A clean sweep for the New Zealand Super Rugby franchise over the weekend has seen the Australian rugby renaissance put on hold for another week. At normal times it would meet with a familiar shake of resignation, but in light of the events of the week, it does not seem so important.
Australia have been confirmed for some time to host the 2027 Men’s and 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cups, but given the past trend of snatching defeat from the jaws of Rugby Australia’s victory, the green and gold smoke was finally a relief. World Rugby is heading out of the chimney of Dublin’s headquarters.
The response fell largely into three camps. The popular response was the relentless joy of taking things at the main price. A Rugby World Cup is a wonderful event, and although there are more rubber bands than a teenager’s wallet on the first night, as statistics are being bandaged ahead of time, there is huge commercial potential for both Rugby Australia and the local economy.
The second group consists of skeptical rugby players with long-standing memories of a wave of support for the game at the turn of the century and financial losses from the hosts of the 2003 World Cup. This coincided with the increasingly competitive and grassroots participants with Wallabis and the Australian Super Rugby teams feeling angry and disenfranchised.
There are people in the third camp who have already left the building for various reasons but still need to repeat their ‘Rugby Is Dead’ mantra. This includes part of the media, hardcore fans who have nothing to do with modern games, and casual fans who were happy to see it 20 years ago but never hooked up.
It remains to be seen how many of them will quietly slide into the bandwagon in 2027, but they will be welcomed.
Whatever the final outcome, and whether Australian and New Zealand rugby will be under tremendous pressure due to the pay gap between the players in the Northern Hemisphere competition, it is a case of avoiding a crisis.
With the World Cup ahead of the upcoming tour of England and the Lions tour in 2025, a nice interval schedule of big-ticket events that will ensure welcome to the revenue stream of rugby Australia, which has been reduced to the old deviation in recent times. Broadcast rights model and the weak influence of Kovid.
Another advantage – not to be underestimated – is how the confirmation of World Cup hosting changes the political undercurrent in Australian rugby. Rugby Australia has not suddenly been coated with Teflon, or the problems surrounding the domestic structure, but a feature of recent history that any continuum of snipping and dissent has now become largely meaningless. The narrative has changed in one fell swoop.
Business as predicted, and while rugby is heavier on Australian balance sheet debt because operating costs are now better controlled, budget surpluses and potential equity investments will give the administration some choice on how to manage that debt and at the same time prove the game to be future.
The need for caution is self-evident. Everyone has heard the stories of lottery winners, presented with life-changing winds, soon seeing themselves getting back to the same caravan park that they thought they had left behind. Australian rugby has been that person once; It can’t happen again.
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Nothing raises the level of suspicion and discomfort of rugby fans like the possibility of a hungry private equity firm drowning its fans in their sport. The response to the pending New Zealand deal has been overwhelmingly negative, although the issue is not so much private equity per person but the manner in which NZ Rugby was quick to approve a deal that was later shown to be able to improve significantly.
Like New Zealand, Rugby Australia remains a private equity sport, although their cash needs are not as acute this time as last year. Businesses typically fund their operations through a combination of debt, equity and cash flow, and it is obviously much more desirable to consider an equity partner as part of a suite of options rather than desperately cashing in to stop the bleeding.
The discomfort with rugby Australia’s opposition to debt and private equity is widespread but emotional and often unreasonable. Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl.
This is a flawed proposition brought about by honestly motivated individuals who – in some cases fairly – do not believe in rugby administrators’ ship wheels but tend to anchor in 1970s clubland thinking.
In this context, rugby is seen as a sport that existed before 1995, although money is now available for elite participants. The truth is that rugby is both a sport and a highly competitive global business, and just as parent hardware stores faced mega-store launches, less affluent and less financially wealthy rugby nations like Australia and New Zealand need to find a way to stay relevant and Game or roll over.
If and when it comes, the key to successful private equity involvement in Australian rugby is to use investment to gain participation and growth results.
Springbox Prop France has joined Malharbe Roar Rugby expert Brett McKay and Harry Jones talk about their unusual rugby origins, what surprised him about coming out of the United Rugby Championship Super Rugby, and the call for an expert scrum referee, Rasi Erasmus.
Professionally, there is a clear opportunity for Australia, New Zealand and their private equity partners to properly resource Sanger and maximize the potential for Super Rugby as a development path for their national side.
A clearer and fairer promotion of the competition in their own right will surely involve better fans – on match days and at home – and provide a significant return on investment. What is missing is foresight, courage and willpower.
