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Where to for professional rugby in Australia? The Wallabies are out of the World Cup, our Super Rugby sides can’t compete against the Kiwis and we haven’t won a Bledisloe Cup in decades.
The World Cup has highlighted that Super Rugby may be hindering the development of the type of players needed for the Wallabies to compete.
Super Rugby has a set of rules that promotes try-scoring. The rules, match day, and TV entertainment focus on the elusive and skilful backs scoring spectacular tries in the corner. Unfortunately for rugby, there is another code in Australia that does the same thing and the TV package is more entertaining.
In 2023, we have observed the Matildas capture the hearts and minds of the nation and leapfrog the Wallabies as one of our favourite national teams.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup generated acres of reporting, and hundreds of thousands of kids talking about Sam Kerr, Mary Fowler, Hayley Raso in the ways they speak about Nick Daicos in Melbourne or Nathan Cleary in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the Wallabies have been bundled out of their World Cup campaign in France. The most well-known personality is the coach, Eddie Jones, with many non-rugby fans struggling to name more than 2 or 3 players.
How did we fall so far and what can we do?
Jordan Petaia, Mark Nawaqanitawase and Andrew Kellaway. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
The way we promote and market our game is part of the challenge. The rugby codes are too similar in the way we hear stadium announcements, music and even the TV commentary at times. The play of our backline is compared to the flashes of brilliance from the Warriors or Panthers and their scintillating 2023 form, and yet they are different codes with different rules.
Rugby needs to celebrate and promote their points of difference.
Super Rugby has adjusted rules for scrum resets with a shot clock to speed it up, forcing the selection of smaller, more mobile forward packs. Meanwhile, in Europe, they adore forward play and call up monstrous forward packs and worship the big men and salivate over the scrums and lineouts. The World Cup has shown us that winning involves dominating the set piece at the scrum and lineout, it involves getting over the advantage line and winning the rucks. Bigger bodies are needed for the physical battles.
Professional rugby in Australia needs to look at the big sporting entertainment franchises and learn and adapt. Rugby should celebrate the big men, worship the scrums in the same way that the NFL idolises their massive defensive units, or the NBA with their big men.
Super Rugby needs an overhaul to improve the rules, the match-day entertainment and broadcasting. If you’ve been to a Big Bash game, it’s high energy, loud music. The screens and announcers tell you when game-specific things happen – it’s loud, it’s frenetic and it’s advertised in the apps, the flyers and on screens at every ground.
When you turn up for Super Rugby or a Test, you get some colour, limited fireworks, and music is played during stoppage times. What if we turned our matches into a performance on and off the field?
On arrival at the Sydney Football Stadium for the Waratahs, you get the TRY card handed to you with key rules on the back engaging on our scrums and law variations. Pre-game we hype up the contest of the big men, with highlight reels of scrums. When the play breaks down and teams are preparing to pack a scrum, we need to increase the intensity with ground announcers spruiking the scrum, the music building into a crescendo and then BANG – the packs collide!
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
We need to celebrate what’s different in our game, rather than copy the same script as a rugby league game.
Rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes, yet Super Rugby is pushing us towards a common body shape and based on results (on and off the field), it is not delivering.
Why do we lose players to overseas? Financial reward and opportunity. We have the big men playing our game, but they can’t get picked out of the semi-professional state competitions or progress through academies because Super Rugby doesn’t want them.
If we focus on the points of difference in our game through the rules, the media and match day, this will ultimately help attract players to our game and retain them. If the public engage and attend games, if players become household names, then maybe the Wallabies can leapfrog the Matildas and find out that Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou and Will Skelton are bigger drawcards than Kerr or Fowler?
Maybe I’m dreaming, but surely, we have to try!
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.