Southern hemisphere rugby risks fading into irrelevance

The new chief executive of SANZAAR arrives at a time when the body which controls southern hemisphere rugby needs to start reasserting itself against the northern giants.

Argentina’s Tomas Cubelli in action during a Western Force training session

The former Queensland Reds chief operations officer Brendan Morris has taken over the reins as chief executive of SANZAAR at a time when the body which controls southern hemisphere rugby needs to start reasserting itself.

With rugby money increasingly concentrated in the northern hemisphere – with Australian, New Zealand, South African and Argentinian players all key targets for cashed-up European clubs – SANZAAR risks fading into irrelevance if it stands by idly.

Morris, who went from Ballymore to SANZAAR as chief operations officer under Andy Marinos and then to the CEO’s role once Marinos had moved over to Rugby Australia as replacement for Rob Clarke, has taken over the top job at a time when Australia and NZ might be effectively Covid-free but with the global pandemic still raging in the rest of the hemisphere.

The Super Rugby component has largely been taken out of SANZAAR’s hands, with Australia and NZ both forced to run domestic competitions for most of the provincial season, with Argentina forced to farm its Pumas out across the world.

The Western Force has been quick to snap up four key players – Tomas Cubelli, Santiago Medrano, Tomas Lezana and Domingo Miotti are moving to Perth for the Super Rugby AU season.

Indications are that the trans-Tasman competition might require some tweaking, given that NZ quarantine regulations still require players to go into isolation. But Morris told the NZ media there was also a good possibility Australia could again host a centralised Rugby Championship if that became necessary.

“Australia did a fantastic job at short notice,” Morris said. “Commercially, it ended up pretty good in terms of match-day revenue.”

He hinted that the July Test window was in danger of being cancelled by World Rugby, which throw RA’s plans for the year into a spin. It has budgeted on France, the rising power in Europe, coming to Australia for three Tests and there seems no reason why that should not continue to happen, especially if Les Bleus are prepared to go into two weeks of isolation.

Meanwhile, the Wallaroos have been given their assignment for the World Cup later this year and could not have asked for a more demanding first up opponent, playing hosts New Zealand at their Eden Park fortress in the tournament opener on September 18.

Their remaining matches of what is regarded as the toughest pool are against a qualifier nation on September 23 and then the critical clash against Wales on September 28. Both matches will be played at the Northland Event Centre. The knockout phase begins on October 3.

“The inclusion of the quarter-finals is something which will again give the girls more game time and ewe welcome that,” said Wallaroos coach Dwayne Nestor.

“However, our aim isn’t to make it to the quarter-finals: we want to be the last side standing at the end.”

In other news, the Brumbies played an internal trial in the rain in Canberra on Friday ahead of their Super Rugby AU trial against the Force at Viking Park on February 6.