To grow the game, fans need good-quality rugby played by meaningful teams.
This is why the NRC has failed. Although enjoyable for rusted-on rugby fans, the quality of rugby was significantly lower than Super Rugby and didn’t have the engagement of fans the comp needed.
Unfortunately, given the climate, it may never be possible to establish a meaningful second-tier professional rugby competition in Australia. Growing the game’s attendance and participation needs to be as imperative as having a successful national team.
Detailed below is a possible blueprint for Australian rugby moving forward. A lot of these ideas are not my own and have been cherry-picked or altered to fit into what is objectively the best possible outcome for Australian rugby and its supporter base.
Professional rugby in Australia should operate across three windows.
National championship
Similar to this year, an Australian domestic championship should occur that will run concurrently with the Aotearoa championship and the Japanese Top League season.
Where this competition differs from other posts and articles are the teams playing. This competition will feature all five current Australian Super Rugby franchises and an Asia-Pacific side based in Western Sydney. This team will draw players primarily from the Pacific Islands and Asia as well as players with similar heritage and play half its games at Parramatta Stadium and the others between Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.
Along with the inclusion of this team will be the Moana Pasifika team into the Aotearoa championship. These competitions will be played as they are now, with a home-and-away round robin format plus two finals.
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
Super Rugby
Super Rugby will be the second part of the season. This competition draws influence from the European-style tournaments in that sees the teams split into two pools. The championship pool will be played by the top three ranked teams from Australia, New Zealand and Japan following their domestic seasons. The cup pool will also be run featuring the last three team from New Zealand and Australia and the next three best teams from Japan.
It has been noted in recent media reports that the top six Japanese teams could compete with Super Rugby franchises. This format would give an opportunity for the top teams to test themselves and for the corporate element of Japanese rugby used to boost the Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby franchises.
Each team will play each other team once other than the teams from the same national championship, creating an eight-round competition followed by two weeks of finals rugby.
All up, for the Australian and New Zealand franchises these two competitions will take up 16 games and potentially another four if your team plays both sets of finals. This is up from the old Super Rugby season, which was 16 games and three finals. I believe this increase of a single game is minimal in regard to player fatigue as teams won’t have to travel to South Africa or Argentina.
But what about the NRC and Fijian team in Super Rugby? The financial constraints around hosting a Super Rugby team in the Pacific Islands will lead the competition to considerable risk. Even though World Rugby will be helping fund the franchise, it has not been announced how long that experiment will last. The last thing Super Rugby needs is to create a competition only for teams to fold or be abandoned again in a few years time.
That is why hosting these franchises in Auckland and Sydney is the best outcome. The best way to develop the island nations is to create or recreate an Australian academy competition that can run as a semi-professional competition at the same time as the National Championship and Super Rugby.
The Australian academy teams can play against Fiji academy, Samoa academy and Tonga academy as a second-tier competition. These three academies will then feed the Asia-Pacific and Moana Pasifika franchises, creating a wider net for Pacific players and greater depth when moving between amateur and professional rugby.
(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
Representative season
Finally, the representative season is where I would make the biggest changes (hold onto your hats). Following the traditional three-Test inbound series would be the new Rugby Championship.
The current Rugby Championship would be completely deconstructed and replaced by a tiered Six Nations structure similar to that used in the northern hemisphere but with promotion and relegation – basically a single round robin format – but this new competition would include a final and promotional playoff game. If Australia and New Zealand wanted to play each other for a second Bledisloe Cup, that could also fit in.
Initially the top tier would consist of Argentina, Australian, South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji and Japan, with Tonga, Samoa, USA, Canada, Uruguay and Hong Kong in the second tier. What was a six-game championship would now be only five games for teams that did not make the final or the relegation game. Conversely you could have a seven-team comp with three home-and-away games.
Okay, that seems simple enough, but what about all the Australian players sitting around while the Mitre 10 is on?
Here is where the mooted ‘origin’ series will be placed, but without the drum banging of the league version. This will have more of a city-versus-country feel, with smaller stadiums (initially) without Wallabies and in mostly regional centres.
