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Ditch Super Rugby? Ex-All Black's sensational alternative for Australia and New Zealand

Andrew Mehrtens and Justin Marshall

Australia and New Zealand must separate from South Africa and Argentina and push into Asia says All Blacks legend Andrew Mehrtens.

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The legendary flyhalf believes that to exit Super Rugby and creating a new competition across Asia would reduce the problem of Australian and Kiwi Super Rugby franchises losing their young talent to clubs in the UK, Europe and Japan.

According to ESPN, Mehrtens stated it was time the current competition was disbanded and a new tournament created comprising teams from Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

“Going forward if we push into Asia, if we can develop a competition that’s in the same timezone I think it’s going to be a better product,” the former All Blacks flyhalf said. “I’ve said for a long time, we need to drop South Africa – as much as I love South Africa – logistically it’s a pain in and the same with Argentina.

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“Argentina needs to go up their timezone with the USA; South Africa go probably start developing franchises in Dubai or somewhere there, but I think our push is into Asia.”

He added: “We’re up against big Northern Hemisphere economies in Europe and England, so Australia being strong as a rugby brand is important to New Zealand as well. Australia has a bigger economic footprint into Asia and I’m fully of the belief that’s our future getting into that market there and helping develop that.

“If we push into Asia I think at that point New Zealand rugby has got to say ‘well OK, we’re going to allow our players to play offshore so long as they play in our competition’. If they don’t go to France, they don’t to England or Ireland or whatever; so long as they stay in our competition and it brings teams in this new market for rugby, eventually they’re going to have to face facts and still select them.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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