Steve Hansen claims 'NRL's a better game to watch' than 'predictable' Super Rugby, backs RA plans to 'jazz it up'

World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has expressed grave concerns over the state of Super Rugby and says the NRL is a better product to watch, while backing innovations led by Rugby Australia to improve the experience.

“I look at NRL and New South Wales Racing and the guy in charge there, Peter V’landys, who has been really instrumental in making both these sports very popular. And his formula’s very simple. It’s all about what do the fans want, what do the participants want and give it to them,” Hansen told NZ radio station Newstalk ZB .

“Both rugby unions need to sit down and really find out what it is the fans want and how we’re going to get them to engage in it and then deliver on that.

“If we’re being bone dead honest with ourselves it is at the moment. It [NRL] is a better game to watch on TV than rugby is, because it’s not stop-start. They apply a lot of common sense to how they adjudicate things and make sure the game keeps some form of flow to it. Our game over the last five years has got slower and slower and slower. But that’s because they’ve gone out and listened to what the fans want and then applied common sense to it.”

Hansen believes the XV-player game is at a crossroads – an example being just 12,000 fans attending Eden Park for the Blues win over the Waratahs in last week’s quarterfinal. Twice as many watched the NRL Warriors beat the Dolphins in Auckland recently.

“I don’t know about falling out [of love] with the game but I think they’re falling out with a few things that are happening within the game, that’s frustrating people. It can be hard to watch at times,” Hansen said.

“There’s no dispute that Super Rugby has to change. It’s pretty predictable and still stuck where it was four or five years ago. You go through the quarter-finals and it wasn’t that exciting as you knew who was going to win. Some of the ideas that have been floated by New Zealand Rugby and Australia are quite good ones, so let’s hope people are more flexible enough and more open enough to hear those ideas and maybe put them in place.

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images for Barbarians)

“I haven’t stopped to think about where it’s going to be in 20 years, I’m more worried about where it’s going to be in five … I think we’re at the crossroads. Unless we make some strong changes and start listening to the people that want to come along and watch it then it will just be the participants playing it.”

Hansen said the number of red cards in rugby was hurting the product.

“Rugby’s got some interesting things happening in it like red cards, TMOs, the stop-start nature of the game, the lack of cohesion between the Southern and the Northern hemispheres. All those things create a product that’s not consistent and it does mean people get frustrated with it,” he said.

“I think the desire’s there and just don’t think they know how they’re going to do it. We’re at a stage where we need to be bold and brave and attempt to do something.

“The red card is at the bottom of the cliff. We’re not fixing the problem. Yes there is a problem that people are getting head injuries and we need to stop that. Red cards were introduced to stop foul play back in the day when it was people kicking someone or punching someone or swinging an arm – well you don’t get those in the game any more, or very few.

“What we’re getting now is getting a lot of head knocks, most of which are probably unintentional or poor technique.

“So rather than giving them a red card, let’s find a system that says right we recognised that happened. We don’t want to muck the game up. We know it’s unintentional. We put it on report or a yellow card or something. And then we can go if it’s a technical probably you have then you can go and fix it here’s how we’re going to do it.

“We want young kids to come in and play the game, young boys and young girls. Mums and dads won’t be keen if kids are going to get knocked around too much. So how do we make it safer? Rather than just dishing out red cards what are we going to do? And we need to do it reasonably quickly. Need to apply common sense and look at the areas that need to be touched up.”

Hansen also appeared on a Stuff’s Newsable podcast, where he gave clear backing for the Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan’s idea for a draft to allow players to play in rival Super nations.

“There’s some good ideas coming ut of Australia about how to jazz it up a bit,” Hansen said.

“Hopefully we’re open and flexible enough in our thinking to try that. The idea of having a draft and the idea of being able to interchange players … shouldn’t hold any fears with out New Zealand players being able to play for the All Blacks.”