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Opinion

The Wrap: The light at the end of Australian rugby’s tunnel isn’t an oncoming train after all

15th May, 2022
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15th May, 2022
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A clean sweep for New Zealand’s Super Rugby franchises over the weekend saw Australia’s rugby renaissance put on hold for another week. In normal times that would be met with a familiar shrug of resignation, but in light of the events of the week, it didn’t seem to matter so much.

Australia being awarded hosting rights for the 2027 men’s and 2029 women’s Rugby World Cups had been assured for some time, but given Rugby Australia’s past propensity for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, there was a palpable sense of relief when green and gold smoke finally wafted out of the chimney at World Rugby HQ in Dublin.

Reaction broadly fell into three camps. The popular response was unashamed delight, to take things at face value. A Rugby World Cup is a wonderful event, and while the figures being bandied about so far ahead of time contain more rubber than a teenager’s wallet on prom night, there is huge commercial potential for both Rugby Australia and the local economy.

A second group comprises sceptical rugby people with long enough memories to know how a wave of support for the sport around the turn of the century and a financial windfall from hosting the 2003 World Cup were frittered away. This coincided with the Wallabies and Australia’s Super Rugby sides growing increasingly uncompetitive and grassroots participants feeling angry and disenfranchised.

In the third camp are the people who for various reasons have already left the building but regardless still feel the need to repeat their ‘rugby is dead’ mantra. This includes sections of the media, hardcore fans who don’t relate to the modern game and casual fans who were happy to take a look 20 years ago but were never hooked.

How many of them quietly slip back onto the bandwagon in 2027 remains to be seen, but they’ll be made welcome.

Whatever the final outcome, and no matter that Australian and New Zealand rugby remain under severe pressure as a result of the disparity in player salaries with northern hemisphere competitions, this is very much a case of crisis averted.

With the World Cups preceded by the upcoming England tour and a Lions tour in 2025, a nicely spaced schedule of big-ticket events that will deliver welcome certainty to Rugby Australia’s revenue stream, which has been weighed down in recent times by disruption to the old broadcasting rights model and the debilitating impact of COVID.

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Another benefit – not to be understated – is how the World Cup hosting confirmation changes the political undercurrent in Australian rugby. Rugby Australia hasn’t all of a sudden been coated in Teflon, nor have the problems around domestic structure been solved, but any continuation of the sniping and dissent that has been a feature of recent history has now largely been rendered pointless. In one fell swoop the narrative has been changed.

Businesses like predictability, and while Rugby Australia’s balance sheet is heavy with debt because operating costs are now under better control, budgeted surpluses and potential equity investment will provide the administration with some choices about how to manage that debt and simultaneously futureproof the sport.

The need for caution is self-evident. Everyone has heard stories of lottery winners, presented with a life-changing windfall, soon finding themselves living back in the same caravan park they thought they’d left behind. Australian rugby has been that person once; it cannot be so again.

(Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)

Nothing quite raises the suspicion and discomfort levels of rugby fans like the prospect of a hungry private equity firm sinking its fangs into their sport. Reaction to the pending New Zealand deal has been overwhelmingly negative, although the issue there isn’t so much private equity per se but the manner in which NZ Rugby hastened to approve a deal that was later shown to be capable of being substantially improved.

As in New Zealand, Rugby Australia remains a private equity play, albeit their need for cash is not as acute as it was this time last year. Businesses typically fund their operations through a combination of debt, equity and cash flow, and it is obviously far more preferable to be considering an equity partner as part of a suite of options rather than a desperate cash grab to staunch the bleeding.

Discomfort with Rugby Australia’s debt and opposition to private equity is widespread but tends to be emotional and often illogical. Imagine saying to a private business, ‘We want you to be world-class innovators, develop the highest quality products, be an employer of choice and deliver sales success and consistent profits… but you’re not allowed to borrow money nor get an equity investor onboard’.

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That’s the kind of flawed proposition brought about by well-intentioned people who – justifiably in some cases – don’t trust rugby’s administrators with the wheel of the ship but who tend to be anchored in 1970s clubland thinking.

In this context rugby is viewed as the sport that existed pre-1995, albeit now with money available for the elite participants. The truth is that rugby is both a sport and a highly competitive global business, and just like how mum-and-dad hardware stores were faced with the onset of mega-stores, less wealthy and less financially resourced rugby nations like Australia and New Zealand must either find a way to stay relevant and in the game or roll over.

If and when it comes, the key to successful private equity involvement in Australian rugby is for the investment to be used to leverage participation and growth outcomes.

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On the professional side, an obvious opportunity exists for Australia, along with New Zealand and their private equity partner, to properly resource SANZAAR and maximise the potential for Super Rugby as something other than a development pathway for their national sides.

More overt and judicious promotion of the competition in its own right would surely result in better fan engagement – on match day and at home – and deliver a substantive return on investment. All that is missing is foresight, courage and will.

