The arranged marriage of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina is over
To all intents and purposes, the arranged marriage of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina is over. South Africa was said to be taking longing looks towards the Six Nations long before COVID-19 and now we have a chance to dissolve things well before the expiration of the current broadcast deal in 2025.
This year’s Super Rugby competition is over and, even without the Sunwolves from 2021, a Four-Nations’ franchise tournament appears pretty optimistic.
In an ideal world, New Zealand might go it alone for a while. Kiwi fans had become fed up with anything other than derby games and circumstances mean that’s all New Zealand Rugby (NZR) will be capable of staging in the short-term.
Australia, which includes New Zealand basketball, football, and rugby league teams in their domestic competitions, seems like a logical, if underwhelming, rugby partner. Both nations have (so far) survived the pandemic without huge incident and are suitably close to each other – and isolated from everyone else – to stage a Super 10-type competition.
That would mean New Zealand’s five franchises joining Australia’s four plus, presumably, the Western Force in a trans-Tasman tournament. It’s a competition that would include plenty of mismatches, but it’s the logical choice franchise-wise.
Sadly, whether there would be sufficient demand, both here and from overseas networks, for an all-singing, all-dancing Mitre 10 Cup might never be determined. We fans might want to see our best and brightest playing each other in the provincial arena, but the great unknown is how it would pay for itself.
What is known is that SANZAAR have Super Rugby and Rugby Championship agreements in place until 2025, no matter how unlikely it is that those obligations can be met.
So assuming the four parties have been making their own plans for 2026 and beyond, what are the chances of them simply flagging it away now?
It’s all incumbent on what else the member unions can cobble together and how attractive that then looks to the television paymasters.
Talk out of Australia is of a dissatisfaction with South Africa as a Super Rugby partner, while NZR have announced a fairly broad review of their involvement in the competition too. Throw in the travel bans that now exist and a trans-Tasman tournament sounds more feasible than some of the things SANZAAR chief executive Andy Marinos was suggesting a week or so ago.
All four test teams aren’t likely to become based in Sydney and how and where would the concurrent Super competition he talked about be staged as well?
SANZAAR has been a worthwhile outfit. Argentina, after top-four finishes at the 2007 and 2017 Rugby World Cups, thoroughly deserved Super Rugby and Rugby Championship recognition, but you now wonder what the future holds for them.
The early days of Super Rugby featured some very fine Sharks sides, while the Bulls will forever be celebrated for their three title-winning seasons. But in recent times it seemed the likes of New Zealand and Australia were happy to have South Africa’s money, just not the teams that came with it.
There’s no disgrace in that. Tastes and circumstances change and, boy, can’t we say that about the latter.
This isn’t the world we knew when this season’s Super Rugby competition started and it’s okay if the impact of COVID-19 is reflected in our re-drawn schedules. Teams and whole tournaments might have to go by the wayside, but only if the content-starved broadcasters are happy.
You imagine the SANZAAR members would’ve stuck it out until 2025. That the need to meet their ever-increasing running costs would have meant they honoured the current deal, no matter how disenchanted they or their fans might’ve become with it.
But the goalposts have now shifted in a big way. The SANZAAR relationship doesn’t seem viable anymore and the time’s come for NZR and company to try and sell a sexy new alternative to television executives.
They’ll never strike a more receptive audience.
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
14 Go to commentsWho got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
14 Go to commentsWhat’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
14 Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
1 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
135 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
14 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
14 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
135 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
135 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
5 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
135 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
14 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to comments