- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Serious ‘fightin’ words’ from the Melbourne Rebels on Friday evening leaves the Australian Rugby Union in a very precarious position in its quest to strengthen-by-contraction. And as a flow-on, it further erodes SANZAAR’s battle to stay relevant as an administrator of southern hemisphere rugby.
Now entering a seventh week after vowing to decide “in the next 48-72 hours” whether the Rebels or Western Force would be sacrificed to appease the SANZAAR partners and their desire to cull Super Rugby back to 15 teams in 2018, the ARU are seriously up against it.
Facing imminent legal action whichever way it goes, the ARU is evidently no closer to a decision. Momentum seemed to have shifted last week, with a few whispers floating around that a deal to buy out and close down the Rebels was close. Certainly, all the discussion seemed to have drifted away from the Force, and toward the Rebels as the team to go.
Then came the press release.
“The Melbourne Rebels wish to reiterate its clear legal position that the ARU has no legal right to “cut” them as a team in the Super Rugby Competition,” the angry Victorians opened with, as they marked out their long run.
“The ARU must come out and publicly put an end to the speculation.”
Then came the part of the statement that you know came with some angry typing. Real fingers-through-the-keyboard stuff. And I want to preface this part by saying ‘for the avoidance of doubt’ is an under-utilised phrase when it comes to angry press releases.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
“For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, neither the Melbourne Rebels nor its owners will engage with the ARU in relation to the sale or cancellation of its Super Rugby licence.” You could picture Andrew Cox metaphorically thumping the lectern in defiance as he thundered the words down the corridors at Rebels HQ.
So that was that. The Rebels’ statement went on for another five paragraphs after this, but the crux of the matter was clear: our legal position remains, you’ve still not explained anything, and we’re no longer interested in talking.
In chess, you’d call that a solid ‘check’ move. It’s not checkmate, but it’s a pretty clear notice of intent.
Thinking about this statement over the weekend, and talking to a few rugby people, and reading a few articles here and there, one common thought kept coming up.
How far are we from the point where SANZAAR has to step in and declare they have no option but to run an 18-team competition in 2018 (and possibly beyond)?
If the Australian, or indeed, the South African Rugby Unions report at the next SANZAAR meeting in June that they are still no closer to finalising their previously agreed four teams for the 2018 season, how much more time can SANZAAR genuinely give them?
Draws have to be created. Flights, hotels, transfers, and travel plans competition-wide all need to be pre-booked. Teams have to be advised so that they can commence planning their own schedules and selling sponsorships and memberships. Broadcasters will be waiting for the schedule so that they can create their coverage plans, and the various stadia required across the competition will need to be secured, too.
The ARU are said to have agreed to a don’t-call-it-extraordinary ‘special’ meeting, possibly even this week, as called for by the Victorian Rugby Union and the Rugby Union Players Association. The VRU and the players – and RugbyWA, presumably – will be walking into that meeting expecting answers.
But given what’s gone on to date, what will the ARU really be able to tell them? RugbyWA will still have their legal ace locked and loaded and ready to play, and as soon as the word ‘buyout’ is mentioned, the Rebels will presumably cover their ears and start saying, “la, la, la, lalalala, I can’t hear you…”
I can already see the “ARU offers no further clarity” headlines for the next day’s papers.
And you can bet the SARU and the Super Rugby sides in the Republic will be watching on, too.
(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
Their idea to ‘place’ their two surplus teams in other competitions sounds good in theory, but will quite likely prove difficult. The Pro12 competition has been mooted, but you’d imagine the very first hurdle – the thought of playing at altitude or on the coast in the middle of cricket season in South Africa – will prove too high for the European clubs to get over with only a few weeks to think about it.
So come June, what will SANZAAR do if the ARU and SARU both walk in looking rather sheepish, and confess that they both still have more than four teams expecting to play Super Rugby next season?
It’s at this point we need to remember that SANZAAR as a body is little more than a handful of people in an office in Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s east, running a competition as agreed by the decision makers. Those actual decision makers are, of course, the four national southern hemisphere unions: the SARU, New Zealand Rugby, the ARU, and the Unión Argentina de Rugby.
It’s all fine and well to say ‘SANZAAR just need to make a decision about Super Rugby’, but when two of the four partners can’t do that in their own right, then how on earth are the four partners collectively going to tell half of themselves what to do?
Furthermore, we already know that in the event of SANZAAR non-decision about change, the status quo is always the fall-back position. Just last year, when they couldn’t collectively agree on a ‘better’ format for the 2017 finals, the same playoffs format from 2016 was the outcome.
So again, at which point will SANZAAR reach the conclusion that the only way forward in 2018 is with 18 teams?
My suspicion is that date is approaching rather quickly. The 2017 draw was made public in the middle of September 2016, and the middle of September this year could be little over four months in advance of the next SANZAAR meeting in June.
That’s really not that far away when you think of all the logistical work that would need to be drafted, pre-approved, pre-booked, ratified by four national boards and something like a dozen broadcasters, and then finally, released to the public. The only decision that can be agreed upon collectively mightn’t be that far away.
The only certainty right now is that the indecision and the ongoing damage to the Super Rugby brand, and everything else that comes with it can’t carry on forever.
A calendar on the wall of a Bondi Junction office might hold the answer.