Play nzherald.co.nz's rugby Pick the Score competition - go to: pickthescore.nzherald.co.nz
SYDNEY - There are no financial alarm bells ringing in Australian rugby despite the global credit crunch, with Australia set to renew its push for a fifth Super rugby franchise at an important meeting in Dubai later this week.
A new broadcasting deal for the SANZAR nations has yet to
be finalised, with proposals for the future having to be hammered out by mid-year.
Australian rugby union boss John O'Neill was adamant the country could support a fifth Super team despite the gloomy economic situation and stressed there were no fears about the four existing franchises.
He acknowledged the Force were experiencing "growing pains" but reiterated the ARU would not allow the Perth-based franchise to fail.
"We are working very hard with the Waratahs, the Reds, the Brumbies and the Force to ensure that they remain financially well and healthy," O'Neill said on Monday.
"There's no alarm bells ringing at the moment. We've got good sponsorship, good broadcasting revenue coming in."
He said crowds needed to improve and suggested the competition would be best served by starting in March, though that was unlikely to happen for at least a couple of years.
He said the SANZAR nations needed to settle on preferably two options in their March 4 meeting that they could take to their broadcast partners by June 30 this year.
"I hope the meeting in Dubai really narrows down the differences," O'Neill said.
"We made a lot of progress last year on a Super 15 model which was an additional team in the Australian Conference and one round where everyone plays each other and a second round where you played in your conference.
"It gave you a lot more home and away content and a six-team finals series and up until September last year that was the way forward.
"We came unstuck and even failed to get the six-team finals series up for this year, so we are back at the drawing board."
O'Neill said other options included more engagement with Asia-Pacific nations or retaining the status quo, although he stressed the latter wasn't Australia's preferred option.
He said an additional Super team could be based in Melbourne, the Gold Coast, western Sydney, Newcastle ... and possibly even Japan, though he thought that was a more feasible option in the future.
O'Neill wasn't concerned about finding sufficient talent to fill a fifth Australian franchise.
"There's a lot of Australian players playing overseas that you would work very hard to get back and there's a lot of Pacific Islanders who would prefer to play in Australia and New Zealand - and a lot of them do - instead of playing in Europe, and let them into our competitions.
"Open the door a bit more on foreign players and there's always the rugby league market.
"I think the overall availability of cattle, if you're a bit imaginative, you could put a very competitive team on the field."
Asked about a mooted second game between NSW and Queensland in July, O'Neill suggested it was unlikely to happen unless Wallabies coach Robbie Deans agreed to allow test representatives to play in the proposed fixture.
O'Neill expected the new arrangement allowing the best referees to control Super fixtures, including matches involving a team from their country, would continue, irrespective of the results of a review at the halfway stage of the competition.
- AAP