The great divide is not Super for anyone
Great empires crumble from within. Australia and South Africa have sown the seeds for the demise of their Super Rugby teams themselves.
The decision made by both countries to allow players to be selected for the Wallabies and the Springboks while playing club rugby overseas will inevitably end in tears.
There’s a damn good reason you can only be an All Black if you play here.
As massive as the money on offer in Europe and Japan is, the bulk of our best players stay here, and, if you ask the people who negotiate their contracts, a major reason for that is the lure of the black jersey.
The Super Rugby apocalypse has yet to arrive, but the signs are there.
Look at the two Friday night games.
In Brisbane the Chiefs, fresh off a vital win over the Crusaders last week, drafted in All Black Aaron Cruden at first-five for their game against the Reds in Brisbane, and he showed why the battle with the electrifying Beauden Barrett for the starting role in the All Blacks is likely to continue.
The All Black selectors know Cruden plays flat on the line, and has the mental agility to make split second decisions to run himself, kick, feed the backline, or, as he did so well against the Reds, turn the ball back inside to a supporting player.
His return is central to the Chiefs’ success.
It’s true the Chiefs have non-All Blacks who produce sensational games. In Brisbane the brutal running of 21-year-old Lachlan Boshier, hardy a household name away from the building site he was working on in New Plymouth at the start of the year, was almost scarily powerful.
But with all due respect to young, gifted players such as Boshier, would the Chiefs be so efficient if Cruden was in Toulouse, or blockbusting All Black centre Seta Tamanivalu was at the Harlequins in London?
And before the flogging of the Reds there was the demolition of the Brumbies by the Blues, another side loaded with young, enthusiastic players, which right now benefits from the singleminded drive of a veteran All Black in Jerome Kaino, and will be even better next year when a massive target for European clubs, Sonny Bill Williams, will be in the midfield.
Keep in mind, as you look at that richly deserved 40-15 scoreline that the Brumbies are the best team in Australia, while the Blues are the lowest ranked of five Kiwi teams.
To be fair, there are unique challenges for South African and Australian rugby officials.
The South African rand has been weak for years.
Only further massive post-Brexit drops in the pound and Euro would allow South African players to be paid anything like what they’re worth offshore without bankrupting rugby in South Africa.
Australian rugby, which used to face, in rugby league, only one winter rival in Sydney and Brisbane, now has, in the AFL, a code whose administrators are smart, swift moving, and determined to drive the sport outside its home in Melbourne.
But if the only answer is allowing the cream of your test talent to play overseas, it’s inevitable that the gap opening between most teams in Australia and South Africa, and the New Zealand sides will just get wider.
In a competition already so bloated and unwieldly even players and coaches struggle to fully understand it, nothing good will come from the great divide.
Footnote: At a function in New Plymouth on Friday, raising money for conductive education, which helps children with damaged motor skills, All Black assistant coach Wayne Smith was asked how different rugby was now, compared to when he began as an All Black in 1980.
He said, ‘‘It’s almost impossible to make a comparison, the game now is so advanced, and so fast and skilled. It’s like trying to compare Neil Armstrong going to the moon with the space probe travelling 540 million miles to Jupiter.’’
The Super Rugby apocalypse has yet to arrive, but the signs are there.