And the winner should be … Melbourne
I SPENT a very pleasant couple of days in Melbourne last week talking to Victorian Rugby Union president Gary Gray and Sports Minister James Merlino about why Melbourne should be considered for the next Super franchise. It was hard to find fault in their reasoning.
The disappointment when Perth gained the previous franchise licence has galvanised the Victorian community. The new stadium, built specially for rugby union, league and soccer, will be amazing. It's in the heart of Melbourne, perhaps the world's most sports-mad city. The MCG is across the road and the Rod Laver Arena around the corner.
Merlino said of the development: "This is undoubtedly one of the premier sporting precincts in the world. Now we're building a purpose-built rectangular stadium, which will be an iconic stadium for Melbourne and Australia. Once this is up and running it's going to be a revelation. As far as sports go, this is the market to be in. This is the biggest market."
I agree. Elite rugby must come to Melbourne. It will finally nationalise rugby in Australia.
Melbourne has a successful track record in delivering stunning success in rugby, including a then world record crowd of more than 90,000 for the 1997 Bledisloe Cup at the MCG. Every rugby game staged in Melbourne has been a huge success. Even last year's Ireland Test was a successful revenue-raising game, and we've also seen record-breaking crowds for the Commonwealth Games Sevens. The city has a huge rugby expat population from New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and South Pacific, and with the Victorian Government behind the venture, it will work.
Victoria's rugby history goes back a century. It has produced many current Super 14 players, notably Tamaiti Horua (Force), Christian Lealiifano, John Ulugia (Brumbies) and Digby Ioane (Reds), and former players such as Lloyd Johansson (Reds). Even Ewen McKenzie learnt his trade in Melbourne.
In the 1970s Victorian rugby was strong. For the 1966-67 tour of the UK, Victoria supplied three Wallabies: Ross Tulloch, Dick Webb and Paul Gibbs. And the renowned surgeon of the Changi Japanese prisoner of war camp, Edward "Weary" Dunlop, represented the Wallabies from Melbourne.
A big challenge will be putting a team together. The Melbourne Rebels showed through their success in the Australian Rugby Championship that Victoria can produce good teams.
No doubt there will be issues over the dilution of talent from the other Australian teams. However, the word from Melbourne is that a 32-man squad could well be split between 16 players from the South Pacific and 16 from Australia. This would be a great step forward for the Islands, as it would drive development and also give their elite players a great option.
Australian talent has been stretched by the four teams but this proposal for a Melbourne team would keep most people happy.
At the development level, Gray says, the VRU's rugby academy centre of excellence would ensure a new stream of local players.
Possibly the greatest threat to this new franchise will come not from Australia, but from our SANZAR partners. SANZAR has two options. The first is to expand the Super competition to 15 teams, with every team playing each other once and a second round of games against home-country teams. That would total 18 games, plus finals.
Option two is to expand the competition but protect domestic competitions by playing just 14 games. It will be difficult to get consensus as there are now cracks appearing among the SANZAR partners.
The New Zealand Rugby Union's Steve Tew, who is responsible for putting the project together, summarised it nicely by saying that Australia are looking for expansion and wanting more and more product, South Africa are desperate to protect their Currie Cup competition and New Zealand are somewhere in between, although they want to protect their provincial competition.
Australia want to expand because we have no domestic competition. South Africa want desperately to protect the Currie Cup because during their years of isolation, this competition was everything to them. The New Zealanders want the National Provincial Cup to stay strong but are also interested in expanding the Super competition.
Tew's words will worry Australia - he said New Zealand were probably closer to the South African stance than to that of Australia.
Option one, Australia's preference, might be asking for too much. Option two might keep everyone happy and still pave the way for a Melbourne team, as well as the possibility for resurrection of Australia's ARC.
The expanded competition would make it an even split of five teams from each country but it would also serve to help the South Pacific countries, an issue SANZAR has been grappling with for years.
Whichever ways it goes, it's hard to deny Melbourne's bid for a team. They are ready and I have no doubt they would be a huge success. It would be the final piece in the puzzle for Australian rugby.
John Connolly was a guest of the Victorian Rugby Union
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...e#contentSwap1
