Sanzaar stumbles on to blueprint
Credit where it’s due: Super Rugby bumblers finally deliver something resembling a proper competition with global appeal
Derided as rugby’s administrative dunces and guilty of taking Super Rugby to the brink of financial oblivion, Sanzaar, against all expectations, has come up with, or perhaps stumbled upon, a near faultless long-term vision for Southern Hemisphere rugby.
The announcement the Sunwolves are being axed from the 2021 competition is not illustrative of yet more catastrophic short-term thinking. It is instead the beginning of a strategy to build a two-tier Super Rugby competition and to progress Japan and other nations such as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and potentially the United States, Uruguay and Brazil towards taking places in an expanded Rugby Championship.
Credit where it’s due — Sanzaar has finally come up with a plan which is not the usual array of ill-fitting compromise agreements that leave Super Rugby looking like Mr Potato Head.
It is true Sanzaar, after compounding disastrous variations of the format, almost killed what was once the best provincial rugby competition in the world.
It is also true the administrative body may have found its new vision more by luck and lack of alternatives than good management.
But the important thing is Sanzaar has finally delivered something that looks, in principle at least, like it may produce the sort of global competition it has always dreamed of running.
Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere now has a blueprint to survive and possibly even thrive regardless of whether the mooted 12-team League of Nations comes to fruition in 2022 or not.
We could dwell on the Sunwolves, say it was ridiculous they were part of Super Rugby in the first place and now a further sign of Sanzaar’s incompetence that they are not, but that would spectacularly fail to understand the chain of events which led to the decision being made.
The process of restructuring Super Rugby began with the bigger question of working out what the Sanzaar partners wanted the long-term future of the Rugby Championship to look like in the near future.
There was universal agreement among New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina that it was imperative to have an expansion plan for the Rugby Championship, be it as part of League of Nations or not.
The four Southern Hemisphere giants clearly want the League of Nations to happen for the simple and compelling reason it will bring the sort of financial windfall they crave.
And to make the League of Nations a reality and get their grubby mitts on this increased loot, the Rugby Championship needs six teams playing in it by 2022.
But even if the League of Nations doesn’t come to fruition, the four Sanzaar partners believe they still need to expand the Rugby Championship at some stage if they want to grow the financial value of the competition.
With that goal in mind, the Sanzaar partners leant heavily on the Japanese Rugby Union ( JRU) to give assurances they would underwrite the Sunwolves beyond 2021 because, again, there is agreement that Japan will need a team in Super Rugby to prepare its test players for potential entry into the Rugby Championship.
That has effectively been made a non-negotiable for Japan to take a place in the Rugby Championship — that they must expose their probable test players to something tougher and more intense than their domestic Top League.
When the JRU refused to provide that financial assurance, the Sunwolves were told they would be kicked out of Super Rugby at the expiry of the existing deal, as Sanzaar can’t take its new proposal to broadcasters — which they intend to do in a few months — without each team being underwritten by a financially sound organisation.
Any broadcaster bidding for Super Rugby would take one look at the unsupported Sunwolves and run a mile, rightly arguing the Japanese team could fold at any time.
There have been suggestions South Africa drove the Sunwolves out but that’s not strictly true.
Teams from the Republic don’t like the increased travel burden that comes with playing the Sunwolves and the South African Rugby Union were incensed Japan didn’t vote for them to host the 2023 World Cup.
But South Africa are particularly desperate for more cash and they like the massively increased payments that will come with the League of Nations — payments that only come if Japan are in the Rugby Championship, and Japan can only be in the Rugby Championship if they have a club team in Super Rugby.
So the door to Super Rugby was held open to Japan for as long as possible and when it became clear the Sunwolves weren’t going to be backed by their own rugby union, work accelerated on Plan B.
Which is to partner with Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest to build a meaningful second tier Super Rugby competition.
Mining magnate Forrest supposedly has the money and Sanzaar the expertise, so if they combine their two skill sets, the already up and running Global Rapid Rugby (GRR) competition will be expanded to include the Sunwolves, a team from Fiji most likely and possibly even a New Zealand side in 2021.
If the GRR can prove its viability, it will become hugely important in giving players from potential Rugby Championship entrants access to quality Super Rugby-style football.
Also in the pipeline is a second tier Rugby Championship, which may see the Pacific Nations Cup ( Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga) combined with the Americas Championship: the US, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile.
If it all works out, Super Rugby will be a shorter, more compelling competition, while there will also be a pathway for the Southern Hemisphere’s emerging nations to play as pseudo international teams in a club competition, as well as bona fide international teams in an international competition.
It is, of course, a big if as to whether the second tier competition will get off the ground, and if it does, whether it will be of a high enough standard to adequately prepare those aspiring to join the Rugby Championship.
It could yet all fall over and the Sunwolves, instead of being transitioned into a better-fitting competition in 2021, end up being disbanded, leaving a big problem on how to get Japanese rugby up to speed and convincing as good enough to play in the Rugby Championship.
But there has to be a degree of confidence Sanzaar has at least given Super Rugby the best chance it can of rediscovering its former glory and that the end goal of a sustainable six-team Rugby Championship is feasible if emerging nations such as Japan, Fiji and the US are given enough quality games and time to prove they are ready.
Sanzaar has stumbled upon a near faultless vision for our rugby.