Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Trans-Tasman competition being discussed by Super Rugby officials amid coronavirus pandemic

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

A mooted Australasian Super Rugby competition is being discussed by Super Rugby officials as one of various options to resurrect the suspended season.

ADVERTISEMENT

A potential tournament involving New Zealand and Australian sides – and possibly the Sunwolves out of Japan – has emerged as a focal point for officials.

There have long been calls for New Zealand and Australia to break away from the status quo and turn Super Rugby into an Asia-Pacific-based competition rather than a southern hemisphere tournament.

Video Spacer

Isolation Nation | Episode 4| Jordie Barrett, Ardie Savea and more.

Video Spacer

Isolation Nation | Episode 4| Jordie Barrett, Ardie Savea and more.

Two-time World Cup-winning Wallabies midfielder Tim Horan said on Saturday that the ANZAC nations should tap into the Asian market rather than persist with the unfavourable time zones of South Africa and Argentina.

Brumbies chief executive Phil Thomson has since doubled down on those comments, indicating to the Canberra Times that a trans-Tasman format could help revitalise waning interest in the 15-man code in Australia.

“We’re probably focusing more on a domestic trans-Tasman competition, but at this stage, the Super Rugby competition is still being looked at in its entirety because it’s such an unknown,” he said.

“I think if you get towards October, that’s getting too late. October is probably a crunch date. There is lots of modelling of competitions going on about when we might be able to start again if the government and health authorities make that possible.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The thing to take into account here with us is that our competition is an international competition and what that might look like. It depends on what the border situation is as we go through the next few months.”

Rival code rugby league has set a return date of May 28 via Australia’s NRL competition, but it’s unlikely rugby union will follow suit so swiftly.

As it stands, both Super Rugby and international fixtures remain very much up in the air for the remainder of this year, with border restrictions threatening to scupper all action throughout the forthcoming months.

“There’s a lot of other things you have got to take into account. We’ve got test match commitments with the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere, and look at how you can get that content rolling again.”

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
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?

4 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
Search