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'We both love our rugby': Reds coach and ex-All Blacks great Brad Thorn's impassioned plea for Super Rugby's future

By Online Editors
(Photo by Teaukura Moetaua/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks great Brad Thorn is calling for unification between New Zealand and Australia as the trans-Tasman debate about the future of Super Rugby rages on.

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What form the competition will take shape from next year onwards remains to be seen. Both nations kickstarted their own domestic Super Rugby league this season in place of the regular tournament that was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whether Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU will stay as standalone products or will be merged together to some degree in 2021 is yet to be decided and has been the subject of much drama between Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby in recent weeks.

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Reds coach Brad Thorn speaks to media.

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Reds coach Brad Thorn speaks to media.

Thorn, who played 59 tests for the All Blacks and now coaches the Queensland Reds, has now voiced his opinion on the predicament, suggesting his preference for a trans-Tasman format between the two nations.

“I look at two countries that have gone to war together, have a tight connection, are very close to each other and we both love our rugby,” the 45-year-old said.

“For me, you think about Queensland in the 70s, they started playing the New Zealand teams, they wanted to improve their rugby.

“We’re really enjoying this national comp playing against our fellow Australian teams, but also with New Zealand rugby teams, nationally as well, obviously being very strong, we want to compete against that also.

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“The future of rugby is getting talked about, and … we want to be in the best competition, we want to play the best.

“There’s an opportunity to have a very good competition, so you hope that whatever gets done on both side is for a good result and we get a world-class competition.”

Thorn – who won two Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders, played for the Highlanders, won the 2011 World Cup, played 200 times in the NRL and represented Queensland and Australia in rugby league – is out of contract with the Reds at the end of the year.

Despite that, he hopes to remain involved in whatever shape Super Rugby takes next season.

“It’s not solely my decision (about his future with the Reds). You’ve got people who’ll be making those decisions, and we’ve got to see where the game’s going,” he said.

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“I think it’s going in a positive way with the competition they’re talking about, and you want to be part of that.

“I’ve enjoyed this role, this is my third year, and I wanted to serve this club as best I could, and at the minimum leave it in a better place for the next guy.

“I feel like it’s in a reasonable place, but being attached to the guys and what we’ve done, and the build that we’ve done, it would be great to see it through, and see some real strength for the Queensland Reds, but also rugby in Queensland in general.

“Anyone who knows me, knows I want to achieve stuff.”

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

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”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But 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.

35 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks 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

35 Go to comments
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