No Kiwi clamour for Oz series
Nobody thought that Super Rugby’s fragility would be exposed like this. Of course, everyone knew the competition’s inherent weakness was its complexity and the fact it was played across multiple territories. Eventually, the madness of putting 30-plus massive humans on carbon-spewing airplanes for up 20 hours just to play 80 minutes of footy would have become a significant issue: that’s not how future generations will roll.
But coronavirus? No. No one saw it coming and as it continues to spread death across the planet, there is a feeling that Super Rugby will never be the same again.
Invariably, then, attention will turn to what the future of professional rugby in Australia will look like. Already, supporters of the trans-Tasman competition concept will be dusting off their plans.
The purpose of this column will not be to advocate one way or the other, but to offer a frank assessment of the appetite for such a competition based on my experiences on both sides of the Tasman.
The gap is simply enormous. The reason it’s important to point this out is there continues to be a conversation in Australia about such a competition that is utterly divorced from the New Zealand reality. For example, you still encounter the misleading line that Rugby Australia must set up a trans-Tasman comp, as if it is in the position to click its fingers and bring New Zealand to heel.
You don’t think they’ve tried? I know they have. In the past few years there has been a suggestion at the highest levels to bring the New Zealand provincial unions into a competition with their Australian equivalents.
However, even if that idea gained a decent reception at New Zealand Rugby, the Kiwis would still have to get it past their 14 provincial unions, which are typically conservative and see their strength as providing a competition that is uniquely Kiwi.
The other notion entertained by Australians is that New Zealand needs Australia from a financial viewpoint, but that ignores the fact that New Zealand Rugby sees the All Blacks as a global brand. It is more excited about Japan than Australia.
But what Australians must really understand about New Zealand is that while it is often described as a rugby-mad nation, that’s not quite true. It is an All Blacks-mad nation.
There’s no real intellectual curiosity about the game beyond its borders like you find in Britain or Ireland, where they hoover up news about southern hemisphere rugby.
I would say, with a high degree of confidence, that rugby journalists in New Zealand are far more likely to watch an NRL game than an Australian Super Rugby derby.
The only Australian rugby identity Kiwis care about is Eddie Jones: there is a fascination with his antics, mixed in with a bit of respect, disdain and probably even fear about his England side.
In six years of watching Super Rugby promotions in New Zealand, I’m yet to see a non-Kiwi player featured in the adverts. In six years of living in New Zealand, I have never – ever – held a conversation with a Kiwi about a trans-Tasman comp that I haven’t initiated. And even then, it typically lasts for about 10 seconds, concluding after they say, ‘‘Yeah, nah. Why would we do that?’’
To New Zealanders, the idea that you could set up a competition with five New Zealand Super Rugby teams, five Australian Super Rugby sides and maybe two from the Pacific Islands is hopelessly unbalanced.
No matter what they say before the Bledisloe Cup every year, New Zealanders view the Springboks as their only true peers: they love playing the Australians – and love beating them – but, fundamentally, they don’t believe they belong on the same level as the Springboks. They think Australians talk too much and never deliver.
In fact, the level of misunderstanding about Australia is so deep that I’ve had educated people insist to me that Michael Cheika himself planted that bug in that Sydney hotel a few years ago. I kid you not.
This is not to say that Australia and New Zealand won’t be forced into some sort of closer relationship in the future. Anything seems possible at the moment.
But, as things stand, New Zealanders are looking inwards, at their own derby competition to replace Super Rugby.
And they are quietly happy about that.
They don’t believe they [Australia] belong on the same level as the Springboks. They think Australians talk too much and never deliver.