemisphere have done, they’ve done really well in developing their under-21 players.
‘They’re winning World Cups and so forth, they play a Six Nations, they’re mirroring what they do at a higher level so that’s giving young guys a whole lot of experience. Our guys aren’t getting that and I know that New Zealand Rugby’s looking at certain things they want to do but we just need to get on with it.
“But all this costs money and that’s another big stumbling block. Australia don’t have any and we don’t have an awesome amount of it either but we’ve got to prioritise what’s really, really going to get to that level that we need to be at to be number one.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, didn’t.
224 Go to commentsKok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to comments