An extra Australian team should not have been added to the Super rugby competition, former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones said on Thursday.
The Melbourne Rebels are the new franchise named to play in the inaugural Super 15 next year after SANZAR (South Africa New Zealand Australia Rugby) expanded the Super 14 tournament.
But Jones, who led the ACT Brumbies to the 2001 Super 12 title and also coached the Queensland Reds in the Super 14, said the Rebels should not have been included.
“The addition of another Australian franchise is not good for Australian rugby nor for the competition,” Jones said on Thursday. “The reason they’re in is because of TV rights. The current 14-team competition is just starting to find its feet and this year is the most competitive it has been for a while, with eight or nine teams in contention.”
The man who steered the Wallabies to the 2003 World Cup final said the four existing Australian franchises had already been stretched to produce quality players.
“Another Australian side is just going to weaken the third and fourth teams,” he said. “If you consider South Africa, they have a great number of players, but can still only support four very good Super 14 sides.”
“It’s unrealistic for Australia to have five teams and it will be bad for Wallaby rugby in the short term, for the next 10 to 15 years,” Jones said.
The Melbourne Rebels have an exemption to sign 10 overseas players and have already brought in New South Wales Waratahs hooker and ex-Wallaby Adam Freier, former national captain Stirling Mortlock and England flyhalf Danny Cipriani.
Jones said the Rebels would struggle, however, because of a lack of top class players.
“They haven’t exactly signed a whole lot of quality players. There are only two areas in Australia that produce rugby union players — New South Wales and Queensland — and if you are a youngster from there and you have a choice between Melbourne or Perth to live in, it’s a no-brainer where you’ll go.
“So the Western Force [based in Perth] are the side that will really be affected and they’re weak enough as it is. They spent huge amounts of money on players like Matt Giteau and Nathan Sharpe and now what?” Jones said.
The Force are 13th in the Super 14 standings, having won just one of their seven matches.
Jones did, however, praise the new law interpretations being used in Super 14, which he said have reduced the amount of kicking that caused so much frustration last season.
“It’s the best thing to happen to rugby. Last year, we had 65 to 70 kicks per game and now it is down to 50 so there is a much greater balance between attack and defense,” Jones said. “The quality of the rugby is much better.”
Jones is in South Africa as a coach for the Winning Ways program set up by Jake White, whom he assisted when the Springboks won the World Cup in 2007.
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