Rugby Australia almost didn’t make it through the pandemic, low on cash after the Israel Folau disaster and diminishing public interest.
With New Zealand, Australia and South Africa playing in their own segregated competitions, many were wondering what would happen next.
South Africa opted to cut ties and chased after the Euros, joining the United Rugby Championship, a choice that they haven’t regretted.
Now, Rugby Australia are wondering if it’s time to go their own separate way as well, especially after the success of Super Rugby AU.
Last year, the Super Rugby AU final between the Reds and Brumbies attracted 400,000 viewers in Australia and a crowd of 41,000. The Super Rugby Trans-Tasman final managed only 75,000 viewers in Australia, which were most likely a majority of New Zealand expats.
Fans in Australia are divided about the announcement.
There is plenty of enthusiasm for a domestic competition. Tribalism is a powerful aphrodisiac, especially with the rumour that another Queensland and New South Wales team would be added. Having an Australian champion year after year is also alluring to broadcasters.
More young players would also get game time as more teams requires more bodies.
The other fans are pessimists. Already, many are saying that it will be the end of Australian rugby, spurting out, “You have to play the best to be the best”. Yet, the Wallabies play the All Blacks every year for the Bledisloe and haven’t won it since 2002, even when Australian teams have won Super Rugby.
Clearly, playing the best each year isn’t working for Australia. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the world, the French and Irish beat the All Blacks last year and they didn’t need Leinster or Toulouse to play the Crusaders to do so.
The real problem in Australia is a lack of interest from the public. Rugby Australia has to battle AFL and the NRL, billion-dollar businesses, as well as football and cricket for audiences and grassroots participation.
Rugby has been losing this battle year after year, losing plenty of schoolboy talent. Think Angus Crichton and Joseph Suaalii, who got offered higher wages that rugby couldn’t match.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Realistically, a national competition is the best way forward to increase Australian interest and develop a broader range of players. The more fans are involved, the more broadcasters can offer, which then Rugby Australia can use to try and retain more talent.
With two World Cups and a Lions tour to look forward to, Australia would have the cash to support its own league as well.
So, if Australia do take the brave leap, it doesn’t mean that Australian teams cannot play the New Zealand teams.
In 2022/23, South African rugby teams will be allowed to participate in the Heineken Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup, two competitions which see European teams from different leagues play each other.
The Champions Cup is an excellent competition in which the best eight teams of each major European league compete, featuring a variety of interesting match-ups. Now that South Africa are adopted into Europe, it will be interesting to see how they go against teams such as Saracens and Toulouse.
What if there was a Pacific Champions Cup? This way Australia and New Zealand can break up, but still remain friends with benefits.
Osamu Ota, the Japan League One managing director, had divulged last year that discussions between Japan Rugby, NZR and Rugby Australia had occurred to bring a competition together. News of this announcement saw Robbie Deans, the head coach of the Panasonic Wild Knights, and Milton Haig, head coach of Suntory Sungoliath, give their support.
The best of Australia, New Zealand and Japan could all play each other. The Drua would be better off to join Moana in New Zealand to make a seven-team domestic comp (plus Fiji is closer to New Zealand).
Theoretically, a 16-team competition could occur. The five best from each country and a spot for either the Drua or Pasifika separated into four pools of four. The top two of each pool moving onward to a quarter-final knockout round, or perhaps even facing the best eight European teams from the Champions Cup as Bernard Laporte wanted when he discussed the Club World Cup.
The potential of playing differing Japanese teams would also add a freshness to each season. Additionally, involvement from MLR could occur if New Zealand and Australia wanted to try and break their way into the American market, perhaps replacing a Japanese spot.
A Pacific Champions Cup with home-and-away fixtures would only extend the season by nine games (including the finals), making a season of rugby around 21-22 rounds long if an Australian domestic competition of seven had home-and-away fixtures.
Minuscule compared to the the Top 14, which has 26 rounds excluding the Champions Cup.
Despite what the future may look like, come 2024, Australian rugby will have to make its own decision about what it thinks is best.
