Gregor Paul: Super Rugby Aotearoa's greatest strength could be exposed as its greatest weakness

Blues huddle during the Investec Super Rugby Aotearoa match, between the Blues and Hurricanes held at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand. Photo / Photosport

Comment:

What's been lost in the fight for control of Super Rugby is that there is much more at stake than money.

Seeing the world exclusively through an economic prism is a post Covid-19 lockdown phenomenon that is proving hard to break and one that could lead to a misguided decision being made about what's best for the future of professional club rugby in this country.

There are horrible balance sheets everywhere and of course finance is a primary concern on the question of whether Super Rugby Aotearoa is sustainable.

It's not the only question, however, and what can't be overlooked in the future planning is a need for diversity of style and a wider base of rugby intelligence and vision to be involved in the competition next year.

The money has to stack up: the competition has to be able to make ends meet but as New Zealand Rugby contemplates a yet more uncertain travel outlook given the latest outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland, it can't get sucked into believing that the only flavour anyone should taste next year is Kiwi.

Super Rugby Aotearoa was an outstanding rugby success – intense, compelling, tough, fast, highly skilled and dramatic. It had everything that makes rugby watchable but it's greatest strength will in time be exposed as its greatest weakness.

Mitchell Drummond (left) of the Crusaders and Aaron Smith of the Highlanders react during the round 9 Super Rugby Aotearoa match. Photo / Photosport

New Zealand's five teams play in a broadly similar way. They hold broadly similar views on how to attack and how to defend and while homogenisation created intrigue and flowing contests in 2020, in time the lack of diversity will come to stifle growth and innovation – which will impact the ability of the All Blacks on the international stage.

In crude terms, species don't thrive when they tighten the gene pool and this will be the case with rugby in New Zealand.

There are great coaching minds across the country, clever thinkers and strategists but most of them had a largely similar rugby upbringing and education which will have shaped their core philosophies and ideas about how to play.

Leon MacDonald, Aaron Mauger and Scott Robertson all emerged from the Crusaders – essentially under the coaching of Robbie Deans.

They were granted a world class rugby education – which is not the issue – but it does mean that 60 per cent of New Zealand's Super Rugby teams have a head coach whose thinking and understanding of the game has been shaped by the same regime.

All three have broadened their rugby horizons, as it were, by playing and coaching overseas and have brought people from different backgrounds into their coaching teams, but that doesn't do enough to kill the unease that all five Super Rugby teams in New Zealand play the same brand of football.

At best, they offer a variation on the same theme and while the previous cross-border format of Super Rugby didn't intensify the competitive element, it did at least expose New Zealand's teams to different styles and ways of playing.

Luke Romano celebrates for the Crusaders against the Highlanders. Photo / Photosport

The variation offered by South African and Australian teams, as well as the Sunwolves and Jaguares required New Zealand's sides to evolve and innovate.

It had some impact in advancing the skill-set of New Zealand's players, requiring them to re-think how to attack and defend and while much of the rugby played by many of the overseas teams was average in the last few years, there were specific ideas, patterns and strategies for the coaching teams here to steal and adapt.

Rugby is a global game and to dominate the global stage, New Zealand's best players can't be developed in an insular world where the rugby they constantly play is, however dynamic and intense, ultimately one dimensional.

Right now, the rest of the world is in awe about the quality of Super Rugby Aotearoa, but a cautionary note has to be struck to remind everyone not to believe New Zealand has some kind of exclusive rights to all rugby intelligence. It doesn't own or generate every good idea ever had.

It's a country with extreme rugby knowledge but let's not forget that England were the smarter side last year in Yokohama or that it is the Springboks who are the world champions.

This question of diversity has to be paramount in the planning for next year. However uncertain the future and however determined NZR is to dictate terms to Australia, somehow 2021 has to contain at least one, preferably two and ideally three teams who bring vastly different visions about how to play the game.