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With ARU Chief Executive confirming the establishment of a new National Rugby Championship to commence next season, it is time to investigate the merits of this competition and determine whether it will flop like the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) did back in 2007.
For years Australian rugby chiefs have been attempting to find a balance between investing money in projects to generate long term growth of the game and cutting costs to prevent repeated years with the bank balance in the red.
Unfortunately, the ARU has often chosen cost-cutting measures and short term fixes ahead of long term investment in the game’s pathways.
This has led to a number of young stars choosing rugby league over rugby union, primarily due to the money available and the far improved player pathways.
I know what I would choose if I played both league and union. A pathway exists where I can play Harold Mathews Cup as a 16-year-old, SG Ball as an 18-year-old, Holden Cup as a 20-year-old and then hopefully NRL.
The alternative is making school rep teams, possibly pick up a sports scholarship, be encouraged to do year 12 over two years and then go play Colts for a club side, then move into Grade rugby and hopefully, if I’m lucky enough to get noticed by a Super Rugby side, possibly gain a contract with them.
It is no surprise that juniors are choosing the money and pathways of rugby league over rugby union.
While the new National Rugby Championship is no golden bullet, it is definitely the first step in developing improved player pathways for junior rugby players.
Whether officials like to admit it or not, Australia simply does not have the rugby union depth of fellow SANZAR nations, South Africa and New Zealand.
This is why the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels have struggled since their introduction into Super Rugby. We simply do not have the talent to field five top-flight professional rugby team.
While the introduction of these two teams has given 60 extra players the opportunity to play professional rugby, it has also had the negative effect of worsening the New South Wales and Queensland club rugby competitions.
By removing effectively the top 30 players from each competition, the quality has dropped from slightly below Super Rugby to quite a way below.
This drop off in quality has had a number of negative effects. A major issue that has occurred is that by playing in a weaker competition, young players are not being prepared for the rigours of Super Rugby.
This has been most notable in Perth and Melbourne, in which a number of the young players who clearly have talent and promise are simply not ready for top flight rugby.
The hope is that by introducing a competition that is in between Super Rugby and Club rugby, the best young players from club rugby can get a chance to develop in a stronger competition against professional rugby players.
Thus, the new competition aims to create a situation similar to that in New Zealand and South Africa in which Super Rugby players are returning from Super Rugby to play in a strong competition.
Officials are hopeful that the new National Rugby Championship can act as a stepping stone for those not quite ready for Super Rugby but who are comfortable in club rugby. It offers them a place to develop their rugby skills and prepare them for the rigours of professional rugby.
When the Super Rugby competition ends, those not selected for the Wallabies return to their club sides, which as stated is now a significant drop off in quality, until the club competition ends in September.
The ARU has announced that the club sides have agreed to have their competitions ending in August in order to facilitate the running of the National competition from August until November.
This will benefit those good enough to get selected in the new competition and the non-Wallaby Super Rugby players. But what about those not quite good enough for selection in this competition?
These players still require development and have just had their seasons cut short by a month, if not more.
It is important that a plan is put in place to manage both groups of people adequately, to ensure that a large gap is not created.
While the benefits of the new National Rugby Championship are clear, it is important that many of the mistakes of the ARC are not repeated.
The ARC lost $4.7 million in its first and only year of existence. Many would argue, including Bill Pulver, that the ARU abandoned ship far too early, while others believe that by dumping the competition after one year Australian rugby has been set back seven to eight years.
Pulver also believes that if the ARU had have been willing to wear financial losses in the ARC’s first few years, it could have grown into a very strong competition by now.
However this did not happen and it’s important not to dwell on past mistakes.
One of the major sources of revenue for sporting competitions, whether it’s the AFL, NRL or ARC is income from TV rights, with both the AFL and NRL signing $1 Billion dollar TV rights deals in the past few years.
This was something the ARC got wrong; the competition was broadcast on ABC with the ARU paying the ABC to broadcast the competition.
Thankfully, Pulver has announced that Fox Sports has agreed to broadcast one match a week and all finals matches in the National Rugby Championship next year.
