The exit of Moana Pasifika won’t be the end of the problems for ailing competition
Idea
Last year, the chairman of a struggling Super Rugby club told this imprint: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
The phrase referred to his failed attempt to obtain early release for a player looking to leave a stronger club, but it could also apply to Super Rugby as a whole.
Everyone wants Super Rugby to thrive, or at least claims so, but no one is prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. (The player in question will remain on the bench this weekend as the club remains behind a Test player after refusing to release him.)
The irony of this stubbornness is that resistance to real change could kill Super Rugby altogether. Azrael is interested in everyone, not just Moana Pacifica, whose death was confirmed earlier this week.
In fact, as Super Rugby’s heavyweights prepare to gather in Christchurch for the Super Tour next weekend, they would be well advised to put aside the misconception that Moana Pacifica’s departure could easily be overlooked.
If the answer to this latest crisis is a change of format or something as minor as 10 teams competing for a full round, they are kidding themselves.
While a full home-and-away fixture would improve the competition, if the longer season produced the same old group of teams only in the play-off positions, the gain would be partial rather than transformational.
Super Rugby is sick because there has been only one winner for the better part of a decade. Moreover, in the latest edition of Super Rugby Pacific, six teams are effectively through to the play-offs at the time squads are announced months before the competition takes place.
There’s something else to consider regarding the connection between fan interest and competitive unpredictability.
This week, former Super Rugby team the Stormers announced they will average 27,000 fans at each home game in the United Rugby Championship (URC). Frankly, they don’t miss Super Rugby.
Now, we could argue until we blush that the Brumbies or Hurricanes would present tougher opposition to the Stormers than the four struggling Welsh teams or the Zebre in the URC, but South African fans are clearly invigorated to be part of a competition they believe their side can win.
Some South African derbies in the United Rugby Championship have attracted more than 53,000 fans. These traditional rivalries are obviously attractive in their own right, but they are played out in a competition that features a genuine race for the coveted top two places and the top eight overall.
We don’t see that in Super Rugby, and I make no apology for sounding like a broken record when I reiterate this fact: we’ve only had eight different teams in the top six since Super Rugby Pacific was founded; The Waratahs and Highlanders have each finished sixth once.
This is a death sentence for any sporting event in this part of the world.
‘Since Super Rugby Pacific was founded, only eight different teams have finished in the top six.’
Of course, Super Rugby’s obituary has been written countless times before. It has survived despite numerous format changes and frequent complaints.
But the big difference this time is that the Wallabies are now effectively involved internationally, sitting 8th in the world in the same region as Italy, Fiji and Scotland.
The All Blacks are ranked 2nd, but the recent sacking of Scott Robertson shows that even NZ Rugby does not believe that ranking is correct.
The big defense of Super Rugby over the years has been that yes, it was an imperfect competition, but it was tolerable because it produced strong Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks teams.
If that’s no longer true, the rivalry will not only be one that will have a hard time getting fans through the door (though streaming numbers have been encouraging over the last few years) but a high-performance failure.
Therefore, the need for change is urgent.
Of course, those who run and play in the competition can now acknowledge that the rinse-and-repeat nature of Super Rugby Pacific is a fundamental problem.
Earlier this year Rob Nichol, the powerful president of the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association, said: reporter Kiwis turning NPC might not be such a bad thing after all. In Super Rugby, you have to pay attention to which way the wind blows.
Watch every match Super Rugby Pacific lively and special Stan Sports.
Paul Cully is a rugby columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
