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At this time of year, when the six-month grind and rigour of Super Rugby has ended and the Rugby Championship is yet to kick off, Friday and Saturday nights are used to re-introduce yourself to family too often ignored during the season.
It’s also the time of the season to let the mind wander, and imagine what Super Rugby might – or even could – look like in its next guise.
Timely then, was the Western Force popping back into my TV guide last Friday night, resuming their World Series Rugby campaign after a three-week break, to play Hong Kong ahead of their anticipated match-up with former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans’ Panasonic Wild Nights this coming Friday night.
It was a healthy reminder of the incredible work that has been done in the west to ensure rugby fans are still able to get their fix of quality rugby, and Geoff Parkes’ experience at nib Stadium last Friday night confirmed a conversation I’ve had a few times since WSR kicked off earlier this year: rugby marketers only need to look west to see great examples of how to really build some hype into a game.
And for sure, the extenuating circumstances leading into the Western Force’s 2018 fixture list meant that rugby fans in Western Australia didn’t really need a lot of encouraging. Equally, the seemingly bottomless pockets of Andrew Forrest and the Mindaroo Foundation allow such an unrivalled matchday experience to exist.
Late last week, some of you might have seen my question wondering about WSR’s plans for 2019; for the benefit of those that didn’t, I just wonder whether less than eight months out from the proposed March start, does anyone have any concerns that we still don’t have any confirmed details of teams, let alone players and coaches signing on?
Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
Now obviously, a lack of announcement doesn’t mean a lack of action; a point several of you rightly made. But equally, you only have to look at the examples of aborted pro rugby comps in the US and countless Twenty20 cricket tournaments around the world that never happened to realise that no news is not always good news.
We may well find out more about World Series Rugby in the lead-up to and following on from the Panasonic match this weekend. Indeed, the Wild Knights have been mentioned in dispatches as being one of two rumoured Japanese side. Quite how that would work, with the Ota prefecture outfit playing rugby all year round in different hemispheres – and what the Japanese Union think of it – is something I’d be curious to find out.
Just as curious is the mention of sides from New Zealand and Western Sydney. Straight out of the ‘huge if true’ category, the rumoured inclusion of a side from over the ditch along with the increasingly abandoned and suddenly available west of Sydney means that conversations are obviously happening between WSR and the governing bodies either side of the Tasman.
The most intriguing part of the speculation around team location is the geographic spread: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Perth are within an hour of each other, and though there’s a reasonable distance between the four cities, this longitudinal grouping is going to appeal to both broadcasters and viewers alike.
Sydney is two hours in front of Perth currently, and Fiji and New Zealand another two hours in front again.
Four different time zones for four hours difference west to east is a pretty reasonable advantage World Series Rugby will have over Super Rugby, which currently endures a fifteen-hour time difference from Buenos Aires to Auckland. Again, fans of the would-be WSR teams will be the big winners.
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But in targeting Singapore, Hong Kong and Fiji, WSR can position itself for additional development funding from World Rugby, which remains committed to developing the game to elite levels in new regions and particularly Asia.
The Fijian Drua in the NRC provides the blueprint, with World Rugby covering the travel and accommodation costs for not only the Drua playing in Australia, but the Australian sides heading to Fiji, too. It’s hard to believe WSR won’t, or haven’t already asked the same question of the global body.
Everyone wants a piece of Fiji, it seems, with the New Zealand Government this year commissioning a feasibility study into the basing of a combined Pacific Islands team in Suva to play in an expanded Super Rugby competition, playing games Suva mainly, but also Apia, Auckland and maybe even Sydney or Brisbane. It’s fair to say New Zealand are keen to see it happen.
And this is where it’s probably worth coming back to the discussion WSR would have to be having with New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia. The opportunity is seemingly there in Western Sydney, with the withdrawal within months of each other of Shute Shield club Penrith by the Sydney rugby union and NRC side the Greater Sydney Rams by NSW Rugby. It’s arguable if the same opportunity exists on the North Shore side of Auckland Harbour Bridge, but at least it would be targeting a large population base.
But as Geoff rightly added yesterday, there will have to be some kind of sanction or sign-off from NZR and RA before either of those teams can be included WSR. Perhaps this is why we still haven’t had any announcements eight months out from the competition start?
John Stewart of the Fijian Drua (Photo by Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images)
So is there actually a bigger picture here?
Though it’s gone quiet again of late, the idea of South African sides pulling out of Super Rugby remains an ongoing concern. The worrying articles in recent weeks about the financial state of Western Province and the latest troubles within Blue Bulls rugby union show that things are far from settled in the Republic.
And though SANZAAR keep hanging onto the four national unions’ commitment in May to maintain the joint venture partnership, I’ll just say this again: the SARU remaining committed to SANZAAR does not mean they remain committed to Super Rugby!
Could NZR and RA’s agreement to World Series Rugby’s trans-Tasman ambitions pave the way for the next iteration of Super Rugby, where instead of spanning the entire southern hemisphere, we see a consolidation around the Pacific and a dramatic resolution to the time zone issues that have impacted the competition for two decades?
The work that’s gone on to get WSR up and running in 2018 has been quite extraordinary, given the timeframes involved. That’s very obvious; enviable, even.
But perhaps the work going on now for next year could have an even bigger impact on rugby in our part of the world than we may realise. That would be something.