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Rugby union in Australia is in serious trouble and how it got to this stage is a terrible indictment on some of the people that have run this sport for the last 10 years or so.
From the giddy heights of 2003, where rugby even matched on occasion its more fancied rivals the NRL and AFL, to the current day, where if you take virtually every single key performance indicator, this game is being smashed by every other football code in this country.
The only time rugby can get a headline now is if James O’Connor visits an airport.
The sad fact is if rugby union in Australia was a horse it would be in a can with a pet food label on it. How it got to this stage can be debated endlessly, the question is what happens now.
The ARU rescue package appears to be a mixture of Super B games and a resurrected ARC (if we can find someone to pay for it).
But little mention of Super Rugby – it appears we will end up with whatever format is decided on come 2016.
But is it not possible to imagine just for one second life without Super Rugby?
Is it not time we actually ask the question exactly what has Super rugby delivered to the code in this country?
Wasn’t this competition supposed to take the game to the next level, all conquering, with the world at our feet? Then why after 15 years is the code at its lowest ebb?
Viewing figures and fans departing daily, dropping to a distant fourth of the football codes, having to falsify playing figures (who are we kidding) and the Wallabies trotted out every second week now just to keep the dollars coming and struggling to simply remain relevant on the Australian sporting landscape.
So why hasn’t Super rugby delivered us to Nirvana?
Since day one Super Rugby has never been able to overcome its many drawbacks, and no matter how many times you tweak things. the same issues are there and always will be.
The ridiculous scheduling sees a season that starts in February and runs until November, a comp that ends in June, franchises that are failing to engage with their markets, struggling on a home-and-away basis with sides from other continents (are you serious?).
A competition owned 100% by a pay TV company that is effectively making the sport ‘the invisible code’, a company that has absolutely no liability to the code’s future, so when the ratings dip it’s goodbye boys.
Participating in a competition with foreign nations just to compete on an international level is fundamentally flawed when you are doing it at the expense of your own domestic needs.
The all-encompassing desire to defeat the All Blacks is killing the game of rugby union in this country.
The absolute contrast from Subiaco over the last few weeks should be sobering viewing to any rugby union supporter, from the Australia/Argentina game to the magnificent spectacle that was Fremantle/Sydney Swans, if that does not register we might as well give up.
Are we that short-sighted that somehow we cannot see how rugby union could not survive in a different format come 2016?
Yes about 170 professionals are employed by our five franchises but would they not find employment in another competition?
Yes budgets may have to be trimmed and team costs’ met, but isn’t there some saying – something about acorns?
In 2016 we have a choice, we continue down the Super road and everything it has delivered the code, or maybe we should look over our shoulders at what the other codes are doing?
The answer is staring us in the face.
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.