A second opportunity exists with women’s rugby. In terms of professional development, Australia is well behind England and France, but there is residual goodwill and profile from the 2016 sevens gold medal that suggests a well-targeted strategy can result in junior and amateur participation being rapidly ramped up.

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This isn’t just a pipedream but an urgent necessity. A cashed-up NRL has aggressively entered the player market, and unless a professional pathway can be demonstrated at the Super Rugby level, a generation of players risks being lost.

Interestingly, the biggest problem facing Australian rugby is not one that can be solved with money alone.

The need for a robust, sustainable second tier – call it NRC or whatever you like – is acute. Club rugby in most of the major centres is healthy and serves a valuable purpose. Ideally what it doesn’t need is messing with – to be turned into something it isn’t, to be jostled off its amateur and volunteer foundations.

At the same time, there is a natural desire to tap into the tribalism that exists, and one of the failings of the NRC, in Sydney in particular, was that arbitrary boundaries and abstract teams failed to garner support from clubland.

In truth, the Super Rugby franchises see themselves as clubs, and there is a certain amount of tribalism that underpins their operation. Given the potential benefits around utilising existing infrastructure and staff and continuity within the wider playing groups, it isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine a workable competition being constructed from the bones of what exists already.

Rugby Australia is playing its cards close to its chest. That’s understandable because a hybrid solution encompassing aspects of both would be a delicate manoeuvre to pull off.

Whatever the outcome is, there are two things that can’t happen. One is to further focus Australian rugby around Sydney and Brisbane, the other is to do nothing.

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No amount of money is going to shift Australian rugby forward unless or until these puzzles are solved.

Jake Gordon of the Waratahs passes during the round 13 Super Rugby Pacific match between the NSW Waratahs and the Hurricanes at Leichhardt Oval on May 14, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

To the weekend’s action, and the humour was provided firstly by Stan’s Tim Horan describing the dire Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika match as “brilliant” and secondly by New Zealand’s two best hookers being responsible for the two worst lineout throws of the season.

Codie Taylor’s was laugh-out-loud funny; Dane Coles’s came at a crucial time and potentially could have cost his side the match.

It’s no secret that the Force are keen to shake off the tag of being that spirited, gritty team that everyone struggles to overcome before usually overcoming them anyway. But folding 61-10 to the Highlanders probably isn’t what they had in mind.

As such, it wasn’t possible to properly assess Tony Brown’s experiment in shifting Sam Gilbert into flyhalf other than to note the Highlanders’ cohesion and confidence levels continuing to rise late into the competition.

After last week singling out the Brumbies loose forward trio for praise, it was the turn of the Crusader’s combination of Ethan Blackadder, Cullen Grace and Pablo Matera to take centre stage, paving the way to victory in Canberra by 37-26.

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Crusaders coach Scott Robertson told me at the recent ‘super round’ that it had taken some time for Matera to fit into the team pattern and learn what his role was.

It appears that Matera now fully understands: grab hold of the ball at every opportunity and run through and over any opponent who happens to be in his path.

There was a lot to like about the way the Brumbies staged a spirited comeback in the final ten minutes, but the Crusaders were too clinical and efficient in the first half for the result to ever be in doubt.

There’s a been a lot of goodwill shown by and towards Moana Pasifika and the Fijian Drua this year, but for viewers their historic first match felt like a friendship being stretched too far.

With both sides fumbling and bumbling, the Drua triumphed 34-19 simply because they made fewer errors and were more able to capitalise on their opponent’s bloopers. File under ‘A’ for anticipation and ‘E’ for execution.

Tevita Ikanivere of Fijian Drua is tackled.

(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Crowd sizes have begun creeping up again in Auckland; not surprising considering the brand of rugby the Blues are currently playing. There’s an eagerness to punch through contact, just as there is a willingness to play into space, sweeping their speed runners into the play.

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A feature is the Blues’ astute decision-making in recognising when it’s on to shift quickly or when to play directly and making those decisions before defences have a chance to get set.

Despite that, for the second week in a row the Blues conceded four tries, which is equally reflective of a slight lack of defensive intensity and some tidy finishing by the Reds whenever they did manage to find parity and create scoring opportunities.

Crowds are also returning to Leichhardt Oval, and there was a buzz around the ground as Angus Bell and the Waratahs comprehensively outplayed the Hurricanes in the first half on their way to a 15-0 halftime lead.

But no lead is ever safe when Ardie Savea is on the other side, and as the visitors finally found some control, there was a sense of inevitability about the final 22-18 result.

It was another case of ‘so near yet so far’ for the Rebels in Melbourne, falling to the Chiefs 33-30 on the final play of the match.

Rebels skipper Michael Wells experienced rugby’s highs and lows in the space of a thrilling but agonising denouement, towering high to brilliantly steal a lineout against the throw, but suffering as his side had an exit kick charged before watching three defenders drop off Chiefs replacement prop Ollie Norris as he bullocked over for the win.

After last week’s humiliation in Auckland, this was a Rebels performance to stir the hearts of supporters and hint at better days ahead. It seems that the light at the end of the tunnel may not be an oncoming train after all.

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