The Boks and All Blacks prove it's time we think differently about JRLO

Phone +54 2122373655.

No, its not a number somewhere in Argentina (although you could be forgiven for thinking so with plus 54 the nation’s international phone prefix).

It’s actually the winning margins from each of the six matches of this year’s Super Rugby finals, with the average gap between the participants throughout the series, an astounding 37.5 points.

It was the most one-sided play-offs series in the competition’s 30-year history, perhaps indicating the need of something new, to at least jazz up the pointy end of the season.

Rather than again phoning Argentina – not that the participation of the now disbanded Jaguares did Super Rugby a disservice – the number, or more specifically partner, Super Rugby needs on the end of the line is in Japan.

While the boat has sailed on the possibility of a rebirth of the Sunwolves, and direct participation in Super Rugby, recent comments by All Black coach Dave Rennie, and captain Ardie Savea since returning to New Zealand have mirrored belief among both local and foreigners in Japan that the leading Japan Rugby League One clubs would be more than competitive if some form of formal cross-border competition was created.

Rennie’s view that League One was of a far greater playing standard than that suggested by those who dismiss it, was highlighted by his eagerness to bring the League’s Player of the Year, Kobe skipper Brodie Retallick, back with him when he took up the All Black post.

Selection policies dictated he couldn’t have Retallick, but he did get Savea, who in becoming the first All Black captain to be selected directly from League One, endorsed his coaches’ perspective on the quality of club rugby in Japan.

Speaking on the Mike Hosking breakfast radio show in New Zealand, Savea rejected any suggestions that coming out of League One would leave him “underdone” ahead of the All Black season, going as far as to suggest that the competition’s recent final, won by Kobe against Kubota Spears, was “one of the hardest games” he had ever played.

Clearly Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus agrees, as on the same weekend Kobe provided one more player to the All Blacks than the Highlanders did – with Anton Lienert Brown also selected – and just three less than each of the Crusaders and Blues; the world champions picked nine players out of League One, with two more of their selections Japan-bound next season.

Meanwhile, the on sabbatical Toshiba Brave Lupus second rower Warner Dearns, wowed fans in Super Rugby, being one of the competition’s individual stars as the Hurricanes stormed to only their second title in 30 years last weekend.

A condensed calendar does make scheduling a challenge for any possible play-offs adventure, but when there is a will, there is a way.

With the League One and Super Rugby seasons close to aligning – the League One final occurred on the same weekend as Super Rugby’s semi-finals – creating a two-week window for some form of play-off is surely possible?

The ‘ball’ is in Australia and New Zealand’s court.

League One is ‘up’ for it, but is only likely to want a formal competition, rather than the mid-season games of three seasons ago, when the Japanese suspended their league, for what essentially became training games against Blues and Chiefs outfits in pre-season mode.

Playing in Japan where, as Savea noted, the warmer temperatures around the end of May and early June make it hard going, would potentially add a levelling element for anyone who fears a potential mismatch.

It would also open the door to a range of heavy-weight commercial support for Super Rugby’s cashed strapped teams that is simply not available in New Zealand and Australia.

Who participates could be sorted by applying the same methodology that ultimately gave birth to Super Rugby, which owed its emergence to the South Pacific championship started in the mid-1980s.

There, the three top NPC teams from New Zealand, conveniently with the country’s three international airports, earned an invite alongside the two main Australian states, as well as Fiji.

So rather than the finalists every season, whomever they might be, passage would be earned by finishing as the best side from each of the Australian/Fiji and New Zealand sides of the draw.

This would ensure a participant from both ‘conferences’ in cases such as this year where no Australian side made it beyond the quarterfinals, adding an extra edge to the ‘domestic’ matches, while providing additional content for broadcasters.

The potential for Super Rugby sides qualifying for a post season play-off against the League One finalists, in semi-finals and a final, is a tantalising prospect, sure to excite fans from both competitions, while likely to draw crowds similar in size to the 50,000+ who have attended each of the last three Japanese club finals.

If you need to know the exhilaration of that, just ask any of the fans from Saturday night, or the Hurricanes players themselves, how it felt when they finally ‘Filled the Tin’ after a season playing in front of a half empty stadium.

When Super Rugby contracted post Covid, valuable away tours beyond Australasia where players enjoyed new experiences, gained personal growth, but also got to experience different playing styles, were lost.

An opportunity to reinstate that element is waiting in Japan, and on the evidence of this year’s finals, is an add on the competition could definitely do with.

As League One Managing Director Hajime Shoji says, while Dearns is not the first Japanese to make a fine fist of the Super Rugby experience, his success is further evidence of the rise in playing standards in Japan, and the benefits that brings across the whole global rugby ecosystem.

“The fact that Warner can be so successful in Super Rugby, and that the All Black and Springbok teams that have been announced in the last few days contain 11 players who featured in League One this season shows just how competitive our league and teams are,” Shoji says.

“The next step for us is some form of international cross border competition, which is something that we believe has huge potential for the future.”