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Just when it was starting to get really interesting, the 2016 Super Rugby season was benched for a month to accommodate various international tours. Jamie Wall explains why this is actually a win-win and not the massive pain in the arse many see it as.
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Rugby fans love a good whinge, and rarely find themselves short of material. From refereeing (probably fair) to whether the players should wear their socks up (utterly ludicrous) there’s always something to grumble about, but never more so than in June when the Super Rugby season is rudely interrupted by a month-long international break.
This does seem like an awfully long time to interrupt an annual pro sports competition. So who is at fault here?
Suspect 1: The Northern Hemisphere. Easy target here, given that their season doesn’t run the same timeline as ours so this is the only time they can fit it in. However, a quick glance at the history books will tell you that they’ve been coming here at this time forever, so it’s nothing new.
Suspect 2: Super Rugby itself. Not that long ago, Super Rugby would wrap itself up just in time for the test season to begin. Now, it’s expanded so far that its bloated schedule needs to be carved up in order to fit these tests in. It’s not going to stop getting any bigger, either.
Suspect 3: The All Blacks. The current World Champions haven’t lost a June test match since 2009, or a series since 1994. So is it too hard to get excited about these tests, given that it will be a complete forgone conclusion?
Suspect 4: No one. So what if Super Rugby gets interrupted, we get to watch the best players get together and strut their stuff. So what if it’s a walkover, that’s why the All Blacks are the best. So what if the Northern Hemisphere can’t get their act together, just means we get to see more tries.
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It’s also probably important to look at the state of the international game and realise that rugby union has got it pretty good. While the results might be (on paper at least) a foregone conclusion, these are historical rivals playing a meaningful series of tests.
Contrast that to other popular sports in this part of the world. Rugby League’s Four Nations tournament is working alright but even then that’s only every two years. Plus they can’t even schedule the ANZAC test on ANZAC Day (not that it matters anymore).
International play in football is very much confined to continental championships and World Cups, everything else is called a ‘friendly’. Cricket plays so many ODIs and T20’s it’s almost become meaningless. Netball has only two competitive international teams. AFL had to invent a whole new sport just to get some sort of international presence.
Besides, a break in Super Rugby will give the fringe players a bit of a rest for when the business end starts up again – as we’ve seen in the last couple of years, it makes for a much better finals series. Next gripe, please.
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