New Zealand to consider walking away from Super Rugby at major summit

New Zealand will consider walking away from Super Rugby Pacific and Australia, and replacing the 30-year-old competition with a new 8-10 team domestic league.

The “bombshell proposal”, which was revealed by the Wellington-based Post newspaper on Tuesday, is one of three options contained in a secret document provided to stakeholders ahead of a major New Zealand Rugby summit on Thursday.

The summit, which will see 80 executives from NZR, Super Rugby clubs, provincial unions and the NZ Players Association gather in Wellington, comes as NZR grapples with ways to avoid a looming financial crisis.

It was revealed last week in another secret pre-summit document that the NZR are facing losses of $53 million between 2027-2031, even after the massive windfall of a Lions tour in 2029.

With a “structural deficit” of about $16m a year, NZR is searching for ways to cut costs, and one key area of discussion at the summit will be the future of men’s elite competitions. New Zealand runs five Super Rugby teams and 14 National Provincial Championship teams.

The NZR document proposes three options for discussion: replacing Super Rugby and the NPC with a domestic professional competition; expanding Super Rugby by two more teams; or continuing Super Rugby and the NPC but with Super and NPC entities combined in Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago.

The option to walk away from Australia and Fiji and go it alone is the most explosive item on the agenda, and informed sources with knowledge of the matter said it was put into the document by the 26 provincial unions, who all get a vote as NZR members and are hugely powerful.

The Post reported that the proposal spells out the eight to 10 teams in a national competition would receive up to $8m for player payments and be run by provincial unions. It would open the door for private investment as well, the report said.

Rugby Australia declined to comment on the Post’s report and a potential exit from Super Rugby by the Kiwi sides.

But informed sources with knowledge of both unions said the NZR leadership has made it clear to RA as recently as this week that they remain committed to the trans-Tasman relationship, and to playing in Super Rugby Pacific.

The NZR and RA are one year into a five-year broadcast deal for Super Rugby Pacific, and recent discussions between the two unions have covered the possibility of a 10-team competition expanding into Japan and the US.

But the expansion to be discussed as an option at the NZR summit is adding two extra teams in New Zealand, presumably from two of the stronger provinces. The document says this option would require “Rugby Australia agreement”, according to the Post.

The option to combine the five New Zealand Super Rugby clubs with the provincial unions based in their city would help generate significant savings by eliminating some duplication. The NZR summit, which is an annual event, will consider all proposals before a final position is put to the NZR board in December.