This series will be contested between three teams: New South Wales, Queensland and a ‘Combined States’ team. This competition is to ensure the best Wallabies-eligible players are still fit and playing if needed in the national side and to get players looking for national honours and a chance to shine in a representative set-up.
Players will play for the state for which they played schoolboy rugby. If they did not play schoolboy rugby in Australia, they will play for the combined team. These teams will play each other home and away. Players not involved in the competition would go back to club rugby, of which most would have already been playing during a lot of the season.
Each team will play two home and two away games. New South Wales and Queensland will play in places like Newcastle, Tamworth, Wollongong and Townsville, while the combined team will rotate between Canberra, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne – this is to make up for the lack of international games awarded to those cities during the international windows. Rugby should be the game loved in regional Australia nationwide.
Regarding depth, a quick scan of the Super Rugby websites reveals roughly 50 players, a number that is growing each year, currently playing Super Rugby AU are eligible for the Combined States team, with about 11 of those hypothetically unavailable due to Wallabies commitments. A starting 15 could look something like this:
- Cabous Eloff (unsure of eligibility at this stage)
- Lachlan Lonergan
- Pone Fa-amausili
- Seru Uru
- Rob Leota
- Brynard Stander
- Carlo Tizzano
- Pete Samu
- Ryan Lonergan
- Lewis Holland
- Solomone Kata
- Kyle Godwin
- Ilaisa Droasese
- Toni Pulu
- Mack Hansen
I’m sure New South Wales and Queensland fans would love to see some of the players that have left those states return and play in the colours the grew up supporting.
While it differs from the league version – a point I admit will be hard to sell to the casual viewer – it creates a step up into a representative environment for players. This would hopefully create higher quality rugby than seen in the NRC and draw on the historical patriotisms of each region. Imagine a Combined States teams winning. Absolute scenes.
Following this would be the traditional northern tour consisting of a larger squad with the top Origin performers and Wallabies.
To grow the game rugby must target the minority groups for viewership and players. The NRL and AFL already hold relevance over middle Australia. Rugby should target the European expat community, country Australia, the Pacific and Kiwi community and the Asian community while maintaining the older affluent stakeholders.
This strategy might take time to get results, but it’s rugby’s best chance for growth in Australia at the moment. That’s why it would be a great idea to have the Asia-Pacific team based in Western Sydney, to draw from those demographics while offering an opportunity for elite rugby players outside Australia a chance to play in a high-quality professional competition.
School-age rugby
For school-age growth there obviously needs to be a change to the narrative that rugby is for only the wealthiest private schools. There definitely needs to be a push back into non-rugby-playing private schools – easier said than done.
However there also needs to be a real effort made into the public school system along with girls 15-a-side rugby. This can be done through the ‘sports schools’ scattered throughout metropolitan areas. Rugby needs to think outside the box to get these schools competing against each other in 15-a-side rugby even within condensed competitions. This will be easier if a televised component can be added into a sports public school competition along with the mooted television of GPS schoolboy rugby competitions.
Club rugby
The club rugby season would be played much as it is now, with the various tournaments throughout the states. Ideally these would conclude with the semi and major finals being played in the gap between the end of Super Rugby and the representative season.
From these competitions clubs would qualify for the five-week Club Rugby Cup. Of these, 32 teams from across Australia (depending on finances) would compete in a straight knockout tournament. The competition would consist of eight teams from New South Wales, eight teams from Queensland, four teams from the ACT, four teams from Victoria, four teams from Western Australia, two teams from South Australia, the champions from the Northern Territory and the champions from Tasmania.
In regard to regional teams, I’m unsure about the quality of rugby in various states outside of their premier competitions. However, if deemed good enough, I would love to see champion teams from those areas participate. You could maybe reduce the Shute Shield and Hospital Cup clubs to seven or six each to include these areas.
