Think outside the box, organisers told
Former All Blacks and Crusaders halfback Justin Marshall believes that organisers need to look at ‘creative’ ways to improve Super Rugby Pacific.
That includes delving into the current schedule following a week where only four matches were played due to teams being on their byes.
That formula continues for the next couple of rounds before it returns to normal for the run-in.
It is designed to help player welfare and give sides some much-needed rest, but the contests at the weekend did not set the pulses racing.
NZ Warriors threat
Interest in Super Rugby has waned over the years and Marshall insists that it can be organised better to stave off the threat of rugby league, with fans flocking to see NRL side New Zealand Warriors.
“I certainly still feel that rugby has its place in New Zealand and has its good core group of fans that want to see rugby games every weekend and not rugby league,” he told The Platform.
“I think we have to have a look at our scheduling and make sure that when we have big blockbuster games like Crusaders-Hurricanes, when everyone’s talking about the game and saying how good it was, that the following weekend we don’t have four dead rubbers. “That stifles the momentum and takes away interest, and we’ve got to be smarter than that to make sure that we can compete with the likes of the Warriors when they are going very, very well.”
As a result, Marshall would like to see games played over several days, potentially leaving just Wednesday as the only time a match would not be scheduled.
The proposal
“The important thing is that we look at the scheduling and be more creative,” he said.
“I certainly feel there’s an opportunity, rather than having bye rounds, to have a couple of rounds where you elongate the week and have rugby from Thursday through till Tuesday.
“What that does is give the opportunity for big turnarounds from the week before, for teams to get eight, nine, ten days rest.
“It also allows we as viewers to watch rugby every night of the week, including Monday and Tuesday. That then competes with what rugby league did during the Easter weekend, for example.
“I feel that the bye rounds aren’t quite working because we’re not scheduling properly. If we’re not going to do something like elongate the week and make it really interesting… then we have to make sure we have blockbuster games in bye rounds, and we didn’t.”