A second chance exists with women’s rugby. In terms of professional development, Australia lags far behind England and France, but there are remaining goodwill and profiles from the 2016 Sevens Gold Medal that suggest that a well-targeted strategy could lead to rapid growth in junior and amateur participation.
This is not just a pipe dream but an urgent need. A cash-up NRL has aggressively entered the player market, and if it does not show a professional path at the super rugby level, players risk losing a generation.
Interestingly, the biggest problem in Australian rugby cannot be solved with money alone.
Need a strong, durable second tier – call it NRC or whatever you like – intense. Club rugby in most major centers is healthy and serves a valuable purpose. Ideally, what it doesn’t need is messing around – turning into something it isn’t, shaking its amateur and voluntary foundations.
At the same time, there is a natural desire to tap into existing tribalism, and one of the NRC’s failures, especially in Sydney, is arbitrary borders and abstract parties failing to garner support from Clubland.
In a real sense, Super Rugby franchises see themselves as clubs, and have a certain amount of tribalism that underpin their activities. Given the existing infrastructure and the potential benefits surrounding the use of personnel and continuity within the larger playing group, it is not too much to imagine that a functional competition is being created from what already exists.
Rugby Australia is playing his card near his chest. This is understandable because there would be a subtle strategy to pull a hybrid solution that incorporates both aspects.
Whatever the outcome, two things cannot happen. One is to focus more on Australian rugby around Sydney and Brisbane, the other is to do nothing.
There is no point in moving Australian rugby forward until this puzzle is solved.
(Photo by Jason McCauley / Getty Images)
In the weekend’s action, and provided with humor, Stan’s Tim Horan first described the horrific Fijian Drua and Moana Pacifica match as “brilliant” and secondly blamed New Zealand’s two best hookers for the worst lineout throw of the season.
Cody Taylor’s laugh-out-loud was funny; Dan Coles came at a crucial time and could probably spend the match in his favor.
It’s no secret that Force is keen to shed the tag of being a spirited, gratitude team that everyone struggles to overcome before they can get over it anyway. But the Highlanders probably didn’t mind the 61-10 fold.
Therefore, it was not possible to accurately evaluate Tony Brown’s experiment in transferring Sam Gilbert to Flyhoff without noticing the continued increase in the level of solidarity and confidence of the Highlanders late in the competition.
After Brumbis singled out the loose forward trio for praise last week, it was the turn of Crusader Ethan Blacader, Cullen Grace and Pablo Matara to make it to the center stage, paving the way for a 37-26 victory in Canberra.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson told me in the recent ‘Super Round’ that it took some time to fit into Matara’s team pattern and learn what his role was.
It seems that the mothers now fully understand: hold the ball at every opportunity and run over any opponent that is on its way.
There was a lot to like about the way the Brumbs made an enthusiastic comeback in the last ten minutes, but the Crusaders were very clinical and efficient in the first half and the result was never in doubt.
This year Moana Pacifica and Fijian Druar have shown a lot of goodwill towards them, but to the spectators their historic first match seemed to extend the friendship far.
With both sides pushing and shoving, Drua won 34-19 because they made fewer errors and were able to capitalize on their opponents’ bloopers. File under ‘A’ for anticipation and ‘E’ for editing.
(Photo by Mark Evans / Getty Images)
In Auckland the crowds have begun to grow again; Rugby brand blues are no surprise considering the current game. There is an interest in punching through communication, just as there is a desire to play in space, sweeping their speed runners in the game.
One of the characteristics of the Blues is to make wise decisions about when to move quickly or when to play live and to make those decisions before they have a chance to set up defense.
Nonetheless, for the second week in a row, the Blues conceded four attempts, which were reflected in the slight lack of defensive intensity and some tidy finishing of the Reds whenever they were able to find an equalizer and create chances to score.
The crowd is also returning to Lechhart Oval, and there was a buzz around the field as Angus Bell and Wartahara beat the Hurricane heavily in the first half to advance 15-0 at halftime.
But no lead is ever safe when RD Sevilla is on the other side, and as the spectators finally find some control, there was a sense of inevitability about the final 22-18 result.
It was another incident ‘so close yet’ for the Rebels in Melbourne, falling 33-30 to the Chiefs in the final game of the match.
Rebel captain Michael Wells gained a rugby high and low experience in a thrilling but painful overlook, at high altitude to steal a lineout brilliantly against throw, but was charged with an exit kick before three defenders were called off to replace Chiefs replacement Prop Oli. Norris suffers when he catches a bull to win.
After being humiliated in Auckland last week, it was time to shake the hearts of the rebels’ performance supporters and signal better days ahead. It seems that the light at the end of the tunnel may not be the incoming train.