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The Australian Rugby Union can’t be allowed to wait until the foreman of the SANZAAR jury announces that one of Australia’s Super Rugby franchises must die.
It’s too late by then and all the hand-wringing in the world won’t save the franchise doomed for execution. Almost certainly the candidate has already been chosen — Western Force.
If you accept the inherent logic that prevails these days, it makes sense. The Force aren’t as valuable to the ARU as the other four franchises. Seemingly the original three — NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and the Brumbies — have been exempt from the ballot, though the Brumbies’ position at the moment is precarious and both NSW and Queensland have been bailed out by the ARU, NSW twice.
So as long as Melbourne are a committed long-term player under present owner Andrew Cox, they have the population, the viewing audience and the money to survive. Cox yesterday issued this statement to The Australian: “We’re very excited with what we achieved this season and 100 per cent committed to being a long-standing member of the Super Rugby fraternity.”
I’m sure Cox won’t mind overly if I suggest the late Mandy Rice-Davies would have been familiar with that type of quote. Cox almost certainly is here for the long-haul but even if he didn’t intend to be, he still would have released that statement.
So that puts the Force in the hot seat with SANZAAR expected to make a decision in November on what will happen for the 2018 season. They were already too far down the path of planning for next year to make changes immediately. Indeed, the 2017 draw will be released today.
And 2019 is World Cup year and there doesn’t need to be further disruption. So if the integrity problems SANZAAR had with its Super Rugby format — where teams play only some of their opponents during the course of the regular season — are to be addressed, then 2018 is it.
Of course, SANZAAR might decide to do absolutely nothing or virtually nothing. Its chief executive Andy Marinos doesn’t see the current competition as being fatally flawed so a bit of tweaking might suffice.
And the first thing to be changed is the idea of awarding each conference winner a place in the finals. If a franchise can’t make it into an eight-team playoff on its own merits, then it simply shouldn’t be there. If that means Australia or South Africa go without a finalist for a year or two, then so be it. It’s utterly unfair to ask teams that finished higher than a conference winner to give up home ground advantage. New Zealand surely would be the winner under this scheme and while their teams are playing as they are, they deserve to be.
Until this year, the Force were completely self-sustaining. They cost the ARU nothing. The Force even paid their set-up costs of $2 million, with a loan from the WA government, repaid within two and a half years. Each year it contributed about $1m to community rugby. But now that the well has run dry, they are suddenly being held to account for their failure to deliver on the field.
Let’s look at that … the short answer is that their roster is below standard. Until now, Australia have looked at this problem in isolation, as a problem affecting only Australia. But as Marinos made clear yesterday, the problem of the competition is a SANZAAR-wide problem, so why not embrace a SANZAAR-wide solution?
Instead of having an Australian draft, the ARU should persuade NZ and South Africa to embrace a system-wide draft — at a predetermined date any unsigned players, be they Kiwi, South African, Australian, Pacific Islander, should be free to register for a three-nation draft. Almost certainly, it would be New Zealanders drafted onto the Force or the Cheetahs, but it also could be white South Africans squeezed out by the quota system.
The Kiwis would undoubtedly complain but if Graham Henry is going to make comments that NZ need a strong Australia, then let’s take him at his word. Talent identification is pretty much a science in NZ, but it is possible a potential All Black could end up in the draft and in another country. The answer is simple: allow him to represent NZ if he is good enough.
Watch the Mitre 10 Cup — as the ITM Cup used to be — for a matter of minutes and it becomes clear how many Super Rugby-standard players are going to waste. The whole world stands in awe of the All Blacks and how they are playing but it can’t be sustained. Unless other sides rise to challenge them, their standard will fall. It’s in everyone’s interest for a system-wide draft to succeed.
As for those who complain that foreigners will take the place of potential Wallabies, surely it’s better to have 80 per cent of something than 100 per cent of nothing.
It may take some time for a draft to work. The AFL experience is that even with the No 1 draft pick, it can still take five years to turn a side around, sometimes longer. That means the ARU has to keep the Force alive for some time, by hook or crook. If all else fails, allow the Force to play as a member of the South African conference while their place is taken by Japan. After all, the reason for adopting the conference system in the first place was that it allowed expansion vertically, so why is it Japan are having to play in the SA conference, five time zones removed?
But the main concern, for Australians, is the survival of the Force. Reorganising the competition this way would enable one conference of 10 teams — five Kiwis, four Australian and Japan — and another of eight — the six existing South African sides, Argentina and the Force.
This is only an exercise in buying time. If SANZAAR wants to rationalise by getting even bigger — there is strong rumour of Georgia wanting to join if the Six Nations continue to oppose their admission — then that can all be done when the broadcast deal ends in 2020. But there is a reek of death in the air in Perth and the ARU needs to marshal all its negotiating skills to keep the Grim Reaper at bay.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...6aea0c77c19cc1