World club championship ‘set for 2025’
Highlanders chair Peter Kean has increased his share of the Dunedin club and believes the world club championship is likely to start in a ‘‘slimmed down’’ format in 2025, offering a boost to Super Rugby clubs after the Covid years and the disruptive stoush between New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia.
Kean stepped in when Christchurchbased management consultant Warren Goddard sold his shares before Christmas for family reasons, increasing his share to 29 per cent of the Highlanders. The rest is owned by Sydneybased director Ray Burke (29%), Shane Drummond (29%) and the Highlanders region provincial unions (13%).
It means the Highlanders are starting a new era, with a new ownership structure, new coach, new coaching support crew and new captain, and Kean said they were ‘‘in a good spot’’ despite the challenges of the past few years.
‘‘We’ve come out pretty good,’’ Kean said. ‘‘There’s been a pretty disciplined approach to the profit and loss and also to the balance sheet.
‘‘No one came through unscathed, none of the Super clubs.
‘‘We had a bit of a hiccup with the uncertainty of the format of Super Rugby, so there was a bit of a reluctance for a while from some sponsors and club members and ticket holders to sign up when New Zealand Rugby and Australia were having that back and forth, but things have bounced back.’’
Kean is a former NZ Rugby board member who has therefore been on both sides of the fence when it comes to Super Rugby, which is trying to find its feet again after the exit of South African sides.
Kean believes losing South Africa was a blow, as their sides ‘‘hardened up’’ New Zealand players, but he is confident that New Zealand and Australia have taken the first steps to giving the competition the structure it needs.
One development that is clearly attractive to the Super Rugby clubs is the concept of a world club championship, and Kean said that it could be stood up by 2025.
‘‘The world club championship ... that’s pretty much been resolved and we will probably have a slimmed down version of it in 2025 and then the full version in 2028 and 2032,’’ he said.