Super deal done: club event next on agenda
The future of Super Rugby Pacific has been locked in after a long and complex negotiation between New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia, but its significance also lies in what it means for the longdiscussed world club competition.
An official announcement on Super Rugby Pacific is imminent, providing much-needed relief to the 12 Super Rugby clubs who could only watch on as the negotiations dragged on over broadcast revenue splits and format. The resolution is likely to see Rugby Australia get an increase in what it receives from NZ Rugby, although some way short of 50-50 split it had called for publicly.
The sweetener for the five New Zealand Super Rugby clubs is the world club competition could not be confirmed until the Super Rugby Pacific deal was done.
The format for the world club competition is relatively straightforward. Starting in 2024, the 16-team competition would pit the top seven teams in Super Rugby Pacific against the quarterfinalists of the European Champions Cup, alongside the Japan Rugby League One champions.
That leaves six or seven possible spaces – one spot could go to either Moana Pasifika or the Fijian Drua – for the five New Zealand Super Rugby teams to book a spot in the knockout format competition against the likes of Leinster, Leicester, Toulouse and probably the best South African teams (the South Africans have gained access to the European Champions Cup).
The appeal of this competition for the New Zealand sides is obvious – they have long seen it as a way to energise players, coaches and sponsors.
Super Rugby Pacific would need to be truncated in the year the world club competition is held – Stuff understands it would need to start a week early, with some regular season fixtures and potentially the quarterfinal stages axed – but this disruption isn’t regarded as outweighing the benefits.
The chairman of European Professional Club Rugby – which runs the European Champions Cup – said that they were making ‘‘good progress’’ on the world club competition but wouldn’t be ‘‘definitive on a timeline because that creates undue expectation’’.
‘‘It has been a topic of conversation for some considerable time. We’re making some good progress,’’ Dominic McKay said.
‘‘We are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to evaluate it as a proposition. It needs to be additive to what we currently enjoy and be complementary to the existing structures.
‘‘Everyone is leaning in to find the right outcome, but we will do that in a measured and sensible way. It’s certainly possible and we are chopping through the detail methodically right now.’’
‘‘Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and we have got a bit of work to get through.’’