But Fox Sports already broadcasts every ITM Cup and multiple Curry Cup matches each week.
Why is Fox Sports willing to broadcast more ITM Cup and Curry Cup matches per week than the Australian competition? This is an issue that is hopefully rectified as the competition grows in the years to come.
A vital aspect of the new competition is the selection of teams. The ARU hopes to have teams from Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Canberra, with at least two teams from Brisbane and three from Sydney.
The Victorian team should be more successful than the old ARC Melbourne Rebels as the new Super Rugby Melbourne Rebels now have a slight foothold in the strong Melbourne market.
It is hoped that the Rebel Army fan group also embrace the Victorian franchise, providing the team strong support and an established fan-base in a tough market.
The ARU also hopes to place a team in Western Sydney, a market which could hold the keys to the future of Australian rugby.
The majority of children living in Western Sydney play and support rugby league, and many of these children are extremely talented athletes.
A competition with national exposure that acts as a pathway to professional rugby should be appealing to young rugby league or union players, especially with Waratah and Wallaby stars Israel Folau and Tatafu Polata-Nau growing up in Western Sydney.
However, for this to work, the ARU must change the perception of rugby union in Sydney’s west.
Rugby in Sydney is perceived as an elitist sport played only by the private school students living in Sydney’s exclusive North Shore and Eastern Suburbs, while rugby league is perceived as a working class sport perfectly suited to those living in Sydney’s west.
This must change if the ARU wants to use Western Sydney as a grassroots rugby region. This is possible if the ARU promotes this team as Western Sydney’s team by using home-grown talent, while also ensuring the team is competitive.
The ARU should take a look at what the A-League has achieved with the Western Sydney Wanderers in just 18 months.
The FFA has promoted this team as the West’s team, while harnessing the region’s passion for football.
The ARU can easily target the team to the huge Polynesian population living out west, using players such as Wycliff Palu, Folau and Sekope Kepu.
The ARU must attempt to create a bond between fan and team, like the bond between the Wanderers and their fans, the fans need to believe that this new team is ‘their’ franchise. If the ARU does target this team at children especially, they can potentially sow the seeds for future generations of Wallaby success in the coming years.
Rumours from inside rugby circles have revealed that the ARU is considering using existing clubs as the franchises in Sydney and Brisbane.
The Sydney Morning Herald more or less confirmed this, revealing that expressions of interest are being sought from a number of existing clubs.
I think this is a big mistake.
The Sydney and Brisbane club competitions should be kept completely separate from the National Rugby Championship. They are two completely different competitions and so should be left so.
A raft of issues can arise from using a club side in the national competition, including a club selecting its own players over other, more deserving players from rival clubs.
Pulver has also revealed that the new competition will feature “innovative new rules.” This follows in the footsteps of one of the few things the ARC did right, the ARC introduced the Experimental Law Variations, or ELVs, to Australian rugby.
These were widely considered a success across Australia, and were only discontinued following a lack of support from the Northern Hemisphere nations.
The game in Australia needs to be exciting, free-flowing, running rugby in order to attract fans.
Thus any laws that encourage flowing rugby should be considered and possibly adopted in this competition.
However, it is important that the ARU doesn’t go too far such that the competition begins to lose the fabric of rugby. The competition must find a balance between rule changes that are extremely radical, and those that are minor, but still improve the sport as a whole.
Another area that could benefit from rule changes is the scrum. Rugby fans in Australia hate scrum resets lasting for minutes on end.
Any rules which can minimise the number of scrum resets should be trialled here before they are adopted in Super Rugby and international rugby.
The new National Rugby Championship is an exciting opportunity to promote rugby in Australia while also helping to develop young rugby players into professional players.
It is important that the ARU promotes and supports the competition in its early years in order to ensure long-term growth and sustainability.
The ARU must accept that the establishment of this competition will cost a lot of money, but in order to develop a stronger national side, it is important to spend money on player pathways.
The ARU must also recognise that spending money now can result in long-term benefits including stronger ticket revenues and TV rights deals that will come with a successful national team.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.