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We’re always asking: ‘What is the future of rugby?’ Binary answers are elusive, and probably false.
The boring is that rugby must build at home and overseas, build the grassroots and professional game, build the men’s game and women’s game, while investing and saving money.
It’s been said that rugby is at a crossroads, but the truth is closer to a spaghetti junction than your average two-lane intersection.
Some great reporting by Georgina Robinson has unearthed dilemmas at the top of the sport – should Australia participate in the current direction of Super Rugby, whatever that direction is?
Should Super Rugby be expanded again, but contracted at home and in South Africa (the Southern Kings’ debt problems may prove an enforced answer to that question).
The spaghetti junction at the top of the sport alone is worth addressing.
In 2016, all five Australian teams, in a post-World Cup year, performed horribly. There just wasn’t the depth and quality of players to compete on the same level as New Zealand. The same could be said of the South African teams, although to a lesser extent. That has led to the prospect of putting the Force on the chopping block, even though Bill Pulver knows in is heart you can’t cut your way to success.
The truth in this is a conflicting duality to be managed carefully, over a long period of time.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
The test for Australian rugby is to adhere to that mantra.
It must create less dependency on Super Rugby, without killing it as a vital source of money and player development for Test level.
Australia needs Super Rugby’s revenue stream and the opportunity to play against quality provincial teams. But it also needs to find a consistent Australian free-to-air television audience – one Super Rugby cannot provide. We now have 20 years of evidence of this.
Super Rugby must continue to be the best provincial competition it can be and Australia must remain part of that. But there must also be simultaneous development of the NRC as the Australian professional rugby product, long term.
The strength of the NRC years down the track will determine whether rugby is to ever have a solid free-to-air television presence, whether after the 2027 World Cup we can bounce back or continue to get mercilessly toweled up by New Zealand development pathways.
There is precedent for this kind of dual growth in Australia’s crowded sporting market: football, a sport I’ve previously suggested be watched closely for clues and ideas.
The Socceroos’ participation in Asian competition mirrors the importance of the international competition and wider audiences of Super Rugby.
Slow and steady growth of the A-League provides a picture of the urgent need for rugby to continue to develop a tribal and uniquely Australian following. Truly local gatherings, a uniquely Australian product, one that can be tailored to suit the market.
There have been peaks and troughs for Australian football, but the dual paths to growth have remained in place. Rugby must hold its nerve in the same way.
A thriving NRC – complemented by televised sevens rugby tournaments during the ‘offseason’ – must either provide feasible additional Super Rugby teams or feed players into a finishing and testing school format before the Wallabies are selected.
But both must remain. The Force must stay, to be a logical conclusion to Spirit pathways. The Rams must be ably supported to provide the opposite pathway. Drastic moves could easily send the game to the wall.
The future of rugby is slow and steady growth on two clear lines. We aren’t at a crossroads after all, what rugby builds must run on a rail line.
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.