Signs of hope for Super Rugby reboot as Fox ponders broadcast deal

There are finally some signs of optimism among Australia’s Super Rugby franchises in efforts to reboot 2020 season.

Rugby Australia director of rugby Scott Johnson. Picture: AAP

There were hushed warnings about not counting chickens, but the phone hook-up of Rugby Australia CEO Rob Clarke with the existing four franchise bosses on Thursday took place against a backdrop of hope that a deal could be done with Fox Sports for the Super Rugby AU season.

It is fair to say Australian rugby’s worst nightmare at the moment is that Fox will look disapprovingly at its plans to reboot the 2020 season with a 12-week domestic Super Rugby Lite competition starting in July and decide not to broadcast the matches.

But, while cautioning patience at every turn, Clarke was able to reassure the Super Rugby chief executives that RA’s meeting with Fox Sports in Sydney earlier this week had been characterised by “positive discussions”. He stressed further talks were necessary but, for Super Rugby executives who have been bombarded with bad news lately, it was the first briefing in quite some time that left them smiling.

Rugby back on Fox Sports means the broadcast dollars, cut off after the Brumbies played the Waratahs in Canberra on March 15, might soon be flowing again. And that means the difference between paying workers — both players and administrative staff — or not.

There still is the far bigger hurdle of the 2021-25 broadcast cycle negotiations to come but rugby at present is very much about ticking off one problem after another. Securing the commitment of the Western Force to the makeshift competition was very much a significant tick but even so the whole domestic series still hinges on Fox coming to the party.

Certainly RA is doing everything in its power to make the competition package as attractive as possible to broadcasters by introducing some progressive law interpretations, and perhaps even some progressive new laws.

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“We should have things a little more clear next week,” said RA’s director of rugby, Scott Johnson. “I just want to check with World Rugby. They talk that we can trial a few things but I want to know what those boundaries are. When you consider that New Zealand is not changing (the laws) very much in their (competition) … they want the law applied and we are all for the law being applied. So, with the scrum, get in and do it as the law says.

“We would like to bring in the line drop-out for when a player is held up over the tryline or forcing the ball in goal. We’d like to look at those things that add a new dimension to the game, so little things like that.

“We are about tweaking the game but a lot of the big stuff we have planned is opening the game up to broadcasters off the field. We are just cognisant of the fact that we play the All Blacks four times this year and we need to be pretty close to what the end product will be.”

But that still leaves plenty of scope within the existing laws for referees cracking down on time wasting. And by making coaches available to the commentators at any moment in the game, not just at pre-planned crosses, it should make the match far more viewer-friendly for the broadcasters.