Super Rugby Pacific not looking to cut teams: New Zealand boss
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Rugby Australia chief executive officer Phil Waugh has admitted that his nation's Super Rugby teams lack depth.
PHOTO: AFP
AUCKLAND – Super Rugby Pacific bosses are not looking to cut teams as a way of solving the trans-Tasman competition’s challenges, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) chief Mark Robinson said.
A governance review commissioned by NZR and released in August found the 12-team competition was facing “pressing financial issues” and battling waning fan interest.
Australian teams’ struggles have also been cited as a turn-off for fans, leading to a surfeit of lopsided results. However, Robinson said Super Rugby’s new board was not looking at shoring up the competition by shrinking it.
“We’ve seen in recent times the struggles of clubs in various competitions around the world, and while we have some challenges, we’re not at the stage yet of talking about a reduction of teams,” Robinson told New Zealand media on Dec 11.
The competition expanded to 12 teams in 2022 with the addition of Auckland-based Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua.
Fiji’s first side showed improvement to win six games in the 2023 season but Pasifika, one of six teams based in New Zealand, finished last for a second successive season after managing just one win.
No Australian team have won the Super Rugby since the New South Wales Waratahs in 2014, and only the Canberra-based ACT Brumbies made 2023’s semi-finals out of the nation’s five teams.
“Our performances to date would say we haven’t had the depth throughout five teams. We can field strong 23s, it’s when the depth gets challenged that performances suffer,” Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh said.
“We need to get more creative as to how we back-fill some of those squad depths, and we’re working through that.”
He and Robinson said they had discussed ways to improve Super Rugby at an interim board meeting on Dec 11. Their organisations agreed in 2022 to set up a new board with an independent chair and independent directors to govern the competition.
Chairman Kevin Malloy said the board would look to be more “fan-focused” after years of gripes about stoppages eating into game time and interruptions by television match officials.
He said the board’s immediate priority was securing a good chief executive to be the face of the game.
“We’ll live and die on our ability to hire a crack CEO. It’s a really attractive role, and hasn’t had this level of focus before,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Ireland prop and rugby administrator Syd Millar died on Dec 10 aged 89.
He made his Ireland debut in 1958, winning a total of 37 caps, as well as appearing on three British and Irish Lions tours.
He served as Ireland coach from 1973 till 1975 and led the Lions on an undefeated tour of South Africa in 1974. He also managed the Lions on the 1980 tour and Ireland at the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.
He was chairman of the International Rugby Board, the sport’s global governing body now known as World Rugby, from 2003 to 2007. REUTERS