John McDonnell
Guest
I love this idea. get the yanks in before they start playing in europe too. and the argies need to come back. you aint going to get the saffas back. urc is way better with them in it. not a leinster fest any more
Jacko
Roar Rookie
No they dont. Look at TJ and Dmac.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Drafts arnt legal. Any player wins the minute they dont want to shift somewhere. NRL abandoned a draft due to that exact reason. AFL has retained it because no player has challenged it but to force a person to relocate his whole family etc to another country would very quickly see a draft being challenged in court and defeated.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Sorry but you are equating population to financial success and thats wrong. Why has the AFL not continued with China? Because the population is huge isnt it? The economy is massive compared to Aus yet no one in China wanted to bother with the AFL. You can get a large crowd together but if they gathers to see Led Zeplin they wont be happy if they get a Zeplin cover band. Do you believe the AFL would give a whole lot of money to NZ for NZs AFL comp?
Jacko
Roar Rookie
100% agree. If Aus teams dont win the comp they will run away and want a solo comp. They cant possibably be advocating for a comp they wont win and their current teams wont win a Pac ific Champions cup.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
To the Author….. And what if NZ wins those comps you are suggesting? Does RA then walk away from them because they are not winning? What if the 5 Aus teams playing each other 3 times a season fades in its shine? Where does Aus get the millions required to form more teams? To base any sort of future on a 1 off Covid affected year is dumb and dumber. RA has them both running their organisation. I hope NZR plans for their NPC to fill the void and lets Aus die by their own decisions. Just dont blame NZ when rugby in Aus dies. The NRL could just buy the Aus teams they will be so worthless.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
Sabbatical is not the same thing. That's seen more as a loan. Players who go on these are still contracted to the NZR.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
We will get a better idea when the NZ and Oz sides confront Ireland and England
NH Fan
Guest
Has this year not shown the Oz teams took their learning from last year and developed it in the Oz only rounds so were ready for NZ. Though seeing that the two quickly assembled sides seemed to be ok maybe NZ sides came to the Oz level. Just as one team can lift another it can also be pulled down to their level.
NH Fan
Guest
But they do pick players as soon as the sabattical is over effectively picking players who were just in a lower standard league. (Unless Japan and SR are the same level). Oz overseas players seemed grand in RC.
Ulrich
Roar Rookie
We all know O'Gara's intentions but Hansen didn't trust that leading up to the RWC and considering Ireland had beaten the ABs which is the point. You can google the part in itqlics and get the full story.
NH Fan
Guest
Realistically Oz needs 8 places to host WC games who can also support lower T2 sides. Have 8 domestic teams leading up to the WC would be important for that. As SA are seeing with the Cheetahs being able to have some control over being able to add in extra teams to good competitions helps fans feel cared for. Getting them into the Challagne Cup was good business. I think the Challange Cup will soon go to 24 teams and may include Griquas and Pumas.
NH Fan
Guest
One think England has played with is a cup between top two divisions during international periods. Don't need to top players and brings on the second division too.
NH Fan
Guest
NZRU have deemed only playing SA at international level and not SR level as sufficient. How is that any different. On an aside u20 competition happening this Summer as no u20 championship. 6N plus Georgia and SA. SA firmly having the best of both worlds and benefiting from their move.
NH Fan
Guest
Because he spent all his career in Ireland he knew he needed to see other places to learn (which he has talked about and shown that it's important to him). He talked about how he learned from how NZ players defended and helped NZ players to see a different way it can be done. He very much adds what he learns. Hansen and Foster are clear examples of believing you have the best way and there is no need to adapt even when it being obvious to others.
