Australian rugby union officials on Monday set a three-week deadline for New Zealand to accept their demands for a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition, or they will walk away and set up a domestic tournament.
Rugby Australia interim chief executive Ron Clarke said that the issue had gained added urgency because talks with broadcasters over rights to next year’s season were due to open early next month.
“We’ve put a deadline on broadcast submissions of September 4, that’s three weeks away ... so D-Day’s coming,” Clarke told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
Clarke had a blunt message for New Zealand administrators: “The clock is ticking on the whole Super Rugby model for 2021.”
Tensions between Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby have been high since the Kiwis released a blueprint last month for a shake-up of the southern hemisphere competition in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside from jettisoning South African teams and Argentina’s Jaguares, it also had room for only two to four of Australia’s Super Rugby teams, which Rugby Australia deemed unacceptable.
Australia want the inclusion of all five sides contesting Super Rugby AU, a domestic competition it established after the full Super Rugby season was suspended.
After a slow start compared to the Super Rugby Aotearoa counterpart competition, Clarke said that Super Rugby AU had hit its stride in the past few weeks, underlining the case for five teams.
“We’re increasingly buoyed by the quality of the games we’re starting to see in our competition,” he said. “We’re seeing how much rising talent is coming through in our young players and how this competition is starting to engage fans.”
Clarke said that Rugby Australia preferred a trans-Tasman model, but if it could not get five teams, it was confident in proceeding with a domestic competition.
An Australian competition could look at inviting teams from Japan or the Pacific islands to join it.
Meanwhile, New Zealand broadcaster Sky said that it would prefer a competition involving New Zealand and Australian teams rather than a domestic tournament for “economic” reasons, Clarke said.
Sky has reported good ratings for Super Rugby Aotearoa, but the sport’s broadcasting landscape remains unclear.
Clarke said he had not spoken to Sky directly, but was aware of their stance.
“We are led to believe that their preference is a trans-Tasman competition,” he said in comments published by Stuff Media yesterday.
“Content is a key part of it in a quantitative sense, but I think there’s also a qualitative sense because all broadcasters will look at it and say: ‘What can Australia bring that a New Zealand-only competition can’t bring?’”
“One thing I do know is that Australia brings a 25 million population base, and the potential commercial upside that could bring to advertising and corporate support,” he said. “There’s an economic factor here that needs to be taken into account and I’m sure that Sky NZ are looking at that as part of their preference.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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