Kiwis fuming after Australia snatched The Rugby Championship right out of their hands
The spin offs from pinching the Rugby Championship from New Zealand are endless. There will be millions of dollars, new opportunities for young players but best of all is finally seeing an end to all their gloating on the other side the Tasman.
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The next generation of players that the Wallabies are pinning their hopes on to win the 2023 World Cup will be given an early introduction to the international game as part of the endless bonuses Rugby Australia will reap after snatching the biggest tournament in the southern hemisphere from New Zealand.
In a stunning coup for the struggling code in this country, Australia has been awarded sole hosting rights of this year’s Rugby Championship after the New Zealand government completely dropped the ball.
The Kiwis had already been promised the lucrative four-nation tournament by SANZAAR as a reward for restricting the number of COVID-19 infections only to have it taken away because of their inflexible quarantine regulations.
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“In some ways I feel sorry for (New Zealand Rugby),” RA chief executive Rob Clarke said.
“But in other ways I‘m delighted for us and for Australian rugby and the fans of rugby because this is going to be the equivalent of a mini-World Cup.
“You couldn‘t get a better finish to the year in what has been a helluva tough year for everybody to have some world class rugby played in Australia.”
While Clarke resisted the temptation to lay the boot in, the Kiwis were fuming, with thousands of angry fans taking to social media to slam the government for losing the tournament that would have delivered over $100 million to the economy.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern‘s attempt to blame the decision on SANZAAR politics drew a sharp rebuke from New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson.
“We‘re obviously disappointed at the decision to not have New Zealand host the tournament, but we understand and accept it,” he said.
Both New Zealand and Australia submitted bids to stage the tournament but SANZAAR boss Andy Marinos said Australia’s more flexible quarantine regulations - and the financial support of the NSW government - tipped the scales.
“The Rugby Australia submission was the most desirable and workable in terms of tournament logistics for the essential pre-tournament preparation period and the six-week tournament itself,” he said.
The tournament - involving Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and current world champions South Africa - will kick off on November 7 and consist of a total of 12 matches, played as six rounds of double headers.
Currently scheduled to end on November 12, the last round may be brought forward by a few days so that overseas players can return home and quarantine in their own countries before Christmas.
The final schedule has not been released but five rounds will be played in NSW - split between ANZ Stadium, Bankwest Stadium and Newcastle‘s McDonald Jones Stadium and the other at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
And best of all, Clarke noted, the 15-man code will not have to compete for eyeballs with the NRL and AFL as they’ll be finished by then.
“I think it‘s a fantastic opportunity,” Clarke said.
“It will be over a six-week period, in a time of year that‘s not really traditional to play rugby, at a time of year in a nice way there’s not a lot of other content that’s going to compete with us.”
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As an added bonus, Argentina have already asked RA if they can play some warm up matches on arrival, which will provide a rare opportunity for Australia’s rising stars a chance to challenge themselves at the highest level without the pressure of a full blown Test.
“We would be more than happy to help arrange those,” Clarke said.
“We‘re possibly looking at a couple of games against an Australian A team and then one of the Super Rugby clubs. At this point of time that’s what we’re looking to deliver for Argentina, which is more than satisfactory to them and would also enable us to showcase some of our emerging talent.”
As a consolation, the two Bledisloe Cup matches due to be played in Australia in October will now be switched to New Zealand, most likely on October 17 and 24 in Auckland and Wellington.
Queensland had already been locked in to host one Bledisloe Cup match on October 17, which is why Brisbane has been given a round of The Rugby Championship, while the other match, originally scheduled for Melbourne, was undecided, though likely to go to Queensland as well.
Originally published as Kiwis fuming after Australia snatched The Rugby Championship right out of their hands