Australian rugby again seeking the least-worst option

Today begins a new era in the history of Australian rugby with the installation of Hamish McLennan as chairman of the national body

A new era begins as Hamish McLennan takes over as chairman of Rugby Australia.

Today begins a new era in the history of Australian rugby with the installation of Hamish McLennan as chairman of the national body. Yet amid all the wellwishing and congratulations, there is the realisation that the game is not yet out of the woods, not even close.

McLennan admitted on Friday that the single most urgent issue that Rugby Australia faces is to get next season organised so that it has something real to lay before potential broadcasters. All of us nodded in agreement, but few chose to look deeper, perhaps because we all suspected that the devil really is in the detail.

Super Rugby returns! Watch every game of Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly

On Saturday, I was taken to task by a reader for writing a “bullshit article” about getting rid of the Brumbies while retaining, in the words of the tweet, the NSW Waratahs, who were comfortably beaten by the Brumbies in the last match before the COVID-19 shutdown.

In fact, dear sir, what I had suggested was a merger between the Brumbies and the Melbourne Rebels, a stance I have consistently maintained since the Western Force were in the act of being culled back in 2017. Already some people are circulating a name for the joint venture — the Southern Brumbies. But I accept the general drift of the tweet and I genuinely wish it was bullshit. I’m truly afraid it’s not.

Everyone wants a trans-Tasman competition next year. Everyone on this side of the Tasman. The Kiwis are less than convinced. While not wanting Twitter to set the agenda, there was another observation on Sunday: “New Zealand Rugby will be doing the rugby public a disservice if they don’t stick with an all-Kiwi competition. Ditch the Mitre 10 Cup, add three more teams to Super Rugby Aotearoa and away we go. Can’t remember the last time the country was this hyped on a pro rugby competition.”

It’s unlikely that hype will be maintained. The NRL opened to record viewer numbers but quickly fell away. And what are the odds of it ever being repeated that a player would step up and kick the winning field goal to snatch victory away from his dad’s team, as Bryn Gatland did to Warren Gatland in Dunedin on Saturday?

As popular as that standpoint is in New Zealand, indications are that NZR does not share it — at least not in its entirety. As Greg Harris, the former Waratahs and RUPA boss pointed out in the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend, New Zealanders will think of themselves first and of Australia a distant last. But even their self-interest could work in Australia’s favour. Increasingly in this partially post-COVID world, they need the opposition that Australia provide. They might wish that the Springboks were on their doorstep, but the reality is that there is a small sea and a sizeable ocean to cross before they reach South Africa, not to mention a continent-wide land mass. .

It would be nice to think that, in the spirit of Anzac, the Kiwis would help out a neighbour in need but perhaps that is being too noble-minded. It is enough that New Zealand need us just a little, even if we need them a lot.

Now that McLennan has nailed his colours to the mast and will be attempting to lock in a competition for 2021 and beyond, some vital talks will be taking place with New Zealand officials, if indeed they haven’t been held already. And the Kiwis will tell us that, in their opinion, we cannot sustain five teams against them and should cut down to three.

With luck, McLennan will get them to compromise on four but the catch is that one of them will have to be the Western Force. This is Andrew Forrest’s moment. Australian rugby is cash-strapped and if it can pass on the expense of running a Super Rugby franchise to a private entrepreneur, then the Perth club will surely be welcomed back with open arms. No doubt on the West Australian side there will be lots of gritted teeth but, as appallingly as they were treated in the past, they also want to be part of the main event. Global Rapid Rugby can continue throughout Asia, one presumes, but the primary focus must be on Super Rugby, or whatever it evolves into.

So that leaves the Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies and Rebels to fit into three openings. It’s not fair, but there it is. NSW and Queensland both have had appalling records in recent years, but they are the two states that provide 80 per cent of Australia’s professional players. Besides, it’s unthinkable not to have rugby franchises in the country’s two rugby strongholds.

The Reds look to be the coming Australian team and while the rest of the country might feel this is NSW’s punishment for treating Australian rugby as its plaything with its Sydney-centric attitude, common sense must prevail.

And so, by process of elimination, we arrive at the Brumbies and the Rebels. The first has the best rugby program in the country, bar none, the latter resides in the most sports-mad capital in the world and it would be crazy for Australia to surrender its toehold there.

So the choice is either to merge and split the home games between Melbourne and Canberra, or to ditch one club entirely. There is no other solution … unless …

Unless Australia tells the Kiwis to mind their own business. If they won’t accept us on our terms, then they can Aotearoa themselves to their heart’s content and we’ll see them for the Bledisloes.

Australia no doubt would be feeling virtuous, asserting its independence like that, but there would be consequences. For starters, an all-Australian competition, or even one supplemented by Japan and perhaps Fiji, would hold limited appeal to broadcasters. Or none. Either way, the broadcast money would dry up, which would lead to a mass exodus of Australian players to Europe and Japan and the USA.

Australian rugby has time travelled back to 2017 and again we are looking for least-worst solutions. Even a private equity solution only “solves” the money problem. The problem of whether Australia has the depth to sustain five professional sides would still remain.

Sadly, these are the only options I can think of. But no doubt there are brighter minds than mine out there giving this some serious thought.

Please, get your ideas in. But get them in quickly. Until this is resolved, nothing in Australian rugby is certain. And when there is no certainty, that’s when dumb decisions are made.