Super Rugby Aotearoa set to lock down 2021 playoffs

With coronavirus still hovering, Marc Hinton says rugby officials are having to think local as they plot for franchise solutions for 2021.

Super Rugby Aotearoa was a big winner amid the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 and it is looking increasingly likely it will be called on for a second straight year, as the global pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the sporting landscape.

Highly placed sources have indicated to the Sunday StarTimes that another compromise solution is likely to be implemented for

Super Rugby in

2021, with the clock ticking on a proposed format that will allow franchises and national unions to get appropriate commercial arrangements in place.

With Covid-19 continuing to make international travel an unlikely conveyance through the early part of next year, at the very least, it seems likely both New Zealand and Australia will open the 2021 season with ‘‘ local’’ franchise competitions, a- la Super Rugby Aotearoa, which proved such a hit in the wake of the initial lockdown this year.

But the plan is for these to then morph into a trans-Tasman finals- type playoffs series that could play out over the back part of the competition time-frame. Japan could also be included in this, should the pandemic, politics and timing allow.

Stuff understands discussions have also factored in a third, international tier for the franchise league, which could potentially bring in South Africa and even lead to a global playoff, including top clubs from the northern hemisphere. But this is unlikely to be possible until the world opens back up, with a Covid-19 vaccine.

Fluidity is the name of the game at present as officials work through potential scenarios for 2021 at the franchise level. But it’s understood some sort of a framework is hoped to be announced in October to allow aspects such as commercial partnerships, membership programmes and broadcasting arrangements to be put in place. Player and coach recruitment also requires some certainty in terms of competition parameters.

The five New Zealand franchises and New Zealand Rugby are communicating regularly on this and sources indicate there has even been a thawing in the trans-Tasman relationship, with discussions as cordial as they have been through this problematic year.

Australia is desperate to retain all five of its existing franchises and, after some initial New Zealand resistance on that, it would appear the Kiwi hardline stance is softening.

The success of SRA leaves New Zealand’s five franchises comfortable with that as the basis for the first part of competition in 2021, but there is a strong desire for it to evolve into a regional playoffs that would bring much-needed freshness over the back part of the season.

Stuff understands the franchises are also in favour of a final being played in 2021 to decide the overall Aotearoa champion ( the competition was a straight double round-robin this year) but, from that, leading teams would then go forth to battle their equivalents from Australia and, possibly, Japan.

Initial thoughts had been that a fully fledged trans-Tasman competition would be able to take place in 2021, but the second surge of Covid in Australasia appears likely to throw that into the ‘‘too-hard’’ basket.

However, one victim of the continued uncertainty and financial squeeze caused by the pandemic could be the proposed Pasifika team. While there remains strong support for the concept from New Zealand rugby ranks, there is a feeling that it might have to wait at least a year as both New Zealand and Australia deal with their most pressing needs on the domestic front first.

However, Stuff’s source indicated that it was by no means a setback for the notion of a Pasifika team in Super Rugby – just that ‘‘if it’s going to be done, it needs to be done right’’.

For now that looks likely to require another year to work on arrangements and planning and for the world to take a step back towards normality. Until then, compromise remains very much the name of the game.

It seems likely both New Zealand and Australia will open the 2021 season with ‘local’ franchise competitions.