Super Rugby replacement should grow the game by being an elite competition, not by opening the doors to everyone
When Super 12 was launched in 1996, the 12 initial spots for teams were handed out based on merit. SANZAAR, the governing body, has since made the mistake of trying to use the competition to grow rugby outside those 12 geographic regions, which has probably been the major factor in Super Rugby’s downfall.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) have now revealed what they see as the future of rugby in NZ – a trans-Tasman competition that includes the five Kiwi teams and a smattering of sides from Australia and possibly the Pacific Islands.
The revelation that NZR may believe as few as two Australian sides belong in the new competition would have come as a major gut punch to administrators on the other side of the Tasman Sea.
The two neighbouring countries have been bedfellows for a long time now, with Rugby Australia (RA) even indicating they’d be willing to hand some co-hosting responsibilities over to NZ if they’re able to secure the 2027 World Cup.
Purely on merit, however, there’s little argument for why Australia deserve for than two or three teams in a new competition. The Australian conference has been the weakest in Super Rugby for some time. The Brumbies are the only side that’s really shown any backbone in recent years and, even if you hark back to the wonder years when Reds and Waratahs secured Super Rugby titles, their success was always at the expense of other teams.
Allowing Australia just two teams in a trans-Tasman competition may be a bit harsh, but why would anyone think all five sides deserve to play alongside their considerably stronger Kiwi rivals, asks @TomVinicombe. #SuperRugbyAotearoa #SuperRugbyAUhttps://t.co/WknQKmIATb
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 11, 2020
In 2011, the Reds topped the overall ladder while the Western Force, Brumbies and Rebels held three of the bottom four spots. In 2014, when the Waratahs won their maiden title, the Rebels and Reds respectively occupied last and third-from-last on the table.
Understandably, RA would ideally want all five of their current teams – the Reds, Waratahs, Brumbies, Rebels and Force – to be included in any trans-Tasman competition, in order to ‘grow the game’ across Australia. Premier competitions aren’t supposed to encourage growth by creating long-term pathways for local players, however, they’re supposed to encourage growth by promoting a brilliantly marketable product.
Creating pathways for players should rest on the union’s shoulders. New Zealand has the Mitre 10 Cup. Australia has the National Rugby Championship – but even that’s not really built for long-term success.
If the Force were to be welcomed back into the fold, for example, that would create an end-goal for young rugby players in Western Australia – but there needs to be shorter-term goals too. WA currently have just one team in the NRC, so how will the Force expect to compete with NZ’s franchises unless they start taking players from other regions across Australia?
A tournament comprised of New Zealand’s five sides plus the three original Australian teams – the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies – would create a highly competitive, highly marketable competition.
If Australia commits to introducing an extra NRC team in WA and Victoria then the situation can be reassessed after two or three years – but that would be dependant on the Australian sides actually remaining competitive in the trans-Tasman competition.
Young athletes in Australia won’t be drawn to rugby just because a team that represents their region is getting regularly thrashed by NZ sides. They’ll be drawn to rugby because the nation is succeeding as a whole – and a massive factor in that success will be the country’s domestic competition.
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Japan would also be a worthy candidate for teaming up with New Zealand and Australia, but their international club should be considered the tier above their current domestic competition and have the pick of the bunch of players already playing in the Top League. If the Sunwolves had always had access to whatever Japanese players they’d wanted, they would have attracted considerably less negative press.
It beggars belief that Australia, a country with rich roots in rugby and two World Cup titles under their belt, has a worse domestic competition than Japan.
The fact that RA sees Super Rugby as a way to grow the grassroots of the game in Australia shows how backwards their thinking is right now.
Whatever competition New Zealand spearheads needs to be highly competitive – the best club rugby product in the Southern Hemisphere, at the very least. That won’t be achieved through opening the doors to every team that wants to have a run – there have to be strict requirements not just if expansion is to ever take place, but for the teams that want to take part in the inaugural season of the competition.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
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