No Australian side have won a Super Rugby title since the Waratahs in 2014.
Super Rugby Pacific has a range of creative innovations in the pipeline, none of which will ever see the light of day because of New Zealand Rugby’s conviction that Australia can’t be trusted to look after and develop elite players.
If it were up to the SuperRugby clubs – which it’s not – they would be in favour of at least considering the introduction of a draft system similar to American sports, where promising talent is plucked out of a communal pool no matter who developed it.
The clubs would also, if it was their decision to make, welcome a change to eligibility rules to say that any player contracted to any Super Rugby team is eligible for the All Blacks.
But these are not decisions the Super Rugby clubs have the power to make. That power belongs to New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and it says that it likes these ideas in theory, but in practice, it won’t agree to them because it doesn’t believe Australian clubs have either the high-performance expertise or depth of investment to ensure New Zealand’s best talent would be well enough looked after if they crossed the Tasman.
Perhaps that’s been a justifiable position in recent years, but it’s an argument that is hanging by a thread in April 2025 – with four of Australia’s clubs in the playoff zone for Super Rugby and only the Chiefs and Crusaders of the New Zealand contingent currently in the top six.
The picture might – almost certainly will – change between now and June. But even if the top six does end up with a heavier Kiwi flavour, it still feels that NZR has a limited basis on which to cast its vote of no confidence in Australia.
What proof is there that sending a promising young Kiwi to play for the Queensland Reds for two years is going to be detrimental to their development?
Is there really a strong basis to say that a young player who spends two seasons at the ACT Brumbies would be significantly behind where they would have been had they spent that time at the Highlanders?
Or what about if a high-profile All Black spent two years in Sydney – would they really come home all fingers and thumbs and their skinfolds out of whack?
These arguments not only feel outdated, but they could also be said to be a touch disrespectful and taking too narrow a view about what goes into the high-performance matrix.
For instance, Australia’s players have access to world-class medical facilities regardless of which state they are playing in – something that can’t be said of New Zealand.
And given Australia’s significantly larger and more competitive sporting professional landscape, as well as its broader tertiary-education network, it’s probable Super clubs over there have greater access to sports science and sports science personnel.
New Zealand can legitimately say that it has the better and deeper coaching pool, but even that is increasingly becoming a subjective assessment, rather than being built on empirical data.
The implied superiority of New Zealand’s player development programmes is wearing a little thin, given that not only are New Zealand’s Super clubs not dominating the way they once were, but nor are the All Blacks.
Darby Lancaster scores for the Waratahs against the Hurricanes last month. Photo / Photosport
Between 2010 and 2019, the All Blacks were locked into the No 1 world ranking, and with the exception of 2014 (a year in which the Waratahs were champions), there was a New Zealand winner of Super Rugby.
That was the basis on which NZR built its certainty that there was an enormous gap between its ability to develop players and Australia’s.
But the All Blacks have not been the world’s most dominant force since 2019. They are up there, constantly in the top three – but New Zealand has certainly lost any inherent right to believe that it is the game’s premium authority in how to develop elite players and build high-performance rugby cultures.
And without that certainty, it’s difficult to know how the resistance to working more collaboratively with Australia on a Super Rugby draft or the adoption of wider eligibility rules for both the All Blacks and Wallabies can be justified.
Super Rugby this year has shown what sort of an impact a few, relatively minor innovations around law refinements and time management can have.
Imagine what impact seeing Damian McKenzie turning out for the Reds, or Cam Roigard playing for the Waratahs would have?
Or what about the storylines and media coverage that could be created by a Super Rugby draft?
These are big-ticket items that, if they were adopted, would cement Super Rugby Pacific’s position as the most compelling club competition in the global game.
This lack of trust and confidence not only serves as a blockade to Super Rugby innovation, it also prevents New Zealand’s relationship with Australia from being a genuine partnership.
