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Opinion
It’s that time of the year again, where 50 or 60 up and coming Australian rugby players leave their Super Rugby franchise and go back to play with their club.
While these players will continue to train and play, they would be much better served by training and playing in a professional environment. Zoom meetings with your S&C coach isn’t quite the same as having them stand over you while you want to quit.
The news that Phil Waugh will become CEO of RA. Good luck Phil, there is a mountain of work ahead of you (assuming Hamish lets you take control), but not much money to throw around.
There has been a lot of talk about improving the pathways in Australia. This is always easier said than done. I myself have previously thought ‘what if’ about a National Rugby Championship.
We aren’t New Zealand or South Africa where rugby is the national sport, so we need to stop pretending that if only we had a competition like the NPC or Currie Cup the world would be better.
The NPC has been around for nearly 50 years, and the Currie Cup has been around since before rugby was invented. It is not realistic to think that replicating these two competitions would be financially viable and/or reap any rewards inside the next 10 years.
There are lots of different possibilities, but this article explores two. They may not be the best two, but then as a former front rower I am not known for my depth of thinking. That’s ok, I’ve got a thick skin.
Before I go into the two different options, the overarching factors I considered were how to get more players playing higher level rugby; how to generate more money (to pay more players); and how to keep the fans engaged for longer.
Option 1
Expand the current 12 team SRP to a full home and away series and then split the finals two groups of 6. The Cup and the Plate.
There would be 22 regular season games plus 3 weeks of finals. It could start in Feb/March, with the finals played in August.
The downside is the AB and Wallaby players wouldn’t be available from mid-June onwards. That’s ok, as I don’t think the purpose of SRP is to be a training ground for the Wallabies or ABs. I also understand this may not suit those wanting the Kiwi players to go back to the NPC at the end of SRP.
(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)
The upside is that more players would get more games at a higher level and there would be more broadcast content.
This will be difficult to implement as the different stakeholders (ie NZR and RA) have differing needs – i.e NZR don’t need to do anything different, but RA do.
Option 2
Keep the SRP in its current format. Run from Feb to June. Following the SRP final, have the 5 Australian franchises play a domestic competition.
This could be a full home and away series with the top two playing a final.
This would tick lots of boxes:
• Keeps players engaged with their SRP franchise
• Allow clubs to bring through more junior talent
• Spread the players with RA top up payments across more franchises
• Fringe Wallabies get to continue playing and pressing their claims
• It doesn’t require any new teams to be set up
• Provides another 8 weeks of rugby for Stan to broadcast
The big advantage of this though is it could be setup without needing to get NZR agreement. RA could start it next year without too much effort and assuming Stan would pay for more content it should be cost neutral.
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.