Super Rugby can be fixed. Here's how

Without Drastic and many changes to the playing Rules to restore continuity ... Super Rugby and the game itself will continue to Die... The rest without this is just rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic. The game is boring to watch and Play. Player and spectator numbers have voted with their feet.

Thanks for the article, nice job! I agree with a lot of what you are saying, I have a few slightly different ideas but certainly agree with your direction. My pie in the sky ideas for improving Super Rugby as a comp. - Agree that the match day experience needs to be improved. The rapid rugby experience in the West was a good example of things that can be done. Live music, more crowd engagement, activities around the ground. My family enjoyed the whole experience, not just the rugby. - I still use the area names anyway, not even sure why they aren't used. Though tbh I'm not sure calling them the Waratahs versus the NSW Waratahs lessens the amount I want the Force to beat them! - I am a fan of introducing a draft as well as competition wide eligibility. There needs to be something to help bring the competition closer together. That said, I do recognise we need to maintain the teams incentive to produce their own talent. I believe this is a balance that can be reached. Perhaps a requirement to have "x" amount of locally produced players in the squad and/or priority picks for local players. - I don't hate an 8 team finals series, though I recognise the optics and the desire to move to a 6 or less team finals. To do this the comp would need to be longer or risk fans losing interest as soon as their team is out of realistic contention for a finals spot, which can happen quickly in a short comp. - We only have 12 teams in the comp, let's not much around with complex structures, just make it a 22 round full home and away series. Everyone plays everyone twice, once at home, once away. Easy to understand and means you get to see every other team at your home ground each year. It's also a decent length of season. - Would love to see Moana play their home games out to Samoa and Tonga, surely this can be made to happen. - Super Rugby Women's should be a mirror of the men's comp, even play as double headers each week, would be awesome! Just some thoughts. Super Rugby has been committed to for at least the short term, so let's make it as good as it can be!

consider an exam for eg - u must get at least 50% just to pass . the brighter ones will get 90% - and the average will pass with 50%

Nearly 3 teams. :happy:

Funny I thought it was in Perth?

i think its a travesty for a team to play final round even when they have not won at least half the matches they played !!! Why do you think it's a travesty?

I could care less if the game grows in Western Australia or Victoria This is fundamental difference in view. Like any living organism I believe that a a sport will die when it stops to grow. I pay a monthly fee to watch the best quality rugby games I can get for my money. You have the choice to watch only those games that meet your standard in quality and with rugby in European and Japan improving their are many games every week for a rugby connoisseur, like yourself, to enjoy. Please don’t take away the pleasure of kids that play rugby in Perth to watch their heroes play. Without the Force, these kids will not have a pathway to become quality players later in their life and can’t add to the enjoyment of the rugby connoisseurs. In the few decades that it existed the Force produced many quality Wallaby while in the century prior to the Force WA could only produced a single Wallaby.

I could care less if the game grows in Western Australia or Victoria. It’s a pipe team to think rugby will ever be anything more than a minority sport outside of NSW and Queensland and ACT. While AR has spent the past two decades chasing the dream of expanding their markets in Perth and Melbourne, rugby has declined in popularity in Sydney and Brisbane to League over that same period. I pay a monthly fee to watch the best quality rugby games I can get for my money. 5 NZ teams, 3 Australia teams, and 1 Fiji team is the way to go until Samoa or Tonga (not a combined 6th NZ franchise) is ready to join and play on their home island.

If you want to grow rugby in new markets like WA, Victoria etc, you need a Superugby team in these areas. If you don’t want to grow the game, cut all the teams that are not good enough. I would argue that the Highlanders and Fiji past performances indicate that they are lucky that you didn’t cut them too. If you want to cut three teams, why not five or why not eleven so that the Crusaders can play themselves every week? We have been down this alley…when the Force was cut in 2017, Australian teams didn’t do better and Wallaby rugby declined.

Australia does not have enough professional standard players for 5 teams or even 4. So cut two Australian teams and go with 3 strong franchises that have the talent not only to compete but beat the Crusaders and Chiefs. This was Eddie Jones’ view when he was England coach. Also cut Moana Pacific, which is nothing more than a 6th NZ franchise picked from the left overs of New Zealand-born and raised players of Pasifika descent out of the NPC who could not get a Super contract at the other 5 NZ franchises. MP is not developing any players who were born and raised in Samoa or Tonga as was first advertised when awarded a franchise licence. It has not attracted any Island born internationals to return from UK, France, or Japan. It simply allows NZ born and bred players not good enough to play Super Rugby get paid to be be cannon fodder. Super 9 would allow each team to play the other 8 teams home and away for a balanced 16 game regular season and top 4 teams make playoffs. No easy beats.

Even Queensland has two teams now. One based in Brisbane, the other Melbourne.

Bliksem, to address your points: 1. Coaches and players: Many of them are on the verge of retiring. For the others, the SH unions have had to get creative like sabbaticals. Shows they're thinking outside the money ven diagram somewhat. And there are a few European players in SR this year in NZ and Australia; NZ has had a couple of Japanese players in their teams a=which has just been formalised with their MoU with Japan (especially for the women). 2. Sponsorship: NZ for one has gone for global sponsors and done well with adidas and a few others, past and present. Both unions continue to angle for me; the world of rugby does NOT revolve around the NH yet (the politics up there has put a big question on that); 3. Influence: These World Rugby positions should rotate but in the end it is what it is (love that phrase!) NZ and Australia had to have far more influence. That can change again; starts with success. 4. RWC: rankings have little to do with Cup success. NZ can attest to that. The nature of the competition makes rankings dangerous to rely on especially at the business end of the tournament. I'm reminded of that old war saying: "Better to be lucky than good!" Where South Africa goes is up to them. I'm not sure they are prepared to cut all ties with NZ just yet. Perhaps you can educate me on that?

But the thing is it doesn’t make rugby better because it doesn’t address the core issues. Sure it might paper over some of the cracks but it won’t fix it

That’s harsh. True, but harsh

Mate the alignment of rugby would take Australia being knocked out of the RWC pool in the home RWC, and even then there’ll be muppets saying it’s because of super rugby not the lack of pathways. far too many egotistical myopic idiots in positions of power in club rugby for this ever too occur

“ a glorified extended Wallabies….. trial”? Maybe, but without the glory bit.

What is scary is that today the top five French clubs generate more revenue than all of NZR, and kiwis like to point out the fact that their broadcast deal is three times bigger than RA’s. Peanuts compared to what NH competitions are worth and when more top players from the SH (NZ and Aus) migrate to rich NH competitions, SH competitions will become like the poor NH competitions were prior to the game going professional. You've not said anything new. NZ and RA are aware of their financial limitations, due in no small part because our rugby economies are that much smaller. Kiwis point out that funding discrepancy with RA in part over debate about sharing broadcast revenue between the two countries. And how are the rich NH competitions travelling? The English competition seems to have run into a few bollards lately.

that's a little confusing given there are 2-3 tiers at the international level but okay !

Oh Look! Another niffy sitting on their couch criticising other people having a go at making things better...

So you would like to have the NRC as the pinnacle of Australian Rugby, and have the Wallabies selected from there?