South Africa, player draft: The CEOs speak out

The advent of professionalism in late 1995 led to South Africa entering negotiations with its southern hemisphere neighbours, New Zealand and Australia, to nut out ways to construct a new competition.

Super Rugby was launched the following year, and it went off big-time as 12 teams from the three countries committed to a round-robin competition, with the top four finishers advancing to the semifinals.

It wasn't just the novelty of seeing South African players clash against the best from Australasia that made the competition such a compelling product to watch. The whole package was a success. The rugby was entertaining, games were played in the afternoon, and the fans lapped it up.

But times change. When the pandemic struck and forced Super Rugby to put up the shutters in early 2020, the bond that had been formed between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa was shattered.

When Super Rugby was pieced back together, there were no teams from South Africa, one of the great superpowers, or Argentina’s Jaguares, on the start line.

When Super Rugby Pacific was revealed in 2022 it boasted 12 teams as New Zealand and Australia, along with the newly formed Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, committed to yet another rebirth of the tournament.

Given Super Rugby has constantly evolved, the question of whether South African teams and the Jaguares would return has never been far away

Another hot topic was whether a draft system should be implemented.

Now the chief executives of the five New Zealand franchises have had their say. Stuff put the questions to them in the second segment of a five-part series.

Would you like the teams from South Africa and Argentina to return to Super Rugby Pacific in the near future?

Blues CEO Andrew Hore: It would be great to see the Argentinians in the competition. I believe we need to focus on making the competition we have as fan centric and highly competitive in the first instance.

We always wanted games in our time zone and regionalised, so I can see advancements from a ‘local’, ie, Australia/New Zealand/Fiji to a regional competition of meaning to the World Club Championship concept – somewhere with all of this I believe we will see NZ Super teams playing SA teams again,

Chiefs CEO Simon Graafhuis: South African and Argentinean teams have been great contributors to Super Rugby in the past, so including expansion teams in future would be great.

Expansion teams need to work from providing the best competition, and from a logistical and commercial perspective.

Hurricanes CEO Avan Lee: The horse may have bolted with South Africa, but we miss them. The tours were tough but, on the other hand, the players have realised how much they enjoyed those trips.

We would naturally welcome an Argentinian team if they want to come back. That would be brilliant for the fans and the competition. Travel and match schedules would need to be discussed.

Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge:

The future of our game lies in our ability to globalise the game, rather than just thinking about our own competition.

I’d like to see the club game expanded throughout the world, and have competitions that link with each other to promote the game and increase global fans. Whether that’s crossovers with Japan mid- or post-season, further northern tours, or the World Club Champs, the future of our game is exciting. Highlanders CEO Roger Clark: It would be great to see the Argentinians in the competition. As far as South Africa goes, it would be great to have them in; however, the travel and financial constraints currently make this impractical.

Former Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan floated the idea of a player draft between Australia and New Zealand teams. Does that concept have merit, or is it impractical?

Hore: A draft needs to be carefully considered and the unintended consequences investigated.

Graafhuis: Concepts like the draft that add to the excitement and fan engagement of a competition definitely have merit. There are some complexities for a draft when teams come from multiple jurisdictions.

Lee: Whilst I think fans, and some teams, would be massively keen, I don’t think it’s possible within the current environment/ contracting model.

Mansbridge: We should always strive to be better, to be the best we can be. So it’s worth investigating how players can be more mobile across the competition.

Clark: Under the present player contracting models in both countries this is impractical.

Note: Moana Pasifika declined to participate in this survey.