The arguments for and against the new Super Rugby Pacific play-off format
With the first-ever edition of Super Rugby Pacific just around the corner, the RugbyPass Round Table writers from New Zealand and Australia – Alex McLeod (AM), Ben Smith (BS), Tom Vinicombe (TV), Nick Turnbull (NT), Jack O’Rourke (JO) and Jordan King (JK) – deliver their verdicts on how the upcoming 2022 season will pan out.
Have competition organisers got the play-off balance right?
AM: No. I understand the reasoning competition organisers have in that they want eight of the 12 teams to qualify for the quarter-finals to ensure at least one Australian team makes the cut to keep interest levels high on that side of the Tasman.
However, having two-thirds of the league in the play-offs damages the integrity of Super Rugby Pacific and makes a large number of the regular season matches meaningless.
No more than half the competition – and that’s being generous – should be able to qualify for the post-season, and in a perfect world, only the top four should make the play-offs to ensure only the best of the best are rewarded.
That’s unlikely to happen, though, as maintaining the interest of the Australian public appears to be a priority of competition organisers.
Instead, a better alternative would have been to adopt the old Super Rugby play-off system that was in place between 2011 and 2015 whereby the top six teams qualified for a three-week post-season.
That way, no more than half the competition would be able to make the quarter-finals, while the Australia teams would still be in contention for at least one place in the play-offs, which will be dominated by the five Kiwi franchises.
BS: More playoff games equals more TV time, but the risk of diluting the quality of competition by lowering the bar to qualify is extremely high. For eight teams to qualify for the finals out of the 12 competitors is a joke.
In the original Super 12 competition, it was incredibly difficult to qualify for the semi-finals, which made them special in their own right.
Administrators have failed to recognise that the product suffers when undeserving losing teams are rewarded with finals spots.
Across the sporting landscape of professional leagues, Super Rugby’s bar is lower compared to the rest.
The NRL allows for half of the teams to qualify for playoffs, the NFL expanded their playoff bracket to 14 teams out of 32 (43.75 percent), the NBA allows 16 of 30 teams (53.33 percent), but these leagues have far more teams.
Having 66.67 per cent of the Super Rugby Pacific competition make the playoffs almost makes the round robin play redundant. Being consistent over the season really doesn’t matter.
Reinstating a four-team semi-final format would help to bring back some credibility to Super Rugby and make the finals more watchable as a result. Fans have already suffered enough from the broken conference system.
TV: When Super 12 first kicked off in 1996, just four of the 12 competing sides made it through to the finals. That number has now doubled ahead of the inaugural season of Super Rugby Pacific – and for good reason.
At present, the Australian teams are simply not even close to being up to the same standard as their NZ rivals and it would do no good for the competition to have an all Kiwi-affair in the finals. An eight-team knockout series rectifies this somewhat (although it likely just delays the inevitable).
Still, an eight-team series doesn’t do a lot for the credibility of the tournament either. In a couple of years, when the Australian teams have again become accustomed to playing NZ sides week-in and week-out, the format must be revisited – but it will work for now.
NT: No. I endorse a four-team finals series and am not fussed as to where those sides come from. If it is to be four New Zealand sides, so be it.
In previous incarnations of Super Rugby, I deplored the conference system as it didn’t facilitate the basic principle of competition: “May the best team win”.
JO: The balance of power sits with the New Zealand sides. Out of 24 official Super Rugby seasons, New Zealand teams have won the competition 17 times, with the Crusaders winning ten of those titles.
Super Rugby is viewed as a development league for the All Blacks, which means there’s not always parity across the five New Zealand teams. In particular, success attracts success at the Crusaders and they are overpowered with All Blacks.
This competition’s finals structure is indicative of a larger problem within Super Rugby – the competitiveness of the teams. The Australian teams need to improve their results and there could be big scores put on the two new teams entering the competition.
Anything to make sure it’s not a Kiwi white-wash will be welcomed by spectators living outside of Aotearoa.
JK: I understand the reasoning for having two thirds of the competition qualifying for the knockout stages, but it dilutes the importance of the round-robin.
To give teams any incentive to try hard before the finals outside of securing home-field advantage, the play-offs should be kept to the top four finishers.
That way, teams would feel the pressure of dropping a game and put more on the line in their next encounter.
Unfortunately, NZR need the Australian teams to get back to being competitive and, in today’s climate, could use the extra cash generated from an extended season.
Will the Super Round in Melbourne be a success or failure?
AM: One would hope it’s a success. Although it’s a proud sporting city, Melbourne isn’t exactly a rugby union hotspot in Australia, so it remains to be seen just how well-attended the Super Round will be.
However, with affordable tickets and a strong Kiwi contingent in Australia, there is reason for optimism as Super Rugby mimics the NRL’s Magic Round for the first time in its history, aside from the now-defunct Brisbane 10s pre-season tournament.
BS: Victorians do tend to get behind big sporting events in their city but rugby union is merely an afterthought in the AFL-mad Melbourne, so the jury is out as to whether this will gain healthy crowds.
The concept is interesting and should be tried, however Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane may have been a better fit with the games held in a state with legitimate grassroots participation and plenty of Kiwi ex-pats based in Queensland. Melbourne has the first crack, so good luck to them.
