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'Disappointed': Ex-All Blacks underwhelmed by inaugural Super Round event
By Sam Smith
A pair of former All Blacks have expressed their disappointment of Super Rugby Pacific’s inaugural Super Round event in Melbourne over the weekend.
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AAMI Park hosted all five of Super Rugby Pacific’s round 10 matches, the first cross-border fixtures of the season between New Zealand and Australian teams, in the first-ever iteration of the Super Round.
Those matches were played in front of half-empty crowds, though, as Super Rugby Pacific attracted a reported figure of only 30,000 attendees across three days of matches.
Concerns have since been raised about public interest in the event, and Super Rugby Pacific as a whole, with All Blacks great Jeff Wilson taking aim at the quality of rugby that was seen in Melbourne from Friday through to Sunday.
Speaking on The Breakdown, Wilson said he was left underwhelmed by the maiden Super Round event, saying it failed to live up to his on-field and off-field expectations.
“I’m disappointed about that, the fact that this was supposed to be a Super Round, there was supposed to be big crowds,” Wilson told The Breakdown.
“The upper tier was empty. I’m assuming they tried to sell tickets for it. I went into this weekend excited, looking forward to the contest.
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“I thought there was a lot of penalties, I thought there was a lot of scrums. Once again, we had ill-discipline. I’m hoping it’s going to improve between all of these sides going forward.”
Wilson’s views were shared by former All Blacks loose forward Steven Bates, who told The Breakdown that Super Rugby Pacific officials should have resorted to giving away free tickets if necessary in order to provide a sell-out spectacle.
“I think as a showpiece for a Super Round, even if you’ve got to give away tickets, this is a showpiece and the stands had to be full,” Bates said.
“They’re trying to make a mark, they’re trying to make an imprint, and you look at the cameras, I was at home and the wife goes, ‘There’s a good crowd’, and the cameras pan out and then you see the top tier.
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“Even if they had to give away tickets, I think they had to, to say ‘We are here, this is a Super Round, look how many people want to watch a game’.”
Melbourne’s poor Super Round turnout paled in comparison to that of the AFL match between Richmond and Melbourne on Sunday evening, which drew a crowd of more than 70,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Melbourne Storm’s annual Anzac Day NRL clash against the Warriors at AAMI Park on Monday is also expected to attract a typically large crowd, illustrating the disparity of interest between rugby union and its rival codes in the Victorian capital.
Nevertheless, Wilson found one positive from the Super Round in the performance of the Fijian Drua, who impressed against the league-leading Blues despite falling to a 35-18 defeat on Saturday evening.
“I did enjoy the Fijian Drua, the way that they played, the enterprise, they took the Blues head on,” Wilson told The Breakdown.
“They weren’t good enough to get a win, but they were the one, for me, highlight out of the weekend in terms of the fact that they were there to compete and they were there to do the best they could, and it wasn’t quite enough.
“Blues, though, showed the signs of a really, really good team.”
When will the kiwis stop moaning about rugby audiences/ quality in Aus? The sheer stupidity of these statements in the same article as “70,000 for AFL” and what turned out to be a near sell out for NRL powerhouse Melbourne Storm who posses enough talent to power 2 NRL teams.
Australia is THE MOST COMPETITIVE WINTER SPORTS MARKET IN THR WORLD… Jon O’Neill circa 2006 (ish?)
Here’s the thing; we know our teams aren’t what they were, we know the spectacle wasn’t what it should be… but you know what, the big growth market IS Australia. If NZ is keen to see this product improve then they need to accept AFL and NRL are their biggest competitors now. Grow up boys, you were a big fish in a small pond and now the tide has turned… perhaps you could think about a system which moves your abundance of talent around the teams ( a super draft anyone?) You’d get improved rugby and better product to sell whilst staving off a European/ Japanese interest and player stays in SH for All Blacks Selection.
I mean, what’s the alternative to SR Pacific? Where does NZ go? Japan? Unlikely b/c as much as the Japanese are improving the quality argument doesn’t stack up. South Africa made their move north and it seems to be a better fit for them. So if you agree that geography will play a major part in this scenario, then the kiwi has better start thinking about this in collaboration with RA because if SR doesn’t pan out, they’ll find NZ is a pretty long way from everywhere else on the planet…..
Get real. I go to Melbourne often and have sat in many a bar in Melbourne watching rugby on a small screen in the corner while the throngs watched an AFL game on the big screen. Rugby is a minor sport there, however I though it was a great weekend of rugby and the crowd numbers about what could be expected. The joyousness of the Fijian women's win was much more worth talking about than all of the rest of this whinging
Why in the hell would the powers that be ever think that having the event in Melbourne where rugby is, at best, a 4th market sport, behind AFL, The Storm and two soccer teams. It was a poor business decision and did the games and the sport no favours. Wake up SANZAAR.
How about let cities bid to host the super round d...Melbourne was never a good choice anyway...sydney or Brisbane would have seen bigger crowds...even eden park or Suva could have had a bigger crowd for the three days....it would be better for cities to bid to host the super round
Crusaders skill level deplorable!
The problem with rugby is the referee's, their performances have been substandard, and well below the quality of referee's in Northern Hemisphere. Until Rugby Referee Unions In NZ, SA, and Australia can put potential Referees through a schooling system that teaches referees how to referee a game of rugby instead of how to coach player's, which is a coaches job.
Biggest complaint about the game, warranted or not, is that it's slow or takes too long. So the gameplan is to cram 3-4 matches a day into one venue and sell tickets to that? Puzzling. Union (worldwide) needs help and I really don't know what that help looks like.
It was so dull - all the games. Lack of quality - slow - no atmosphere. How many times did the crusaders drop the ball? Tackling optional. It’s better watching northern rugby - and that’s bloody awful. Rugby needs to sort its product out.
55,000 spectators watched the Stormers beat Glasgow Warriors in Cape Town stadium.
Idiotic place for a super round. Should have been in Brisbane if you wanted a crowd.