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Hamish McLennan has revealed a desire for Super Rugby to expand into the United States and Japan and continued his push for a draft to reinvigorate interest in the competition.
McLennan, during an appearance on the Rugby Direct podcast in New Zealand, also pushed back at suggestions that he was delaying the establishment independent commission to run Super Rugby and expected it to be in place in “one or two months”.
While McLennan has made his thoughts on a draft and the commission clear before now, his views on expansion are eye-opening.
He said new RA CEO Phil Waugh was backing a US team.
“Waughy believes that we should be housing a team out of Hawaii, so a US-led team, and Robbo [NZR CEO Mark Robinson] has certainly talked a lot about Japan, which we agree,” McLennan said.
“I think if we can at least get two teams, then that would deliver us more teams, more hours, and a more robust differentiated competition.
“Collectively, we’ve got to think about expansion and how we continue to support the Drua, Moana Pasifika, our system, your system, and just make it the world’s best provincial competition.
“I tell you, the north, and the guys that I deal with at Six Nations and World Rugby, believe that that can be the case.
“So I think if we put our rivalries aside and say ‘how do we grow the pie?’, I think we’ll have a very robust code, and then all the on-field rivalry will be about the rugby. But we’ll get there, we’ll absolutely get there.”
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
McLennan’s proposal for a player draft that would allow Aussies and Kiwis to play in rival countries but retain their international rights was initially scorned across the ditch. But in recent days it received backing from the boss of the NZ players’ association, Rob Nichol.
“Ultimately it’s going to have to go to RA and the NZR board and the Super Rugby commission, but if we can get a draft in place and do it quickly, and put a framework round so that again it’s not overly burdensome, but that would drive viewer interest on both sides of the Tasman,” McLennan said.
“And if we want to be creative; that idea has been floating around for some time, the AFL do it, the American sports do it all the time; we can start to create new assets, so imagine us collectively creating a draft that we’d promote before the Super Rugby season starts. That would drive incredible interest.
“If you look at the finals, well we [Australia] only have one team into the semis, but you’ll have incredible viewership on both sides of the Tasman if you’ve got players [from both nations] playing in respective teams. And I just think that will do more for improving the value of our collective media rights than anyone thinks.
“So if the commission is looking at trying to do things more laterally and creatively, there’s an idea there that we should jump on.”
Nichol said he was 100 percent behind a draft, adding: “We’ve got to be innovative. We’ve got to say, ‘How can we all work together to not just retain but actually attract talent back to this part of the world?’”
“Rob is absolutely right, I was pleased to see that he made those statements, because we may think that in our rugby world, in our bubble, that’s a massive innovation,” McLennan said.
McLennan said he would like to see a draft work two ways – helping clubs spread the rookie talent and also the game’s marquee stars.
“I would do both. If we had a Damian McKenzie playing for the Rebels, that would just be extraordinary,” McLennan said.
“I also think there would be great interest in 19 or 20-year-olds coming through that can go and spend two years in any given team, again on both sides of the Tasman. You’ve just got to ensure that you get game time.
(Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)
“Collectively, what we should be saying is ‘let’s try and stop the players going to France and Japan, let’s try and build the value of that competition so they don’t feel the need to leave’.”
McLennan meanwhile acknowledged Australia had concerns that an independent commission risked adding to the layers of governance in the sport.
“Mark Robinson would want it done tomorrow, yesterday; but I think it will be one to two months,” said McLennan. “But NZR, Robbo came to me late in December last year or early January and said ‘can we expedite Kevin Molloy to come in as the chairman [of the planned commission] and we got all of our Super Rugby clubs onside.
“So that didn’t’ technically go through a recruiter, a proper hiring process, but I’d spoken to Kevin and heard about him from my old marketing and advertising days, and he’s a very highly credentialled, great operator. We moved pretty quickly on that one and so that technically sat outside the term sheet and how we were going to recruit for key positions.
“So we are prepared to be flexible; all we’re saying is, is there a better, more efficient way of doing it and that’s where the debate is. So I think it’s probably one to two months away.”