Former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles made a vital, unmissable point in the immediate aftermath of the Wallabies’ loss to Wales at the World Cup.
Hoiles said that whenever anyone raised the question of reducing Australia’s Super Rugby teams to three, they were immediately attacked.
That’s got to stop. Hoiles, in his current role of Randwick coach, would likely personally benefit from the five-team model staying as it is. He would get to ‘promote’ more of his Shute Shield players into Super Rugby, and there are more coaching roles available (and he is destined for Super Rugby). He is actually acting contrary to self-interest, which should be a principle for others to take note of.
But let’s park that debate until later. It’s complex, and with so many issues confronting Australian rugby the next steps on the road to improvement should be those which are readily achievable.
Rugby Australia, New Zealand Rugby and their Pasifika partners can toughen up Super Rugby overnight by getting rid of the eight-team finals series and addressing the lopsided draw that rewards the poorer teams.
The design was acceptable in the first few years of Super Rugby Pacific, especially as the competition featured two new teams, the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, and the Western Force coming back from a spell on the outer.
The Super Rugby competition needs a revamp to boost the southern hemisphere Test teams. Credit: Getty
But, after two years we can see the system for what it is – the tail wagging the dog, and incompatible to the concept of a professional competition.
In fact, teams on both sides of the Tasman clearly gamed the system last season, selecting their strongest teams for the games they thought were winnable, with the Brumbies even sending a weakened team to face the Crusaders.
We’ve really got to harden up in this part of the world if we want to match the new standards being set in the Northern Hemisphere. At present, the competition that is supposed to prepare players for Test rugby promotes participation over merit – six teams is enough for the finals series, arguably even four.
If your response to that argument is, ‘this will mean that hardly any of our teams will be in the finals’, then that’s a piece of evidence to be factored into the five-team-versus-three-team debate isn’t it?
Morally, of course, Rugby Australia can’t cut teams. Chairman Hamish McLennan has already given his word that the Melbourne Rebels and Western Force will continue, so the debate may actually be moot.
But it is still important to state the following: it is hard to make a good Super Rugby footballer.
I watch a lot of the NPC in New Zealand. There are 14 teams, with 28-man squads playing in a competition that most Australians would deem to be good quality.
But a lot of those players just aren’t Super Rugby players: they don’t have the right mix of physical, technical or tactical attributes to make it in Super Rugby.
And there is another group of players who will make it to Super Rugby and sign two- or three-year deals, but for whatever reason fail to kick on and return to the NPC (or move overseas).
Don’t forget what Super Rugby is (or is supposed to be). It’s a competition that sits underneath Test rugby: it’s supposed to be rarefied air, where only a small percentage of your players survive or thrive.
Anyone, not just Australia, would need to have an exceptional development and pathway system to fill five teams, especially these days when there is the well-documented leakage to Japan and Europe.
Sometimes, you also hear the “but our under-20s are going well” argument. But, frankly, if you get 10 players each year going from that program into being good Super Rugby players, that’s a solid return. It’s only one part of a much bigger puzzle with Australia’s five Super Rugby squads needing about 200 players.
However, let’s take a step back. Cutting teams probably won’t happen, and it certainly won’t happen overnight. A much more realistic step is toughening up Super Rugby by reducing the finals series and putting some real jeopardy into every round.
This is Australia’s first nettle to grasp, and the pending Super Rugby commission should address it as a priority.
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