In post-Covid times, a Super Round in Dunedin wouldn’t go amiss, even if just for Kiwi derbies, as each team would having backing from the students all around the country. Forsyth Barr Stadium is the best surface for a quality high-paced game too, so the fixtures would be
Super Rugby needs to try build a ‘must attend’ event in the calendar to draw in more interest and build their entertainment product.
TV: For fans who are able to travel to Melbourne this year for the Super Round, the event promises to be a smorgasbord of action which should whet anyone’s appetite for rugby.
That being said, six live games over one weekend is a lot for any one fan to take in – but given how affordable the event is (with tickets starting at just 49 AUD for a three-day pass), it’s hard not to see it being a success.
If rugby fans don’t turn up for six Super Rugby matches over one weekend, they’re not really going to turn up for anything, and the sport would obviously have bigger problems.
NT: A success! Melbournians pride themselves on Melbourne being the sporting capital of Australia. I am not sure I would agree with that, but I will give them credit as they do get out and support live sport in droves.
This, coupled with any number of rugby expats living in Victoria and with Australia opening up post-Covid, I think the ingredients are there for it the Super Round to be a success.
JO: Super Round is set to be a massive weekend of rugby. Melbourne is a sports-mad city and it is the perfect place to stage a round of this magnitude. It has certainly captured the imagination of Aussie sports fans from all walks of life.
Six games over three days will give it a festival atmosphere, so expect some fancy dress a la events on the sevens circuit.
It is probably fortunate that it has been moved to April to coincide with Anzac Round. Playing rugby in Australia during the summer would have a few props sweating through their jerseys. I will see you there.
JK: Rugby in the southern hemisphere has lacked innovation in recent years which has seen the product go stale. I, for one, can’t wait to be parked up on my couch for an action-packed weekend of footy, but expecting fans to turn up for six games across three days may be a bit of an ask.
The governing bodies have to take these sorts of punts to test the waters, though. If it works, great. Put an order in for a second helping in 2023. If it doesn’t, they’ll know their version of the NRL’s “Magic Round” didn’t fix fans’ appetites and can at least say they tried.
Comments on RugbyPass
This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
31 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
2 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
15 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
15 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
1 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
15 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
15 Go to commentsNo SA supporter miss Super Rugby - a product that is experiencing significant head wind in ANZ - the competition from rival codes are intense, match attendance figures are at a historical low and the negativity of commentators such as Kirwan and Wilson have accelerated the downward spiral in NZ. After the next RWC in 2027 sponsors will follow Qantas and start leaving in droves.
2 Go to commentsLike others, I am not seeing the connection between this edition of the Crusaders and the All Blacks future prospects under Razor. I think the analysis of the Crusaders attack recently is helpful because Razor and his coaching team used to be able to slot new guys in to their systems and see them succeed. Several of Razor’s coaches are still there so it would be surprising if the current attack and set piece has been overhauled to a great extent - but based on that analysis, it may have been. Whether it is too many new guys due to injuries or retirement or a failure of current Crusaders systems is the main question to be answered imo. It doesn’t seem relevant for the ABs.
15 Go to commentsharry potter is set in stone. he creates stability and finishes well. exactly what schmidt likes. he’s the ben smith of australian rugby. i think it could quite easily be potter toole and kellaway for the foreseeable future.
5 Go to commentsThis is short sighted from Clayton if you ask me, smacks of too much preseason planning and no adaptability. What if DMac is out for a must win match, are they still only going to bring their best first five and playmaker on late in the game? Trusting the game to someone who wasn’t even part of planning (they would have had Trask pinned in as Jacomb preseason). Perhaps if the Crusaders were better they would not have done this, but either way imo you take this opportunity to play a guy you might need starting in a final rather than having their 12th game getting comfortable coming off the bench.
1 Go to commentsThanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.
21 Go to commentsWhat a load of bollocks. The author has forgotten to mention the fact that the Crusaders have a huge injury toll with top world class players out. Not to mention the fact that they are obviously in a transition period. No this will not spark a slow death for NZ rugby, but it does mean there will be a new Super Rugby champion. Anyone who knows anything about NZ rugby knows that there is some serious talent here, it just isn’t all at the Crusaders.
15 Go to commentsI wouldn’t spend the time on Nawaqanitawase! No point in having him filling in a jersey when he’s committed to leave Union. Give the jersey to a young prospect who will be here in the future.
5 Go to commentsIt was a pleasure to watch those guys playing with such confidence. That trio can all be infuriating for different reasons and I can see why Jones might have decided against them. No way to justify leaving Ikitau out though. Jorgensen and him were both scheduled to return at the same time. Only one of them plays for Randwick and has a dad who is great mates with the national coach though.
53 Go to commentsBrayden Iose and Peter Lakai are very exciting Super Rugby players but are too short and too light to ever be a Test 8 vs South Africa, France, Ireland, and England, Lakai could potentially be a Test player at 7 if he is allowed to focus on 7 for Hurricanes.
7 Go to commentsPencils “Thomas du Toit” into possible 2027 Bok squad.
1 Go to commentsDon’t see why Harrison makes the bench. Jones can play at 10 if needed, and there is a good case for starting her there to begin with if testing combinations. That would leave room for Sing on the bench
1 Go to commentsWhat a load of old bull!
1 Go to comments