As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament.
A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous.
The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties.
Photo: AFP
Problems addressed included player retention as more and more Super Rugby-level players take up contracts with clubs overseas, the format and quality of the competition and the partial private ownership model which operates in New Zealand and Australia.
Reports indicate all five of New Zealand’s teams lost money last year and the private equity investors who hold varying stakes in those teams have called for changes including a possible move to full private ownership.
“When we got involved, we knew the Hurricanes were losing money. The model doesn’t work,” Malcolm Gillies, a co-owner of the Wellington-based Hurricanes, told the Rugby Direct podcast. “Unless there’s change it’s not going to work … You’ve got five franchises in New Zealand and none of them are making a lot of money. The whole system has to change. I don’t think it’s sustainable as it sits right now,” he said. “If it stays the way it is now I fear for it. If there’s change then I believe we’ve got a product. But if it doesn’t I believe it’s going to die. That’s my honest opinion.”
Right now, New Zealand Rugby contracts and retains control over Super Rugby players. Full private ownership would mirror the situation in England and France in which clubs directly contract the players, but that could mean that in any dispute with a national union or in a schedule overlap the clubs could withhold players from international matches.
Issues of revenue sharing and the recruitment and trading of players came up.
The quality of rugby this season is an issue that should be addressed. The predominance of kicking as a default tactic in all matches has become tiresome. In the 12th round match between the table-topping Hurricanes and Crusaders, there were 61 kicks in play in the first half alone. That is not unusual to see and the result is a competition which more closely resembles Australian Rules football than rugby.
Fans turned off by the kicking contests can simply switch channels to Australia’s National Rugby League in which the ball is constantly in play and seldom kicked. Many already have.
Hope for Moana Pasifika
Reports of the death of Moana Pasifika might have been exaggerated, or at least could be premature.
A consortium featuring several former All Blacks is reported to be attempting to acquire Moana Pasifka’s license to allow the team to continue in Super Rugby next year.
The Kanaloa Rugby consortium includes ex-All Blacks Jerome Kaino, Joe Rokocoko, John Afoa, Anthony Tuitavake, Ben Atiga and Sam Tuitupou and former Samoa women’s international Tracey Atiga. The consortium has indicated it would both fund the team in future and pick up the team’s debts.
In a radio interview Atiga said the consortium’s bid to acquire Moana Pasifika has been opposed by the owners of the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association but endorsed by Pacific Island rugby unions.
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