Super Round: How Auckland could step up for rugby’s failing show

Waratahs players celebrate victory during the Super Rugby Pacific round-two match between the Crusaders and the New South Wales Waratahs at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Saturday, March 2, 2024. AAP Image / Joel Carrett / Photosport

OPINION

In many ways, Melbourne is the perfect location for Super Rugby Pacific’s “Super Round”. After all, in the Victorian capital, no one understands rugby’s rules, few people could tell you who’s on any particular side’s starting line-up and hardly anyone is watching the match. Yep – sounds like Super Rugby in a nutshell.

In last weekend’s Super Round, every match of the weekend was played in one city in an effort to build hype and excitement. The trouble with Melbourne is obvious - the sport is way down the pecking order of preferred codes for a population spoiled by global sporting events and proudly enmeshed in a game they pretty much invented, Australian rules football.

It doesn’t help that the local Super Rugby side, the Rebels, have underperformed since their inception in 2011 and are presently broke – on the field and in their bank account. Relying on the largesse of Rugby Australia to keep the cones out on the training field, the Rebels are unlikely to kick off again in 2025 without radical financial change.

The Super Round kicked off in Melbourne because – for reasons known only to them – the city’s bosses paid to host the event. The competition management also like the idea of making a big splash.

While Super Rugby was showcasing its product in front of empty seats in Melbourne, the NRL was trying out a new market of its own in Las Vegas. The six-tackle code took two matches from the opening round of their season to crowds padded out with happy ex-pats and bemused Americans.

Ironically, the action on the field over the Super Round was of a high standard, with good attacking footy played by the talented stars of Moana Pasifika, Fijian Drua, and the Blues, Highlanders, Reds and Hurricanes. There was even a boil-over upset, with perennial champions the Crusaders dudded by the Waratahs. Super Rugby is still the best provincial rugby series in the world. A greater proportion of the players running on these fields are among the best at what they do than those in similar competitions in France, Ireland, England and Japan.

Which makes the disconnect between the game and the fans difficult to understand. The complaints are oft noted, with nighttime kickoffs being the clearest reason for families to throw live rugby the dummy.

Before giving up on the idea of a Super Round, rugby’s bosses should give it a run in front of a population that might connect with the concept. With cheap ticket prices, daylight kickoffs and a bit of good weather, even Auckland could make a decent fist of hosting the matches. Staging the Fijian Drua vs Moana Pasifika match in Melbourne was the height of absurdity. At the very least, take that one to Suva or Apia.

The competition’s promoters call Super Round the “rugby-est round of the season”. They need to get it in front of a rugby crowd.