There is an interesting name buried way down on page 110 of the 134-page, highly critical independent review of New Zealand Rugby published on Thursday: Andy Marinos.
The former Rugby Australia was one of many heavy hitters interviewed for the report.
While his contribution is not known, a section of the report reads: “There is a view outside the country that New Zealand hasn’t always looked to innovation and variation if it wasn’t seen as being in the interests of the teams in black – taking a narrow rather than broad perspective.
“For some, New Zealand is seen as arrogant in its approach to international engagement – it could do well to address this.”
This is clearly relevant to Super Rugby, which the report also notes, “The current competition was described to us as a ‘dog’s breakfast’ … Super Rugby is in danger of becoming a television-only experience because the fans have not been put front and centre.”
To be clear, Super Rugby isn’t the main target of the report – that dubious honour goes to the dysfunctional structure of NZ Rugby itself and the vested interests of the powerful, vote-holding provincial unions.
The NZ Rugby report suggests crowds like this at AAMI Park in March could become the norm if something isn’t done.Credit: Getty
But, the outcome is the same: Super Rugby is viewed as a bit of a mess, with sides on both sides of the Tasman struggling commercially.
Should neither the All Blacks nor the Wallabies get past the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup, however, it will be viewed in an even worse light.
If it is failing both as a commercial enterprise, and a high-performance one, the warring RA and NZ Rugby boards and/or executives will be compelled to either tender their resignations and get out of the way, or resolve their differences to the point that the competition functions properly.
It felt significant that on the day the NZ Rugby report landed, the European Cup club competition announced that it had secured a major new sponsor that gives the competition a distinctly South African flavour.
Wallabies playmaker Carter Gordon is a Super Rugby product untested on the game’s biggest stage.Credit: Getty
Investec, which of course used to sponsor Super Rugby, signed a five-year deal with the Europeans. South African rugby is thrilled with its move into the northern hemisphere club competitions. You can already hear the taunts of Springboks fans should the Wallabies and All Blacks fail at the World Cup: the ultimate payback for being kicked out of Super Rugby.
That analysis might be simplistic but it contains an element of truth – returning Highlanders head of rugby Jamie Joseph told this masthead last month that Super Rugby had “regressed” without the South Africans’ physicality.
The flipside, of course, is that the World Cup could be an enormous good news story for Super Rugby. Should the Wallabies and Fiji progress through their pool at the expense of Wales – and potentially into a semi-final ahead of England – the positive impact of the Drua’s inclusion and Super Rugby’s ability to develop young players such as Carter Gordon and Tom Hooper will be praised.
Of even more consequence, if the All Blacks get through to the semi-finals at the expense of either South Africa or Ireland, it will challenge the assumed superiority of European club competitions.
There is a pressing need for that to happen. The NZ Rugby review added to the evidence that the professional game across both Australia and New Zealand – neither of whom can live without each other – is unhealthy, with the NZ Rugby report even pointing to the AFL as an example of how it should be run.
This is all unfolding happening while RA is trying to juggle multiple issues, as well eventually securing a much-needed uplift in its next broadcasting deal.
All the issues will not magically disappear if the Wallabies and All Blacks prosper in France. However, it will be mightily difficult for a relatively new competition such as Super Rugby Pacific to position itself as “world class” if the players it is producing turn out to be less than that on the biggest stage.
Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the Home of Rugby, Stan Sport. Every match ad-free, live and on demand in 4K UHD from September 9.
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