A Rebels-Force merger the better option to help get Kiwis on board

If a competition was to be drawn on a blank canvas, the Brumbies would not be there. Yet their record demands they stay.

Wallabies and Brumbies fullback Tom Wright at training in Canberra this week Picture: AAP

Australian rugby officials are desperately hoping the creation of a trans-Tasman bubble will enable a 10-team Super Rugby competition to be formed next year, with five teams each from Australia and New Zealand.

Following the spectacular success of the opening round of Super Rugby Aotearoa last weekend, Australian administrators seemed pleasantly surprised, perhaps even relieved, when their Kiwi counterparts contacted them this week to arrange talks for a future competition. But Australians should not get too excited yet.

My understanding is that while the five Kiwi Super Rugby franchises are keen, the NZRU, which controls the show over the ditch, is lukewarm about the idea. Which may be why the talks were scuppered when it became public knowledge

There are commercial opportunities for New Zealand’s Super Rugby teams in “Aussie”, as they say but the NZRU’s main objective is to prepare Kiwi players for Test rugby and that means playing high quality opposition at the provincial level.

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Unlike Australia, New Zealand has the option of adding teams from its Mitre 10 National Provincial Championship such as Tasman and Southland to create an expanded domestic Super Rugby competition.

While there is no doubt New Zealand would be capable of supplying five competitive teams, the Kiwis have fielded the same five Super Rugby teams since 1996 and they have all won the title. There are question marks over Australia’s capacity to field even four decent sides.

When Super Rugby was suspended earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the only Australian team that looked competitive were the Brumbies.

Obviously, Australia would need to supply more than one team to a 10-team competition but how many could we realistically offer to a trans-Tasman format?

In 2017 Rugby Australia cut the Western Force from Super Rugby when SANZAAR reduced the competition from 18 to 15 teams.

The argument was Australian rugby could not afford to carry five Super Rugby teams financially or player-wise.

If we could not afford five then, how could we possibly afford five now when revenue streams have been hammered and more leading players are expected to head overseas. We need teams that will be competitive with sides across the Tasman, not just each other.

In a way Australian rugby has been presented with a blank canvas. How do we fill it in?

NSW and Queensland, the heartland states, would have to be there. Between them, those two traditional unions produce the vast majority of professional Australian rugby players.

Of course, the Brumbies have been fabulously successful on the field with cast-offs from NSW and Queensland over the years but if we had our time again, would we really include a team from Canberra in Super Rugby?

If you were starting from scratch, the Brumbies probably would not be there, but we are not starting from scratch. The Brumbies have developed a very valuable brand and intellectual property that Australian rugby cannot afford to lose.

It has been suggested the Brumbies should merge with Melbourne Rebels. A marriage between the Brumbies’ successful rugby culture and Melbourne’s almost five million population and corporate clout would seem to be made in rugby heaven but I am concerned a merger would diminish the Brumbies’ brand.

If there has to be a merger, I would lean towards the two expansion franchises, the Rebels and the Force. As individual entities the Force and the Rebels never reached any great heights. A merger between any Australian teams would leave us with four sides but I have heard a whisper Fiji may become the 10th side in a trans-Tasman competition.

All this talk of mergers may be premature. During the week Rugby Australia stated it had no plans to merge the Brumbies and the Rebels.

It would be a lot easier to sell a trans-Tasman competition to the New Zealanders with four competitive Australian teams rather than spreading our talent too thinly over five franchises. Whether Australia fields four or five Super Rugby teams next year it does not want to just make up the numbers but to make a difference.