Kiwis filthy but Rugby Championship shift was not RA’s decision

“We’re back,” proclaimed Hamish McLennan after SANZAAR announced the decision to strip The Rugby Championship from New Zealand.

Rugby Australia interim chief executive Rob Clarke and chairman Hamish McLennan pose at Mrs Macquarie's point after it was announced NSW will host most of the Rugby Championship. Picture: Getty Images

“We’re back,” proclaimed Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan after SANZAAR announced the painful decision on Friday to strip The Rugby Championship from New Zealand, dropping the virtual mini-World Cup into Australia’s lap in November-December.

“It’s a game changer and it has delivered instant momentum to rugby in this country,” McLennan said. “The TRC has never been run in one geography before. This is the first time ever.”

It was a day of wild celebrations for Rugby Australia, an organisation which has taken blow after savage blow for the last four years. This year alone staff numbers have been pared down mercilessly, with dozens of workers laid off, but if there could be one single event which might have signalled a reversal of fortunes, this may have been it. Even broadcasters – with whom RA is still working to negotiate a deal for next year and beyond – were delighted by the news, seeing it as a golden but unexpected opportunity to drive up subscriptions at what is normally a dead part of the year.

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Still, Rugby Australia was conscious of keeping its emotions in check. Its happiness came at the direct cost of misery on the other side of the Tasman.

Ultimately, it was NZ’s unbending quarantine regulations that forced SANZAAR’s hand, although Australia certainly mounted a persuasive case to take over the tournament, promising that all expenses and all profits would be shared equally among the four joint venturers.

The six-week, 12-match tournament involving New Zealand , South Africa, Argentina and Australia will now be played not in a hub in NZ, as SANZAAR originally had intended, but primarily in NSW, from November 7 to December 12. A draw is still being worked through but it seems matches will be held at ANZ Stadium at Homebush, Bankwest Stadium at Parramatta and the McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle.

The one conspicuous exception will be the round of the tournament to be played in Brisbane. RA had contracted with the Queensland government to stage a trans-Tasman Test and that will go ahead as promised.

Originally, Suncorp Stadium was to have been the venue of back-to-back Bledisloe Tests against the All Blacks on October 10 and 17 but, in order to partially compensate NZ for the lost TRC, these matches have now been transferred to Auckland and Wellington on October 17 and 24.

As for Brisbane, its compensation looks like being a Test double-header, with the world champion Springboks to play the Pumas as the curtain-raiser to the Wallabies-All Blacks showdown.

The reaction from New Zealand was, predictably, morose, with the NZ Herald claiming NSW has “pinched” the tournament. It all echoed painfully the drama that accompanied the decision by the then International Rugby Board to withdraw its invitation to NZ to sub-host the 2003 World Cup and instead entrusted the entire tournament to Australia.

Australian Rugby Union CEO John O’Neill was portrayed as the villain but in fact it was the IRB chairman Vernon Pugh who made the decision when NZ failed to meet its contractual obligations.

Still, there was hell to pay at the time. The NZ media ran the line that the All Blacks might boycott the World Cup in Australia and the NZ Sports Minister of the day, Trevor Mallard, suggested he wanted to prod O’Neill with a couple of Heineken beers – at that point the All Blacks sponsor – in some particularly uncomfortable places. O’Neill’s response: “I trust it’s a screw-top.”

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has enjoyed extraordinary approval ratings, at home and abroad, but she has just denied New Zealanders the right to watch the All Blacks play six live Tests and there is not a single Kiwi who could come through that unscathed.

The reality was, though, that her government’s quarantine regulations made it almost impossible for South Africa, Argentina and Australia to go to New Zealand and prepare properly for the tournament.

Under the quarantine arrangements in NZ, the overseas teams would have arrived with squads of 46 with the players immediately required to spend three days isolated in a hotel room. They would then be required to take a test for COVID-19 and only if it was negative could they be allowed to train in groups of 10. Over time that would be increased to 15 and eventually to 25. But asking teams to play a Test after having been in isolation for a fortnight was just not realistic – especially as the All Blacks would have been free to train at full strength all the way through.

By the same token, that is precisely the scenario that the Wallabies will now face when they fly to NZ soon after the September 19 Super Rugby AU grand final to prepare for the October 17 Test.

“We’re up for that,” said RA interim chief executive Rob Clarke. “We have to work with what we have to work with. The NZ government did change them over the last few days to make them a little less restrictive but, that being said, the protocols are there and the Wallabies are going to have to honour those protocols and they are ready to do it.”

Responding to a NZ television journalist who suggested there were a few “miffed” people back home as a result of the SANZAAR decision, Clarke attempted to pour some soothing oil.

“I can understand the disappointment. I know that (NZ Rugby CEO) Mark Robertson and the team in NZ have put in an enormous amount of work to put together the strongest proposal and for that they should be congratulated,” he said. “I think at the end of the day, there were certain aspects outside Mark and the team’s control over there, quarantine being a major one, and what we are all trying to achieve as SANZAAR joint venture partners is to stand up the best competition and deliver a result for the game.

“And where we think that was most likely to be achieved weighed heavily on the decision. Quarantine requirements here, a proven track record of how the NSW government and Premier Berejiklian has managed COVID here and kept the state running, I think worked to our advantage.

“In some ways I feel sorry for Mark and the team. In other ways, I’m delighted for us and for Australian rugby and for the fans of rugby because this is going to be the equivalent of a mini-World Cup played over six weeks and I think you could not get a better finish to what has been a hell of a tough year for everybody than to have some world-class rugby played in Australia.”

McLennan, too, paid tribute to the NSW Premier. “I’d like to thank Gladys for her inspired leadership and support in getting the NSW community back into action,” he said.

A December 12 finish, designed to ensure no players or staff members are still in quarantine on Christmas Day, will give rugby a clear run from other sports – but at a considerable price. A rugby year that began almost at the height of summer on January 31 with a Brumbies-Reds clash is likely to end in equally sweltering conditions, even if matches are played at night.

While Australia and NZ both played domestic series during the pandemic, South Africa still has not been able to play and while it hopes to be able to soon stage a version of its Currie Cup, it has not formally committed to playing in the tournament.

The Pumas, meanwhile, have been hit by the news that their popular coach Mario Ledesma has tested positive for COVID-19, along with some of his players. Despite being asymptomatic, they have been isolated from the rest of the Argentinian squad and with the tournament still eight weeks away, the hope is the Pumas will still be able to send a full-strength squad.

To make up for its lack of match practice, Argentina has asked for a couple of warm-up games, with RA likely to organise a match against Australia A and possibly a Super Rugby side — presumably the Waratahs.