‘Stronger than ever’: Waugh confident about future of Super Rugby despite Kiwi exit talk

Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh says the partnership with New Zealand Rugby is “stronger than ever” and he remains confident it will stay that way, despite Kiwi rugby officials discussing the option of walking away from Super Rugby at a summit in Wellington on Thursday.

Waugh responded on Friday to a week of revelations this week ahead of the New Zealand rugby summit, which saw stakeholders gather in the Kiwi capital to discuss ways to cut costs in their men’s elite competitions.

According to leaked briefing documents, New Zealand Rugby is forecasting losses of $53 million over the next five years unless cost savings are made, and one of three options proposed for the future is shutting Super Rugby and the NPC and starting up a new 8-10 team professional competition inside New Zealand.

The radical proposal was put onto the summit agenda by the 26 provincial unions, who are a powerful entity in New Zealand Rugby given they’re all voting members. The other options put forward for discussion at the summit were adding two more Kiwi teams to Super Rugby, or merging the Super Rugby and NPC entities in each major city.

Asked on NewsTalkZB if scrapping Super Rugby and the NPC was a realistic option, NZR chief executive Steve Lancaster said: “You can form your own views on whether it’s realistic or not, but what we have done with all of our stakeholders – and … 33 stakeholder groups were represented – is we have discussed a whole range of options, we’ve sought views on those and now we’ll take away all of those views and inputs and evaluate which options we think have merit to consider further and which ones don’t.

“We don’t want to take anything off the table without having had a good look at it. But what I do want to say is that the game is in really good heart right now. This is not about being in any sort of crisis where we have to fix things and fix the emergency.”

The NZR board will make a call on which option to pursue in December, and perhaps crucially, the provincial unions will not vote on it unless they see fit to call an extraordinary general meeting.

Waugh said he had been kept up to date by his NZR counterparts and he was confident there would be no change to the “stronger together” mantra both unions have held for many years.

“From our end, the relationship with New Zealand Rugby and their executive, and across our chairs and boards, is as strong as I’ve ever seen it whilst I’ve been involved in administration,” