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Opinion
Here we are, season two of the new and improved Super Rugby Pacific competition is just about done for the year.
It’s safe to say that outside of Waikato and Canterbury, most people have already turned their attention to the selection of international squads and the delicious prospect of a French Rugby World Cup that has been ageing like a fine wine for the last three years and nine months.
And this is possibly part of the problem. Super Rugby Pacific has come and gone in a blur. It’s like an entree at a banquet that is instantly forgotten once the main course is about to be brought out. Having spent a bit of time in the UK I think I can safely say that English rugby fans don’t feel quite the same way about Premiership Rugby or the European Champions Cup.
Probably ditto for South Africans who appear to have relished the opportunity that URC has provided them in being able to play within friendly time zones and also see their teams have a better win rate than provided by Super Rugby.
So where to for Super Rugby Pacific? The contraction of time zones from the mid Pacific to Western Australia has been important in containing game times and providing viewers with a modicum of consistency. Added to this, the Fijian Drua have been the find of the last two years, injecting an enthusiasm and a team identity that the other franchises sometimes struggle to capture.
Yet, the same problems lay bare. Rugby as a sport suffers for relevancy in Australia and the five Aussie teams have done little to rectify that in these last two seasons. 2023 has seen some embarrassingly low attendances at matches, so much so that the numbers are now rarely publicised.
A cursory glance at the few statistics available would indicate that matches seem to be better attended when Kiwi teams are playing, suggesting that the rugby migrants are once again doing the job that locals won’t.
Similarly across the “dutch”, crowds appear to be down than in previous years. A recent Rugby Roar interview with Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge indicated that actually viewership (via streaming) was up in New Zealand at least. But you can’t help but feel that if their numbers were that positive there would be more promotion from the unions themselves and not just by a solitary CEO on social media.
Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby have made it clear that they want to work together to make Super Rugby Pacific the best competition in the world. Presumably Moana Pacifika and the Fijian Drua feel the same although it’s unlikely they’ll get much say at the negotiating table. It makes you wonder how they will respond to ideas such as a player draft if current Flying Fijian head coach Simon Raiwalui’s reaction is anything to go by .
I’m a firm believer in the importance of cohesion in driving continued success at any sporting team. As it turns out, so is the CEO and head coach at the Crusaders, the team that has won (for now) 11 Super Rugby titles and now made it to the last five Super Rugby Finals (omitting the anomalous 2020 and 2021 seasons).
Crusaders (NZ) Andrew Mehrtens (centre) and team mates Dave Hewett (L) and Daryl Gibson (R) wave to the crowd. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)
For this reason alone, a player draft would ruin the excellent pathway the Drua have created and it would slowly destroy the consistency that Kiwi teams currently have. Added to this, as an Australian rugby fan, I’m disappointed our administration is going down the path of “if you can’t beat them, join them” on this one.
It’s like we’ve thrown up our hands and decided to give up on ways to develop our five teams and chase that parity we once had two decades ago.
If Super Rugby in its current form has designs on being a world class tournament then it needs to start by addressing the financial reality rugby faces.
For starters, an expansion across the Pacific to include a Japanese team or team based in Hawaii is precisely what turned a once lean competition structure into a costly and confusing mess in the first place.
The expansion that included Japan and Argentina, along with South Africa, made following the competition a nightmare and drove away many fans who got sick of watching their team play at 2am while only being able to attend a home game once every few weeks.
When I interviewed former ARU boss John O’Neill for my documentary, he lamented the decision by SANZAAR to expand across multiple continents remarking that “the time zone is a killer, the travel and accommodation costs are a killer”.
O’Neill certainly has his detractors from his time at the helm, and I would argue that he was the main architect of Australia’s expansion that is directly related to our high performance plight today, however as a former banker he at least knew the limitations of any financial enterprise.
The current rumblings by administrators to expand a competition that is struggling to reach top market value on broadcast rights defies logic .
Overseas broadcast interest in key territories such as Europe will be difficult to penetrate in a market that is already crowded and cares not for southern hemisphere rugby unless it involves jerseys that are black, gold or dark green.