This competition would obviously need to be funded from somewhere, as the initial travel costs would be extreme. Stan Sport would be the ideal partner if it could cover the initial cost. These players would not be paid, but travel expenses would be covered. If any profits were made, these would be pumped directly into grassroots rugby through the premier clubs or potentially through the state governing bodies focusing on infrastructure development, community engagement and general club expenses.
I have heard many lukewarm responses to this idea. If it were played after the premier competition final games, when teams were still on a high or clubs were looking for revenge as well as the chance to test themselves against the best from around the county, it could make for exciting viewing.
Although I acknowledge that many people couldn’t care whether Brothers or Rats are the best team in Australia, it would mean a huge amount to the supporters of those clubs. History and memories will be made as well as lifelong supporters of the game.
Conclusion
Rugby Australia should be looking to provide this format to the fans of rugby in Australia. These ideas give meaningful competition and pathways to amateur and professional players while providing access to the Pacific, Asian and regional communities.
No doubt many people will challenge this, and I’m sure this format is flawed somewhere, but this is the best way for Australian rugby to move into a brighter future.
Smilie
Guest
Like Brazil in Soccer NZ can only be a big marketing product as long as they stay top dog, how many players outside of Neymar do people. U20s implies they have gone from top dog to just another team. If the players aren't coming through what do the do. Australia has the sports Market to be a power house in Union NZ is built solely around the ABs, lose that and alot of money and players disappear.
Smilie
Guest
You raise some good points and are looking to fix some of the previous issues that rugby has faced. Any solution must involve Japan as equal partners which will probably involve joining SANZAAR. It would also need to involve a Pacific Nations Cup so that it can tie in Japan and the USA and possibly South America league that is in its early years. If they don't then USA and Japan may do it themselves and not include RA or NZ or view them as one league. It will also improve the political block that Australia could find itself in to rival the 6nations plus SA.
KCR
Roar Rookie
Cheers for the article 1997, you have put a lot of thought and effort into it. I agree on many of your points, however a couple of questions about super rugby how long between the domestic and international parts of super rugby? The season will need time to be structured and teams to plan logistics. European competitions are based on previous years results. What I did enjoy reading was your approach to including the pacific islanders into the rugby championship. I think that they need to be able to make their own money by regularly playing against top quality opposition that will be seen on television. Thanks for your article the more ideas out there the better
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
WCR, I think whatever deal NZ comes up with re PE will have a big impact on NZ sports domestically (to the point where I think the Warriors should be very nervous). And NZ has already, for several years now, been "selling/promoting" its "brand" overseas as seen in its Adidas sponsorship and, more cleverly, its AIG deal which gave it a foothold into the US market. (The word "burnished" was used to describe the ABs at the 2019 RWC which I almost had to look up so infrequently is it used for sporting teams). By the sheer limited scale of NZ's economy, they've had to take their game to the world and the ingredients are there as seen from outsiders: theatre (haka), fashion (black and silver trim works well) and performance (their success rate is up there). As rugby advances globally, there is the chance that the ABs name will lift as well as long as they can maintain their success rate. The Wallabies have a lot more to do in this regard even though their domestic potential is much greater than New Zealand's but the reward at the end should prove worth the toil.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
Correct. Still hasn't stopped the chatter about it.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
I'm someone who has watched the Shute Shield since I was 12. Giving away my age. I'm 35 now. So you could say I'm a pretty devoted fan. But I was always a huge fan of the NRC. And saw it as a vital cog in the wheel. One that could work alongside club rugby. But sadly, that's not how many from the Shield saw it. What I'm hoping for is for all involved to see the light and look to revive something similar based around being true representative structures from the club scene. Whereby in order to feature you have had to play club rugby through the season. Sydney could be split north and south using the harbour. Same for Brisbane with the river. Canberra with the Kookaburras. Melbourne and Perth. Yes, it would appear to be the NRC but not exactly the same. Teams would be selected by selection panels featuring members of the clubs involved. So in Sydney case, Eastwood, Manly, Warringah, Norths and Gordon would fill the north Sydney rep squad while Randwick, Easts, Uni, Wests, Parra (Penrith as well, maybe) and Souths would fill the south. No franchise involvement. Just clubs.
