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Recipe for Champions Cup tastes better than Super Rugby right now

(Photos by Hannah Peters/Getty Images and Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

If you like rugby, I can recommend the Champions Cup.

At least in comparison to our upcoming Super Rugby Pacific tournament. Featuring the best of French, South African and British rugby, the Champions Cup is of a high standard, played in front sizable crowds and seems to matter to the participants.

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The reaction of the Bath players and fans to beating Racing 92 the other day was striking.

These weren’t people going through the motions. The Bath team didn’t feature players wishing they’d put a sabbatical in their contract or counting down the minutes until their sabbatical starts.

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One the losing side, star Racing recruit Siya Kolisi looked genuinely crestfallen.

You remember him, right? Same as you would the Stormers and Bulls who, like Kolisi, used to grace our own franchise competition but now play in the Champions Cup.

But fear not, long-suffering fan, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and Rugby Australia (RA) have a plan.

They can’t articulate that plan just yet but promise that, from 2025 on, Super Rugby Pacific will have you on the edge of your seat.

It’s all part of a strategy to put fan engagement at the forefront of their thinking.

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This year’s competition has crept up on NZR and RA, so the 2024 season will look much the same as 2023’s, the two governing bodies announced in December.

They do promise one innovation, though, which is to potentially limit the interference of the Television Match Official and encourage less stoppages and more minutes where the ball is in play.

I’m not against that notion, it’s just that – with all due respect to a few Super Rugby Pacific squads – watching more bad rugby from more inept teams doesn’t really seem a strong selling point.

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The Champions Cup is an elite competition. It involves many of the world’s best players. It’s eight weeks from go to woah, which means that results have consequences.

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In short, it’s pretty much everything that Super Rugby Pacific is not.

Cast your eye towards New Zealand’s 2024 Super Rugby Pacific squads. Look at the names and see how many you recognise and then tally up how many of those blokes you’d actually pay to watch.

The good folk at NZR and RA can come up with all the marketing ideas they like, but it’s good players playing against other good players that engages fans.

I heard a story of a lad named JT the other day. Someone asked what the initials stood for and the bloke prefaced his answer by saying his father was once a fanatical Hurricanes fan.

Turns out the young man’s christian names are Jerry Tana.

That’s fan engagement but, sadly, it probably belongs to an era of Super Rugby we’ll never see the like of again.

It wasn’t novelty that made the early years of Super Rugby compelling and turned players such as Jerry Collins and Tana Umaga into folk heroes.

The competition had a devoted and enthusiastic audience because it featured the very best of New Zealand, Australian and South African rugby.

It’s a recipe that appears to be working in the Champions Cup.

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Comments

9 Comments
R
Red and White Dynamight 352 days ago

Given the totally inept performances by SA teams in SupeRugby, no wonder they ran away to play the renown might of, um, Zebre, Benetton and the woeful Welsh and Scottish teams. URC is the lowest ranked competition in Europe, only Leinster can be considered in the same breath as Super-quality. Despite the lowly ranked opposition, only 2 x SA sides would qualify for the Champions Cup based on current table placings. URC is a massive step down for SA domestic rugby - 4 teams in Super or 2 teams in Champions Cup ?

S
Silk 353 days ago

I followed Supe Rugby from it’s inception back in the day.
When the Bulls, Sharks etc switched to the URC I was apprehensive. I thought the rugby in the URC would be below standard and boring.
I was wrong. The club rugby up North is exceptionally strong.
Forward play is of a much higher standard than SR.
Ball in hand and ball in play is very good. Lots of running rugby.
The SA players that play up North, have drastically improved on all levels.
I enjoy the URC much more than SR.
I find SR boring

W
Wayneo 353 days ago

I haven’t watched even 2 minutes of Super Rugby since covid, and to be honest I have not missed it at all.

The amount of good rugby on tv we now get in SA is astounding and during the EPRC weekends it is an absolute overload that takes you the rest of the week to catch up.

The URC has been enthralling and our participation in the EPRC has been an absolute game changer for SA fans.

With the competition for viewers from the URC, English Premiership, Top14, Champions and Challenge Cups, and their entertainment value, I just can’t see Super Rugby ever getting close to the kind of viewership it was back when SA Rugby was participating.

C
Chris 354 days ago

I miss the old Super 12 days. comp lost appeal when they expanded the teams. Less is more. Cut the dead weight. Fans want to see the best vs best. Plain and simple.

D
Denis 354 days ago

Your opening paragraph, what about Irish clubs. Just a reminder Ireland is not part of Great Britain 😕

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JW 1 hour ago
The Fergus Burke test and rugby's free market

Haha and you've got Alzheimers you old b@astard!


You haven't even included that second quote in your article! Thanks for the share though, as I found a link and I never knew that he would have been first school boy ever to have a contract with NZR if he had of chosen to stay.

n an extraordinary move, Tupou will walk away from New Zealand despite being offered extra money from the NZRU — the only time they have made such an offer to a schoolboy.While Tupou has fielded big-money offers from France and England, he said it was best for him and his family to live in Australia, where his older brother Criff works as a miner and will oversee his career.

Intersting also that the article also says

“They said that ‘if you’re not on a New Zealand passport and you’ve been here for four years, you can play for the team’,” Tupou said.“But I’ve been here for four years and they said I can’t play for the New Zealand A team. It’s not fair. Maybe I’m not good enough to stay here.“But that’s one of my goals this year — to play for the New Zealand A team. If I can play with them, then maybe I’ll change my mind from going to Australia. If I have the chance to play for the All Blacks, I’ll take it.”

And most glaringly, from his brother

Criff Tupou said: “What people should understand is that this in not about what Nela wants, or what I want, but what is best for our poor little family.“Playing rugby for New Zealand or Australia will always come second to our family.“My mum lives in Tonga, she would not handle the weather in New Zealand.“And I have a good job in Australia and can look after Nela.“If things don’t work out for him in rugby, what can he do in New Zealand? He is better off in Australia where I can help him get a job.“New Zealand has more rugby opportunities, but Australia has more work and opportunities, and I need to look after my little brother.“We haven’t signed a contract with anyone, we will wait and see what offers we get and make a decision soon.”

So actually my comment is looking more and more accurate.


It does make you wonder about the process. NZR don't generally get involved too much in this sort of thing, it is down to the clubs. Who where they talking to? It appears that the brother was the one making the actual decisions, and that he didn't see the same career opportunities for Taniela as NZR did, prioritizing the need for day jobs. That is were rugby comes in, I'm sure it would have been quite easy to find Criff much better work in NZ, and I highly suspect this aspect was missed in this particular situation, given the discussions were held at such a high level compared to when work can normally be found for a rugby signing. How might his career have paned out in NZ? I don't really buy the current criticisms that the Aussie game is not a good proving ground for young players. Perhaps you might have a better outlook on that now.


So you TLDR shouldn't be so aggressive when suffering from that alzheimers mate👍


Well I suppose you actually should if you're a writer lol

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