NH Fan
Guest
Finally when you control your domestic league with an Inter-league cup on top a few things happen. URC is all about the breakdown (as SA discovered this season where it is a battle ground). This is because URC teams aren't as physical do its how they counter it. If you play in the URC you need to be good at it if you aren't like the rainbow Cup final and early URC rounds showed SA you struggle. Once they sorted it out they did better. T14 is all about phyiscallity and if you don't have big pack in it you struggle. Prem is all about set piece and kicking territory. In the Cups these three cultures colide, generally T14 does better against URC, URC do better against Prem and Prem do better against T14. The top teams have become good at all of these which is why you need a great squad not just a strong pack or backs. Each league develops things over their season away from the other leagues. SA teams will find adapting to Europe like they did the URC, they may struggle but will take learning and come back better. Bulls may be better equipped to tackle T14 teams while Stormers may prefer Prem teams. The Champions Cup is effectively the top 24 teams in Europe testing their styles against much different styles than an SR team would face. It is why SH coaches have become less prominent in Europe over the last 5 years as they refuse to adapt to different styles or change as you only have 4 games in a year to sort it and if you lose everyone knows your weakness. A T14 team worked out how to use their style to beat Leinster so the Bulls could learn from that. O'Gara built his plan off how Connacht (URC) and Tigers (Prem) played against them and used his knowledge from T14 to do it. If Oz, NZ and Japan (plus others If they wanted to add more) each league would have their own style. No league will run more than Japan, may be NZ is set piece and Oz is set moves. They develop and master their style trying it against teams in their league. It also helps to have a plan B. SA teams will need to tweak their plan when playing in Europe and allows players to think their ways out of games better in their own league. If they play like they did in the URC the Prem and T14 have a rough idea how to counter it.
NH Fan
Guest
Point two that the article touches on is money and player depth. It all comes down to money. A fan in the URC (which is the shortest Euro league) for a season ticket is going to get 11 home games with a possible 4-5 playoff home games, Blues this year as 1st ranked team got 10 because of the playoffs. In SR you get 7 in the regular. Which do you think you can sell for more to fans plus all the extra for commercial deals for extra games. While it would be nice to have a 14 week league it is not going to be professionally viable with each passing year as the only source of income outside of internationals. Less games mean smaller squads which means less players and playtime. Hansen came to Europe for game time, did better than expected and cemented his place in a mid URC team (11/16). Plenty other Oz players making it in Europe who came to play, not stars chasing money. These are the people who will fill the 7th and 8th team not some person not good enough but people who currently are leaving Oz. With 22 games Hansen knew if he wasn't good enough to make the team he would get sub spots (all those positions he covers) and start a game a month as front line players were managed/rotated during the season to keep them fresh. At SR if he got the same deal he starts way less games to show his stuff. SR is not viable as a stand alone competition and be able to pay bills and keep young players.
NH Fan
Guest
Nice article and hits some at points. Currently Oz teams play 5 games against NZ teams in the regular season. Next year SA teams will play 4 games against French and English teams. This means that the Champion & Challange Cups will give SA teams nearly as many as OZ get plus they get all their URC regular games as well. So even if the URC was rubbish they would still get nearly as many good games. If it's a fear of not playing good teams the Oz teams would still get plenty against NZ. Look at the Prem final and even the semis. Big games, big fan buy in, lots of talking up the teams. No mention of how poor they were in Europe and that they are behind the URC and T14 and how the teams might not make a semi in the other two leagues. Oz don't get that. When SR AU was happening OZ teams got their media fully focused on Oz rugby and they need that to grow. Look and Welsh media v Scottish media on the URC and then see the correlation with fan engagement and outlook.
Ulrich
Roar Rookie
It may be as simple as them trusting their own coaches to get the best out of their players. Where would you rather have your kid coached, for example? For such a small country they rely almost exclusively on local coaches and export more coaches than any other that I'm aware of. Ronan O'Gara is the last foreign coach I know that spent some time in NZ in a supporting role for the Crusaders. 'He was cold to me' - Ronan O'Gara reveals Steven Hansen's suspicions over having an Irish Crusaders coach
Frankly
Roar Rookie
That is interesting. I figured that was the case. However, I would have thought protecting IP would be difficult considering the amount of NZ players and coaches leaving the NZ setup over the years.