Micko
Roar Rookie
The “Pacific and kiwi community” is already bought. Rugby union teams/comps would probably collapse in most parts of Australia without kiwi players. Polynesians and Melanesians are clearly a dominant, or at least a hugely significant demographic in pro SR teams, NRC, amateur grassroots comps etc. In fact the growth in rugby union in most parts of Australia just seems to be through kiwi (and also saffa in Perth’s case) mass migration. The demographic make up of the Wallabies sides are clearly changing to one where Polynesians & Melanesians will make up half, possibly the majority of these teams, since the average aussie union player is traditionally going to be in a shrinking population percentage of rich private/catholic school white people of Sydney & Brisbane (Canberra too?), and the culture hasn’t really changed. European expats will push their kids towards soccer as that’s clearly the dominant sport in Europe. The Europeans who’ll go to this sport will generally be presumably those of British & Irish nationality.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Great article mate, well done. I don't know enough about the Aussie domestic scene but other than that it looks great. Keeping the Trans Tasman rivals separate as long as possible should free the Aussie teams from the pressure of playing the kiwis (per Matt Toomua's comments) and definitely get the Pasifika teams in, one in each comp. And certainly leave the door open for Japan - their comp ends in May and the JRU want to raise standards by playing their best teams against against ours. Shame we can't include the Saffers too. Finally, yes bring promotion relegation into the RC and give Japan and Fiji regular competition, it's the right thing for the global game. BTW why the 1997 Brumbies and not 2001 or 2004? Unless you're actually young enough to be born in 1997, surely not...
Micko
Roar Rookie
But GRR doesn't exist anymore?
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
Been talk previously about leveraging Force players into a BoP suad, similar to the deal he made with BoP for the GRR when they were linked with the Chinese outfit. And BoP is not a franchise.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Why would Andrew Forrest get involved with an NZ franchise?
Kent Dorfman
Roar Rookie
Pacific Island rugby is going great guns. The trouble is all of the players represent other nations. Saw a docco how the Samoans all want to represent the All Blacks. Pity they don't have the same attitude as the Tongan rugby leagueplayers who could represent Australia but chose to represent Tonga,the nation of their heritage. Give it 30 years and the RWC will be chokka block full of Pacifika representing other nations - like the Wallabies with a few token white honkeys in the side
liquorbox_
Roar Rookie
"Although enjoyable for rusted-on rugby fans, the quality of rugby was significantly lower than Super Rugby and didn’t have the engagement of fans the comp needed." It was never designed to be Super Rugby level. NRC could have worked if it was done correctly, QLD showed what it could be used for. It was a development pathway to Super Rugby without being tampered with by club rugby. All Super Rugby teams should control two NRC teams each that independent of club rugby. I loved NRC, I am a Reds fan and supported both QLD teams with a slight tilt of favouritism towards country but watched all of their games as I was interested in seeing the next Reds stars learing their skills from a handful of current Super Rugby players.
CPM
Roar Rookie
A bit presumptuous to assume that Japan rugby will go with what the writer is dreaming about here. Reality check! Japan will be launching their new 12 team professional competition in 2022 to take on the Top 14 and English premiership, so why would they want to be involved in Super Rugby anyway? Their season will start in January and end in May. Maybe their teams will have a small window at the end of May to play some sort of cross over competition. The bigger concern for Aus and NZ will be the fact that this new Japanese competition will be played at the same time as Super Rugby so they will be in direct competition for talent armed with US$480 million from their new broadcast and sponsorship deal.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
No we don’t. And the reason they are going down this path is because of the economics involved. Neither SR variant is sustainable long term. And provide limited value for broadcasters. Who pay the bills. Nor will they provide any level of acceptable interest from PE firms both Unions are currently courting. Being able to sell 6 games a week in both markets will see greater financial returns for the Unions and broadcasters alike. People who push the whole NZ going it alone with either the format you mentioned or a fully pro NPC seems to lack a simple understanding. NZ doesn’t possess the necessary economies of scale to make it work. And they have saturated the market with their current 5 franchises. Australia on the other hand lacks the depth to have more teams but possess those economies. What the plan would be alongside of garnering greater broadcast income would be to put into place a model that is attractive to PE interests who will then look to further develop the areas that will grow the competition commercial footprint via growing it’s standing in Australia and internationally.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
Absolutely no reason why NZ should be part of that concept. They already have North vs South and Aust Rugby has its own Origin for what it's worth.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
Yeah, that’s not happening. Both franchises are applying to enter the new TT SR competition starting next. The one in which both NZR and RA are partners in. The articles coming out of NZ are putting a NZ spin on it but Tom Decent in the SMH confirm a both Unions are involved. It will be a 12 team competition. Featuring the 5 Aus and 5 NZ teams plus the two PI squads.
