When it comes to good ideas in Super Rugby, the last week has highlighted that New Zealand might have more of them than Australia.
On Saturday, the Fijian Drua enjoyed their fourth win this year and their second against one of the New Zealand heavyweights.
In beating a full-strengthHurricanes team, the Drua confirmed their enormous potential to be a serious contender once their squad beds into the deeper rhythms of professional rugby.
A few hours later, Moana came heartbreakingly close to notching their first win – one which would have been a sensational upset with serious ramifications for the Blues and the top of the competition.
The game at Eden Park was confirmation that Moana are a team with incredible spirit, resilience and desire, and can be another serious contender if something can be done to help them acquire a few more seasoned athletes to give them a harder edge and a bit of star quality.
Leaving aside the fact that the presence of two Pasifika teams in Super Rugby came 25 years later than it should have, Moana and the Drua were championed into Super Rugby Pacific by New Zealand Rugby.
It was NZR who initiated the process to get both teams up and running and NZR who own the licences and are on the hook if either should need financial help.
Rugby Australia’s only involvement with the Drua and Moana has been as a sideline sceptic, questioning the readiness of both to enter the competition.
“We’ve always raised a very genuine concern,” RA’s soon-to-depart chief executive Andy Marinos said in mid-2021.
“We appreciate it’s a New Zealand-led initiative so while some information has come through as to their state of readiness when the announcement was made, that’s been well documented.
“But going forward we wait to see if all the boxes can be ticked and if they are that will give us a greater sense of comfort that they are going to be able to stand themselves up.”
While RA sat on the fence about the Drua and Moana, it championed two other initiatives that have driven mediocrity and inequity and continue to hold back this competition from fully engaging fans.
Fijian Drua have added to Super Rugby. Photo / Getty Images
It was on RA’s insistence that Super Rugby Pacific not be played as a classic round-robin, but with everyone playing everyone with an additional three ad-hoc local derby matches tagged on.
The Australians argued that their rugby fraternity needed more local content and so we have this lop-sided schedule that has handed the Brumbies, as the only viable contender from across the Tasman, a distinct advantage.
While the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes and Crusaders have had to play additional fixtures against each other, the Brumbies’ three additional games this year are against the Rebels, Waratahs and Reds.
The Brumbies will be disappointed not to take 12 points minimum from their additional games, while the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes and Crusaders would see taking 12 points from their additional games as a small miracle.
It was the inequity and lack of integrity built into the old Super 18 structure in 2016 and 2017 that effectively caused it to alienate fans, and yet here we are in 2023, with much the same thing still happening.
Inevitably, what will end up happening is that two of the Blues, Hurricanes and Crusaders will end up in fourth and fifth place at the end of the regular season, forced to play each other in the quarter-final, while the Brumbies, helped by their softer fixture list, will sneak home in third and enjoy a home quarter-final against another Australian side.
And the fact that there are going to be eight teams is another decision that was made to keep the Australians happy.
New Zealand wanted six teams to qualify, with one and two having a week off and three to six battling it out to see who made it through to the semifinal.
But Australia got its way to have eight teams - largely to ensure that it had some presence in the playoffs – and the weakness of that set-up has been in evidence all year.
What we have seen in 2023 is various teams make strategic selections for specific games – such as the Brumbies resting their Wallabies when they came to Christchurch to play the Crusaders and the Waratahs doing the same when they took on the Blues.
Teams are effectively conceding certain games they don’t think they can win and targeting others, knowing that they only need to win five or maybe six to be sure of making the last eight and being able to deem the season a success.
Having an eight-team playoff is allowing mediocrity to be celebrated and for fans to be duped in the process, hence it feels like Super Rugby needs more New Zealand influence and less from Australia.
