Time to crack the emergency glass on the All Blacks-Kangaroos hybrid test once sport returns
With both Southern Hemisphere rugby codes in a tailspin engulfed in a global crisis, there is one untested solution that would provide a significant payday once action is able to resume.
The idea of an All Blacks/Kangaroos cross-code hybrid test has been floated in the past, but has never got off the ground. Some estimates in 2017 suggested the Test would fetch $50 million.
With both calendars jam-packed, it was a stretch to get both parties to work together to get it scheduled.
However, as Warren Gatland recently suggested, now is a chance to re-look at things. Everything that was off the table before could now potentially be back on it.
At the beginning of the sport, rugby league split off as a faction from rugby union over a financial dispute.
Now with both codes in Australasia needing cash, could money be the thing that brings them back together?
Controversy sells. Hostility sells. Emotion sells. There are few backstories filled with more hostility and division as the two rugby codes going back over 100 years.
The players from the rugby clubs in the North of England wanted to be paid, and that was against the RFU rules. The clubs rebelled and created an all-new inclusive code in rugby league.
Rugby league was made for every man and quickly spread across the globe in defiance of rugby union administrators, who predicted with regularity it would die.
Union players who defected to the code were banned for life from returning.
The two codes have gone in separate directions for more than 100 years, ignoring each other, divided as ever. But union eventually followed the path that created league in the first place, turning professional and becoming a commercial venture.
There exists a subset of fans that cross over, but that is the minority.
This is exactly why it would provide the theatre to draw in fans from both sides, with divided loyalties already set. Bringing two sets of mutually exclusive fans together. A boxing promoter couldn’t dream of a better situation to hype up.
99% of the players are unlikely to have to ever play alongside their opponents, allowing them to be free to express themselves without retribution, with administrators on either side happy to lob grenades on the other code.
Part of the growing malaise in professional rugby is its sterilized nature with few prepared to sell interest in the game with unmeasured honesty or bold arrogance.
Unfortunately, that vanilla approach doesn’t create interest. Perhaps only Eddie Jones knows this in the modern game.
This kind of clash would allow for a return to unbridled tribalism, backed by a larger story than either code.
Even pre-crisis, both isolated codes were, and are, under attack from youth indifference, globalization of far more powerful US sports, and the rise of e-sports and gaming.
Rugby league and rugby union aren’t competing solely with each other, rather the wider entertainment market, whether they realise that or not.
They should be finding ways to unite and collaborate to strengthen each other as the existential threats grow.
Leveraging each other through a hybrid test would work to grow each other’s audience and provide a cash injection. League fans may appreciate the power of Ardie Savea and the skills of Beauden Barrett, leading them to watch more union, and vice versa.
The All Blacks struggle to find consistent Trans-Tasman competition from the Wallabies after 15 years of Bledisloe domination.
The rivalry only exists in memory and historic relevance as the contest has become the most lopsided of any in World Rugby.
For Australian rugby league fans, the domestic state fixture State of Origin is widely held as the pinnacle of their game, illustrating how little regard international rugby league holds.
Pitting the All Blacks versus the Kangaroos would put two of the best rugby sides on this side of the world against each other.
The worst-case scenario is a one-off payday that flops but puts cash in the bank to help recoup the losses from this season.
The best-case scenario is uncovering an annual series that spins top dollar for years and becomes the premier event of Australasian sport.
Is that not worth a try?
Comments on RugbyPass
No surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
2 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
3 Go to comments