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And so comes another year – and with it another dud SANZAAR decision.
The Sunwolves are set to be ejected from the competition by their charming overlords on the eve of a home World Cup in Japan with huge momentum in the land of the rising sun and the treats and fruits of the highest levels of rugby athleticism on display after a once in a lifetime World Cup.
Japanese rugby will celebrate by losing its only domestic team which plays in a high-level competition – the top league, of course, being a superannuation enhancement scheme.
The Sunwolves attracted commendable crowds despite their poor performances. They had respectable television audiences and were bringing rugby to a corner of the globe that has developed more than a passing interest and are in a favourable time zone for Australian fans.
Yet, seemingly at the click of a finger, they are dust – like the Western Force before them.
Rugby fans, who are among the most tolerant of egregiously inept leadership in the world, would have shaken their heads, not in shock, but in awe, at SANZAAR’s (rare) ability to run an inter-continental sports league with a membership policy roughly resembling the mean girls’ lunch club.
The history of SANZAAR’s bizarre decision making is an eclectic story of stupidity and self-interest combined with a near-comical foresight.
The competition expanded from the Super 12 to the Super 14 in 2006, which was probably justified.
It then expanded to be the Super Rugby in 2011, adding in the Melbourne Rebels, which was a very questionable decision given the performance of the Australian teams and lack of an organic grassroots pathway in Melbourne.
At this point you’d think SANZAAR, which had begun to have Napoleonic dreams of conquest, would realise that perhaps it had gone slightly cuckoo.
But, never one to acknowledge a mistake, they simply pressed on.
Instead of attempting to annex Russia, they went for both Argentina in Japan in one hit.
It is still begger’s belief that both Australia and New Zealand agreed to sign up to the Super 18. Did they conduct ratings analyses on the dilution of competition from 14 to 18 teams in just four years?
Rugby Australia, knowing it faces the scrutiny of fewer than ten professional journalists, regularly treats the concepts of openness and accountability with nothing but outright contempt and hasn’t released any information of substantive quality to the public in years. There are tinpot dictatorships which are more transparent.
Then came the bungling that leads to the Western Force’s exit from Super Rugby, which ought to make decent people feel sick. The process which leads to their exit was completely opaque and appears to have been a fait accompli.
The Force’s inability to get a fair hearing has also created Andrew Forrest’s’ rebel competition, at a time when unity was incredibly important to the future of Rugby in this country.
But, of all of Rugby AU’s mistakes, it is their inability to stand up to their infinitely more incompetent South African associates that must surely stand out as the smoking gun in a litany of Rugby AU catastrophes.
The South African rugby union (the corollary of which appears to be the South African Government) has been the driver behind some of the truly abysmal decisions in Super Rugby. They pushed for the competition to expand to 18 teams. They then suddenly performed an about-face and decided two must be removed.
Now, despite Australia not being in favour of the Sunwolves departing, the South Africans have managed to push their will onto the competition again. Amazingly, Rugby AU declined to exercise their veto right over their inclusion despite it clearly being in Australia’s interest.
The question is this – after being the driving force behind almost every train wreck of a decision which has steadily destroyed the integrity of Super Rugby – why on Earth does Australia take notice of anything the South African rugby union has to say?
(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images for SUNWOLVES)
These are questions which ought to go the highest levels of leadership of rugby in this country.
Regrettably, any leaders in Rugby AU have long been replaced by obsequious goons or people with connections to the gambling industry. Gambling is the industry which most closely resembles professional sport.
Sadly, at the first Test, Australia’s rugby leaders have (again!) acquiesced to the idiotic demands of a lunatic business partner.
Rugby is the loser today, and Rugby AU needs to fervently and passionately denounce the behaviour of the South African rugby union to our New Zealand.
Furthermore, Rugby AU, if it has been threatened by the SRugby AU, should heed the lessons from those who have succumbed to pathetic threats in the past. In the long run, you will always lose.
The ball is in your court.
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.