Australia offers to host trans-Tasman rugby competition

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan is prepared to host all five New Zealand franchises in Australia in 2021 and run a trans-Tasman competition.

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan is trying to establish a trans-Tasman competition next season. Picture: Getty Images

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan said on Monday he was prepared to host all five New Zealand franchises in Australia in 2021 and run a trans-Tasman competition entirely from these shores.

McLennan said last week that Australia’s relationship with NZ Rugby was at “its lowest ebb” – a description which NZR perversely took exception to – but there is no question that while the national body is reluctant to rubberstamp it, the five NZ franchises are desperately keen for a full trans-Tasman competition to go ahead next year.

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Instead, the NZR has committed itself to a second edition of its Super Rugby Aotearoa next year, minus the Pasifika team which was to have been part of it.

The fear is that a sixth franchise, made up of islander players, would cannibalise the fan base and commercial support of the existing five NZ franchises.

Despite snubbing Australia in July when it called for expressions of interest in its planned competition for 2021, yet limited Australia’s involvement to between two and four teams – supposedly to preserve the integrity of the competition – NZ is now looking at a number of far less creditable side for its planned 2022 expanded series.

Bids from the South China Lions, Kanaloa Hawaii, Moana Pasifika, the Fiji Drua and the Western Force – which failed to win a single game in Super Rugby AU this year – reportedly are being entertained.

Western Force failed to win a game in Super RUgby AU but find themselves a popular target for new competitions

As a consequence of NZ’s stubbornness, Australia is also preparing to hold a repeat of this year’s domestic competition, though with the possibility of an islander side joining as well, McLennan said. But he admitted he was entirely at a loss to understand why NZ and Australia weren’t coming together for a full-scale trans-Tasman competition next season.

At present, the Covid border restrictions are making that impossible but with NZ going to a general election on October 17 and Queensland facing a state election on October 31, the hope is that travel between Australia and NZ could return to something resembling normal before Christmas. In that event, a trans-Tasman rugby competition involving five NZ and five Australian sides would be possible from early next year.

NZ apparently does not believe such a competition can be arranged in such a short period. Australia believes otherwise.

“As an alternative, we are happy to run trans-Tasman entirely from here next year,” McLennan told The Australian.

For the moment, he is turning his attention to the islanders who were rejected by NZR.

“I’d definitely like to do something with a team from the islands but we have had no formal dialogue with the Pasifika team because we presumed they were going to do something with NZ.

“We definitely see all the rugby-playing nations as equal partners so we will see if we can do something. But once again I don’t know why we aren’t looking for a trans-Tasman competition starting next year given that Covid management is becoming more sophisticated and better managed than ever before and travel bubbles are being created.”

NZ Rugby chairman Brent Impey stunned the Pasifika rugby community by rejecting an islander team for next year’s Super Rugby Aotearoa, expressing concerns an islander team could be smashed by the NZ sides.

It’s difficult to say precisely how a Pasifika team would perform but on the two occasions when such a side was assembled, they gave both the Wallabies (29-14) and the All Blacks (41-26) brutal Test matches on successive weekends in July 2004.

Pacific Rugby Players CEO Aayden Clarke was deeply critical of the NZR and urged the islands to turn away from Auckland and look at establishing a team in western Sydney instead.

“Australia have had a far more open-door policy and a willingness with Pacific Island teams over the past few years compared to NZ Rugby,” Clarke told Stuff NZ. “We’ve had the Fijian Drua play in the NRC (the now-defunct National Rugby Championship), we’ve had various options where Australia have been a little but more kind and, without wanting to say it, a little but less arrogant about it.”

Certainly an islander team based in the western suburbs dovetails with McLennan’s long-held views.

NSWRU chairman Roger Davis expressed concern that an islander team based in western Sydney potentially would undermine the Waratahs’ base but his primary concern was what competition NSW would be playing in next year.

“I would want to see what the broader competition is going to be,” Davis said. “If it (Rugby Australia) is taking the competition from five to six, I don’t think that does anything for anyone. We need 10 or 12.

“Common sense says trans-Tasman. That’s what the NZ sides are saying. That what common sense dictates, it’s economically viable, it’s a strong competition.

“I think the Australian competition was pretty good this year, much better than people would have thought, but I really wouldn’t back myself as having that as a mainstay going forward. Could you get by with another year? Yes, but I think that would be about it.”