Not to mention the stress it will put on both Australian and New Zealand budgets to try support their respective five franchises and retain top talent while French and Japanese teams continue to operate immune to the financial realities of professional rugby that have now started to hit the English.
This new expansionist strategy may have merit if the Japanese can be pulled into the deal, Japan being a large market that New Zealand Rugby has already got designs on via their cooperation agreement.
However doing it with the current number of teams would at least in Rugby Australia’s case, further bloat an organisation that is already struggling to make ends meet.
If I was to try and picture a rugby product that you could take to the global market and present as something exciting and altogether worth their time and money, it wouldn’t be the current 12 team format and it certainly wouldn’t be one that features an expanded version of that competition.
For Super Rugby Pacific to achieve top status, it must provide the highest standard of rugby excellence and create the experience of an international test match each and every game.
To achieve this it would need to see New Zealand probably condense down to three teams in order to guarantee the intensity of an All Blacks trial match every week. It would probably need two Australian teams, one based in Sydney and one based in Brisbane that are effectively two squads of the cream of the golden Wallaby crop.
The Fijian Drua should stand alone and be allowed to grow as they have done for the last two seasons. Moana Pacifika would need a serious uplift but the right development strategy from a pipeline of the best players from the islands can be achieved, just as the Drua have proven. Therein lies the opportunity for these 7 teams to be joined by other elite franchises from the region to meet such a quality field.
Fijian Drua (Photo by Pita Simpson/Getty Images)
Perhaps the return of the Sunwolves, ideally made up of as many Cherry Blossoms as can be afforded given Japanese elite rugby has indeed blossomed in the last cycle. How about the Jaguares, the core of the Argentina team which made a Super Rugby final in their last season?
While Hawaii seems like an exciting prospect and geographically representative of the Pacific region, this would be the franchise that would require immense work and preparation. A hybrid team made up of superstars or at least, buoyed by a spine of the best of MLR or Super Rugby Americas to give it a foundation.
Yes, this now just looks like a competition that’s merely a training camp for national squads. And that’s precisely what it should be. Suddenly it’s a competition where you get to see the best opposite numbers from various nations regularly pitted against each other.
Every game is a trial match. There are no club battlers or journeymen because this is elite rugby. The best of the best. And when there is no World Cup, Six Nations or Rugby Championship then Super Rugby Pacific becomes the next best thing.
Teams may be artificial but the excellence won’t be. And perhaps rather than relying on traditional rivalries that no longer carry the genuine state of origin quality they use to possess, rugby can embrace the superstars with their individual qualities.
It’s something we rarely see in the sport that tends to still be designed to get buy in from a fanbase that always comes from the same clubs or has gone to the “right” schools.
And what of the current teams, the Tahs, Reds, Brumbies, Force and Rebels in Australia and the other five in New Zealand? Are they left behind? Absolutely not. They could remain in Australia as that elusive third tier. New Zealand the same. They could regionalise and then play a short crossover finals stage like they did in 2021.
Or stay local and expand their domestic setup. But importantly, the competition recalibrates to be something that is more fit for purpose. It becomes the first step to professionalism for that new up and comer from Shute Shield, Hospitals Cup or even FMG Premier Grade.
Damian McKenzie of the Chiefs. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Yes the salary caps will be reduced, but at least there is professionalism at a base level. Yes, they will play to smaller crowds. You could argue that with attendances that hover around the 8,000 mark now, that’s already the reality. And yes, a whole middle range of players that don’t play in Super Rugby Pacific 2.0 will go overseas to ply their trade for more money.
Let them, let someone else pay for their development and give that free slot to the next kid coming through. If they realise their potential they will be back to play in the best competition in the world in the Pacific!
There’s still a reckoning for rugby in the southern hemisphere and encouragingly, the Australian and New Zealand unions seem to have stopped beating their chests and are now cooperating for the greater good. Hopefully this level headed approach will carefully consider the precarious nature of the business of rugby and not fall victim to hubris and the lure of quick private equity dollar hits.
Because if our united unions can dare to be different and unlock the full potential of the Oceania region and even the Americas, it will become a marker for how rugby can be played and branded as a global sport and could once again make the “Antipodeans” the envy of the rugby world.
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.