Mergers, new rules and more TV time: NRC ready to unleash for 2016

We’re beyond the awkward second-album stage now, and after an off-season of consolidation and another tweak to the points system, Australia’s National Rugby Championship is all set to explode in its third season.

The major development for 2016 is the reduction to eight teams overall, with three teams now far better equipped to represent New South Wales than the previous four.

The demise of the Sydney Stars has seen Sydney University plough its rugby resources into a new partnership with NSW Country.

Furthermore, all of the previous law variations introduced over the first two seasons of the NRC remain, and several have now moved into use at higher levels; Super Rugby doesn’t pull up crooked uncontested lineout throws now, they pack scrums within 30 seconds of calling for them, and penalties awarded after half or fulltime can also be played through to their logical conclusion after the bell.

The only significant tweak for 2016 is the move to six-point tries and two points for any kind of kick at goal.

I spoke to Ben Whittaker, ARU General Manager of Pathways and Performance, this week to discuss the coming NRC season.

Brett McKay: We spoke of the concept of a 6-2-2-2 points system this time last year, but you stuck with the original NRC points variation for 2015 – so what’s changed in twelve months?

Ben Whittaker: Partly, we’ve been forced into it, because the only points value law variation that World Rugby will approve is the 6-2-2-2 system, which came out of the law review work that we’ve been involved with over the last 18 months.

That review sets the agenda over a two-year trial period, hence we get locked into that. If we had put up 5-3-2-3, then they would’ve knocked it back anyway.

But in saying that, there was good discussion last year around whether we should up the value of a try, and clearly 6-2-2-2 does that.

We believe it won’t make a lot of difference to the way the average NRC game is played. We had the eight coaches in with us last week looking through all this, and they’re of a similar opinion. And I know their mindset around playing the game is going to be pretty similar to the first two seasons.

I don’t think there will be lot of difference, but we’re pretty keen to see how it plays out.

The two points penalty is still there to be taken if it’s a tight game – and we’re seeing that a bit in rugby league at the moment – but otherwise, it’s about playing on and seeking what this year will be the six points for a try.”

This also brings the NRC into line with a number of other competitions around the world, doesn’t it? The Welsh Premiership and the Heartland competition in New Zealand to name a couple.

That’s correct. World Rugby was keen to align the trials, too. When the NRC started, we were ahead of the Law Review Group work by about six months, so now we come into line and we don’t see a lot of problem with that.

Are they any new variations for this season, or are we sticking with that original set (many of which have been promoted to Super Rugby)?

We’re still sticking with that set. We’ve put in a submission for a variation to the TMO process that we’re waiting for approval on, and that’s partly because we don’t use the full TMO process as in Super Rugby anyway (because of technology limitations for the live streamed games).

What we’ve asked is to see if we can try just a different type of questioning around a try or no try, and that is more where the referee will pretty much make a call on whether they think it’s a try or no try – so a little bit like the NRL – and then ask why they can’t rule that way.

It puts the referee in a position where they make a decision, which we rate and we want to see, and then if the video is there, it can be checked, which is what we think it’s there for.

Other than that, we’ve chosen not to go with any of the other law variations. And I think that’s a good sign; we’ve led a number of those to come into law at various levels.

(Whittaker confirmed that though there was discussion, the ARU didn’t really see the need or the benefit of using the new variations around the ruck that were slated to be trialed this year in New Zealand.)

In the first two seasons, referees were happy to hand out yellow cards for cynical infringements – even more so than we see in Super Rugby – will that remain a focus?

It will, yes. Angus Gardner and Scott Young (the ARU’s referees boss) presented around this to the eight coaches last week, and they will continue to be diligent in this area.

I think we had double the number of yellow cards per game compared to Super Rugby (last season), and I agree this works well to set the bar early and clean up games (from cynical penalties) as a result.”

The move to eight teams: the general reaction seems to be that it was the right decision, and that three teams in NSW right. So was it an easy decision, and how did the Stars take the news?

