RUPA president Damien Fitzpatrick has called on SANZAAR to think outside the square to save Super Rugby – and says the competition as we know it is likely a thing of the past.
“I can tell you one thing: if the airports are not going to open, it’s going to be difficult to run that comp,” Fitzpatrick said about Super Rugby’s future.
With Australia’s 192 professional players having finally settled on an average 60 per cent pay cut until September, following almost a month of discussions with Rugby Australia, the focus has shifted to the future structure of Super Rugby.
Fitzpatrick says the sobering reality of empty stands in rugby-mad Pretoria is proof that the current format has lost its appeal and that the entire tournament needs an overhaul.
“You know there’s a problem with your product if you go to South Africa on a Saturday afternoon at Loftus and they can’t seem to put bums on seats,” he said.
“SANZAAR is probably having a really strong look at how the competition can engage fans.”
Even with Japan’s Sunwolves being extinct from next year, Fitzpatrick doubts a 14-team competition involving four from Australia, five from New Zealand, four from South Africa and Argentina’s Jaguares is sustainable.
(Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)
“I think the situation has shown that right now anything is possible. I don’t exactly know what is able to be changed and what’s not able to be changed,” the NSW Waratahs hooker said when asked if he believed the 2021 format remained set in stone.
“Everything would be on the table, not just from Australia but I’m sure all the SANZAAR partners are looking at ways to get the best result and best product out there for the fans.”
With RA boss Raelene Castle flagging a July-August resumption, when borders could well be still closed, a domestic competition seems the most likely way forward this year.
While the hefty pay cuts were “tough to stomach”, Fitzpatrick said when RA finally opened up their books to RUPA the players quickly realised they needed to take a financial sacrifice to save the game in Australia.
“The fact is we’re in a business where right now we’re not on the field and we know the major revenue driver for professional sport is broadcast and when you’re not fulfilling that contract, you know that that revenue is going to come to a pretty screeching halt,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We would have loved to have known that the company you work for has huge amounts of cash reserves – but that wasn’t the case and we knew that.
“The reason we were sitting at the table was because everyone was fully aware that there needed to be some sort of restructure that incorporated the costs and alleviation of the game to enable us a fighting chance to stay alive.”
Blair Vincent
Roar Rookie
Roar editors- that's a horrendously misleading title for this article
Frank from Geebung
Guest
So TWAS, Qld, NSW, ACT, Victoria and WA.....is that right? I like it..but I'm just a Qld bloke who goes only to Australian teams playing in super rugby as they're the games I'm interested in . Imagine if the expat NZ and safa people stopped ringing their cowbells and chewing jerky in the stands and supported local teams instead of waiting for the one game of their expat team.
Mark Richmond
Roar Guru
It’s going to have to change, and radically......South African health experts are anticipating 45k deaths from Covid 19 AND 2-3 years of intermittent lockdowns unless a vaccine can be found. https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-04-21-expect-45000-deaths-and-two-to-three-years-of-intermittent-lockdowns-says-expert/
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
What Super Rugby needs is a big improvement in the standard of however many Aussie teams there are. I suggest two or three. Aussie crowds won't watch rubbish. Likewise, South Africa last won the comp ten years ago, although at least they are competitive. Obviously while international competition is impossible we will need to do something different.
Purdo
Roar Rookie
:laughing:
Busted Fullback
Roar Rookie
I still hate the days when a Sky Blue team had so many Queenslanders beating Maroon jersey wearing Queenslanders... and NSW told us how good they were. Seemed only fair when the likes of Geoff Shaw, Greg Corneilson and Peter Horton came north, no money involved, to make sure they got the better coaching to keep them in the Wallabies.
Purdo
Roar Rookie
TWAS: They had huge clubs with huge banks of one armed bandits - hence the player drain from Qld to NSW, and the need to have a state of origin comp when a simple interstate comp was so one sided.
Jaeger
Roar Rookie
Here is a thought for 2020. https://www.theroar.com.au/2020/04/09/give-super-club-rugby-a-crack/
TC
Guest
'Let the floodgates saturate the overseas market.' Great last observation, so true, I never thought of it that way.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The NSWRL clubs were successful enough to pay players with no TV money.
In brief
Guest
Who is the we you refer to, the saffas?
In brief
Guest
To me that’s revisionist- you could make the same argument about rugby league. I was a Bears member in the 80s and the crowds were tiny. Before the Winfield cup and greater professionalism the sport truly was suburban. The issue with rugby isn’t some inherent failure with the actual sport, it’s the structure.
DAC
Guest
Mr Clyne seems to have spirited himself away leaving a total shambles in he wake. Who knows whether Castle will rise above the appalling performance of the previous chairman...hopefully she does. The mess Clyne presided over and then left behind is a total disgrace yet he seems to have become the Teflon man. It grieves me to think that he has been 'let off' having driven Australian rugby into the ground!!!
Jacko
Guest
So 11...ooops 10 Captains want to run the head office and now RUPA president wants to get SAANZAR to change the SR system.....See what happens when the looneys are let loose? This bloke is an absolute genius isnt he? The competition as we know it is likely a thing of the past. YES...Its already been changed for 2021 “I can tell you one thing: if the airports are not going to open, it’s going to be difficult to run that comp, Wow what a genius....who knew eh!!! Perhaps he should talk to Kearns about setting up a joint 10 Captain/Rupa board to run rugby in Aus....
AndyS
Guest
I think the (KCOL) observation was that radical evolution is one thing, but if you can it you better have a robust and certain alternative already lined up and committed. Going scorched earth is not a plan, it is a natural catastrophe leaving you reliant on the charity of others. But per Hog's observations, change is only evolution in hindsight. There is no guarantee it will be an improvement; only time and natural selection tells that.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Not quite. Super Rugby changed in 2006, 2011, 2016 then 2018. That's 4 times in 25 years and the last change was pretty much just a reversal of the previous. You have unrealistic expectations. 2016 was intended to merely be the first step in expansion for nations that at the time only had 5 teams in each (so not enough for any domestic competition). Reports were that the plan was to evolve into closed conferences to create more local content. But Australia can't just go from 5 teams to 8.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Crowds did improve for the Reds and Waratahs when they were winning. The Brumbies have probably always played second fiddle to the Raiders. However early days when the Brumbies were kicking off the Raiders only made the finals every second year. The decade 2000-2009 the Raiders only made it past week 1 of the finals twice while the Brumbies won 2 titles in 4 seasons. Now they are just a competitive team they've fallen back to second fiddle again.
Well Andy, the Super rugby formats in the past years have proven waning interest, thus chances that you are going to revive the competition by continuing to keep as many teams and matches as possible is notgoing to work. You either radically change the format into a less is more competition, or you can it. Do you see any alternative?
Joe the challenge in my view is when you ringfence three teams the rest of the players struggle to get “into” the 90. However if you have the Currie Cup as an example of your domestic comp, then select the top 90 in three “allstar” squads the best on form players for the season gets the opportunity to play super rugby.
Joe King
Guest
"If there must be a Super Rugby format then contract the best 90 players in Oz, NZ and SA to play a really super level of rugby in an eight week single round robin, top of the leaderboard are the winners." Certainly an interesting idea, Corne. It might be that less is more. Perhaps rather than using the existing domestic comps SA, NZ, and Oz, they use the existing SR teams to play domestic first, with just the top teams from each playing each other at the end?