Everything up in air in lockdown but Australian rugby needs answers

For the past week, Mario Ledesma has had the Pumas in camp preparing for The Rugby Championship. Meanwhile, RA is scratching its head.

All Blacks half TJ Perenara puts up a box kick the ball against the Wallabies in The Rugby Championship at Eden Park last year. Picture: Getty Images

For the past week, Mario Ledesma has had the Pumas in camp in Argentina preparing for The Rugby Championship. Meanwhile, Rugby Australia is scratching its head, uncertain what to do with the players selected for the Wallabies once the Super Rugby AU competition is over.

While September 19 has been set down for the final of the Australian-only competition, for those teams which fail to make the play-offs — that is, the two teams which finish last and second-last — the Super Rugby season will end on September 5. And if, perchance, one of those sides happens to be the Waratahs, then the season will finish next Saturday, August 29, with their match against the Rebels in Sydney. That’s the trouble with having a bye in the final round, although the Tahs would still need to continue training as a NSW side, just on the possibility that results did fall their way on the final weekend of normal fixtures.

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So if it seems that everything is coming to a head, and quickly, it most certainly is. Everyone always said that the Super Rugby AU was a sprint but no-one quite realised it was barely a 100m dash.

The final will be on Saturday, September 19, with the Wallabies expected to assemble the following day to begin preparing for the first Test of the global post-COVID era, against New Zealand on October 10. But where exactly do the players head? If Bledisloe I is held in Sydney, then that would be about as convenient a location as possible, but there is a very real chance that it could be held in Perth which opens up the tantalising possibility of playing in front of a large crowd at the 60,000-seat Optus Stadium. But that would entail two weeks in an isolation bubble beforehand. And then there would be all the complications of recrossing the continent for Bledisloe II in Brisbane the following weekend.

The WA and Queensland Governments are in discussion on this very issue. The hope is that rugby can ride on the coat-tails of the AFL, which has blazed the way on cross-border football excursions. If the Wallabies and All Blacks remain inside the bubble in Perth, then it is possible they will be permitted into Queensland on the customary sporting team conditions.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne Rebels have been on the road for nine weeks already, with the Western Force players just a couple of weeks behind them. Many of them have brought their families over to join them at Terrigal and Kingscliffe, but many have not. Which leads to all the head-scratching at RA headquarters? Could the Wallabies be sent home to their states for a catch-up with their families, even though that would involve a two-week isolation on their return to Sydney? Or is it just too much trouble?

As things stand at present, The Rugby Championship looks a goer in New Zealand. That’s the current advice, at least. Two weeks of isolation for as many as 40 Wallabies followed by six Tests over six weekends, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand, home and away, so to speak. Six weeks with 40 players, only 23 of whom can be engaged on any weekend. That could be lively.

If New Zealand gets itself into a tangle over lockdown levels and crowd sizes following its recent coronavirus outbreaks, however, it may well be that the TRC will be abandoned for this year.

In that event, a five-Test Bledisloe series could suddenly burst back into life, possibly as a tournament to be held in Australia. That’s a scenario Rugby Australia is looking at, especially if crowds are permitted on this side of the Tasman. Still, while Auckland remains on Level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand is only at Level 2, everything on the other side is about as confused as it is here in Australia at present.

With all these complications to unravel, it’s hardly a wonder there has been no progress on the issue of what model of competition Australia and NZ will end up with next season. That’s assuming that there is a joint venture next year. There may not be.

September 4 is the date that Rugby Australia has set itself for broadcasters to respond with their preferred options, which effectively means that is also for the deadline for the Kiwis to get back to us on what they have in mind. There was much chest-puffing in Australia when that deadline was announced. “D-Day is coming,” we warned. Well, no-one quite paid any attention to the fact that NZ also had set a deadline for expressions of interest on its proposed 8-10 team competition. The due date was the “end of August”. So their deadline actually trumps ours, as it were.

Is it too much to hope that the trans-Tasman “dick swinging” competition will give way to some meaningful talks? A trans-Tasman competition is what both nations want and, from a commercial point of view, it is what both nations need. Private equity is definitely interested in a 10-team competition and if Australia is to maintain its current domestic strength, it will need the additional money over and above whatever deal is done with broadcasters.

So, given that Rugby Australia has boxed itself into a corner of “five teams or none at all”, it needs to persuade our Kiwi friends that five Aussie teams are viable and competitive, unlike back in 2017 when they clearly weren’t. The solution may be to sell them on a one-year deal. “Our standard is definitely on the rise in Australia…give us time to prove our worth.”

If all this can be locked away, then RA will be free to deal with its really tricky problem. It might well have enough money to be able to keep the elite Australian players happy next season and also the rising stars. But it will be the players in the middle who will feel the squeeze.

It would be a blessing if Australia could address all its problems one at a time but that is not how the situation looks like unfolding. Everything will land at once and it will become a mad scramble.