No, it was certainly a difficult decision, because we appreciate the work the all teams put into the first two seasons of the competition. And I think whenever you’re looking to reduce, the someone is going to lose out.

There was some really good, open and transparent discussion for some time. I wouldn’t say Sydney University were particularly happy, and nor should they have been because they had put a lot into the Stars over two years and had a really good second year.

But we just felt that for the competition to grow across the board, but particularly in NSW, that we needed to consolidate – in terms of geography, too, not just talent depth – and we’ll start to see a really clear picture of who and where the three teams in NSW represent.

It already appears the Waratahs have been more proactive on the promotion front for the NRC this season. Are we finally seeing the backing of the NSW teams that was suggested last season, but didn’t quite eventuate?

Yeah, I think so, and I think they’re doing a good job under the leadership of Andrew Hore and Tim Rapp (Waratahs CEO, and Elite Pathways Coordinator, respectively); they’re definitely supporting the three teams.

They’re not at the level where they can invest financially in the three teams – and that’s not necessarily where we want to go – but they’re doing a lot, both from the rugby program point of view, and all the back room stuff under that new leadership.

It’s my understanding that a trade-off of going back to three NSW teams was that the loose quota of 14 or 15 Super Rugby contracted players per squad was scrapped. Is there a concern that Canberra-Perth-Melbourne will be too strong?

We looked at this closely, and the number of players that moved from those teams to other NRC sides over the first two seasons I think was six and five. So it wasn’t having a huge effect and we learned that while we’ve got 175 contracted players across the country, once you remove Wallabies and injured players, they’re not all going to play NRC.

We’ve found now that the less pressure on Super Rugby sides to move their players around has meant that they’re actually more open to discussing players moving, if that makes sense. And that’s good, because we’re starting to build respect and trust within the competition and among the teams (that they won’t work against the wishes of the Super sides regarding players).

With the Waratahs’ involvement this year, too, we’re already seeing a better alignment of how their players fit into NRC teams.”

(Again, Whittaker confirmed that the Waratahs will be looking to have as many of their available contracted players playing in the NRC this season. I know firsthand of a couple of examples last season where NSW-based NRC coaches lost contracted players back to the Tahs pre-season training program, instead of playing.)

The move to two games a week on Fox Sports was well received, and it’s my understanding that they will be a little more hands-on around the live streamed games. Are you happy with the level of accessibility of those non-broadcast games?

They own the digital rights, and they’re going to run it similarly to last year (with games streamed via www.Fox Sports.com.au). But they’re also going to a second (broadcast) game, and I think over time that will evolve, and they’re proving why they’re such a valuable partner in that they can see the benefits there.

Hopefully the access to those streamed games is reasonably simple, but there’s a commercial reality to this as well. They’re investing a lot of money to support this competition and to support rugby, and they’ll do certain things to support how they get to that position.

I don’t think that we will [see the streamed games available via the ‘red button’ on Foxtel], but what is in train is to ensure that those streamed games are produced at a level that could be easily converted to broadcast, so that the quality of the stream is such that that could become an option.

(Fox Sports do this with their FFA Cup coverage currently; the streams are of sufficient quality that when there is a goal during a streamed match, the live broadcast game will quickly switch to the replay of the ‘streamed’ goal.)

***

For brevity, I’ve not included some other topics we discussed in the text here, but will happily expand in the comments where I can, including:
• Further discussion around the new ruck interpretation being trialed in NZ, and why the ARU didn’t see the need for it in the NRC
• The club finances, and the competition sustainability
• Why some players elected to play in the Mitre 10 Cup in New Zealand instead of the NRC
• The move to Saturday and Sunday games, and the obvious benefits

On Friday, I’ll have a bit of an update from most of the NRC clubs, with coaching and team announcements now imminent.

My thanks to Ben Whittaker once again for making himself available to discuss the NRC developments ahead of the coming season.