An extraordinary thing happened this week.
Eddie Jones, the finest agent provocateur in world rugby, was flown down to the MCG, one of sport’s greatest temples, to promote the Bledisloe Cup, and it barely caused any ripples.
Everyone was too busy asking if departing Rugby Australia chief Andy Marinos really was negotiating with several players when Joseph Suaalii’s budget-changing contract landed on his desk — or questions of a similar nature.
The Melbourne types who are spending big in a bid to host the World Cup final can’t have been too pleased with the lack of bang for their buck with Jones’ visit, but that’s the nature of doing business with RA at the moment. It’s all a bit volatile, with best-laid plans hostage to the headlines of the day.
Meanwhile, Super Rugby chiefs on both sides of the ditch are variously militant, on tenterhooks, or frustrated at the lack of progress on the independent body that their competition so desperately needs.
Super Rugby fans really need to hear the following: the passionate, exasperated debates you are having about the competition in pubs and online forums are exactly the same ones being held by the 12 Super Rugby Pacific clubs.
If a Wallabies coach heads to the MCG, and no one is around to hear him….Credit: Getty
Making the competition more even? They’re ready to talk (in fact, the concept has as many fans among the higher-achieving clubs as the stragglers). More marketing spend and staged events? Oh boy, they’re ready to talk.
But they won’t because there is currently no functioning body for those discussions, and some are plain scared of antagonising RA chairman Hamish McLennan, a view that is probably supported by Marinos’ exit from RA amid reports of a strained relationship.
This is no way for a business to run.
The debate about Super Rugby stirred memories of a lunch meeting a few years back also attended by the late and much-missed Greg Growden and John O’Neill, during the former’s second spell as boss of Australian rugby.
Some estimates point to Super Rugby being far from the junior partner in Rugby Australia’s broadcast deals.Credit: Getty
An O’Neill remark that day stayed in the mind because it was surprising. While everyone associates O’Neill with the big deals, the bold strategic plays and his willingness to go toe to toe with the Kiwis, he said that Super Rugby was Australian rugby’s shopfront.
The years that followed emphasised how right he was. The Wallabies will always be OK — look at the crowds they drew last year.
But Super Rugby is not OK. A shopfront? How much time does RA spend thinking about Super Rugby at the moment, as opposed to league raids, private equity, tilts at World Rugby posts, taunting Peter V’landys and sacking and replacing Wallabies coaches? “It’s probably about 5 per cent, and that’s being generous,” one chief executive told me.
That is vastly disproportionate to what it brings in. It’s always been hard to pin down the broadcast revenue split between Super Rugby and Tests, but the conversations this column has had point to it being far from the junior partner in that relationship. In fact, it may be as high as 50 per cent.
The Wallabies made it all the way to the Rugby World Cup final in 2015 … just before the domestic ship began to sink.Credit: Getty
It certainly supplies the lion’s share of content for broadcasters, and if rugby is serious about growing in Australia it is not going to happen by internationals alone. If the ‘rising Wallabies lift all boats’ argument was true, why did Super Rugby start sinking in 2016 just months after the Wallabies made the Rugby World Cup final in England at the end of 2015?
The theory from Super Rugby chiefs is that McLennan does not want to give up control of Super Rugby to an independent body while private equity is kicking the tyres, while New Zealand Rugby is reluctant to sign off a body that has effectively been handpicked by McLennan to do what he wants. Here we go again.
Frankly, though, Super Rugby clubs couldn’t care less about the tedious game of apportioning blame for the hold-up – they just want a resolution.
The bitter irony of the current impasse – again shared by fans and chief executives – is that no one stands to benefit more from an improved Super Rugby Pacific than RA and NZ Rugby themselves.
But, that would mean giving up some control and getting out of the way – and the signs are hardly promising.
Watch all the action from the Super Rugby Pacific with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport.