Toby
Guest
Funny enough, the Sydney Morning Herald today has an article on the introduction of a Pacific team and the Fijian NRC side into Super Rugby by 2022. So that looks like a real possiblity.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
I agree with the underlying premise that fans need to be engaged every week, but I am not sure you need to go to this much trouble. Full length seasons (complete home and away) have to be brought back at club level. Why do clubs have to truncate their season because the NRC has to be squeezed in? The NRC fails in the main markets of Qld and NSW because there is no connection to any clubs and the club season is finished. Stalwarts turn their attention to international rugby and the NRC is invisible. NRC has not failed, it has not been tried. For the same reasons, knockouts and champions of champions type formats only appeal to a limited audience.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
Okay, the things I like or see as being something that could work. I am a fan of the restructured/repurposed RC. Could be done in a couple of different ways. The first is what you've suggested. Two six team divisions featuring the current 4 RC nations plus Japan and Fiji and a 2nd div. let's call in the Rugby Trophy featuring Tonga, Samoa, USA and Canada, Uruguay and a 6th team. I'm not sold on Hong Kong being the strongest option here. But that doesn't actually matter. The second option would be the same set up for the RC but a more extensive RT. With instead of one 6 team division it could be a 12 team division featuring two pools of 6. This could be done with taking essentially the same teams that you would from the first option to form the Rest of the World pool and then taking the teams from the REC to form the Europe pool. With the winner of each pool going forward to play in a final to determine which team plays in a promotion/relegation playoff against the 6th ranked team from the RC. Which would be the case in both scenarios. With that game hosted by the RT winner as the RC team is outward to the November tests. The second one I like it the Club Championship. But I'd pare it back a bit and tweak it just slightly. Mainly due to cost . Instead of 32 clubs I'd go for 16. While keeping the knockout format. Top 4 from the Sydney and Brisbane. Top 2 from Canberra, Melbourne and Perth and the two winners of the respective Country championships from NSW and Qld. Played in the post season. Over 4 weeks. Now for the bits I'm unsure of. Why not just go with a Western Sydney team as opposed to some kind of AP BaaBaas team based there? There's also the question of quality in regards to players you'd import. I'm also not sold on the idea of just blonking a team in Western Sydney purely as a exercise in dots on a map. I say this as someone born and raised in the region. There would require extensive ground work to be done particular in terms of participation before any team was set up. A second Sydney based side in the Northern Suburbs/Beaches would be far more workable. And might actually force the Tahs to be more proactive in protecting the turf they'd have left. Which would include Western Sydney. I think we need to see where SR is headed from next season. If it's going to be similar to that of Super 12 then I think some kind of Origin deal could be looked at. And I'd look to include NZ and the PIs. A Origin series featuring NSW, Qld, the North and South Islands from NZ, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. With players from the ACT falling into NSW (much like Origin in League) and those from Vic and WA able to nominate who they wish to play for between the two. While players of PI heritage within the SR franchises could opt to represent their ancestral homelands while still maintaining their Wallabies/All Blacks eligibility. Five games. Short. Sharp. And of high quality leading into the Test series.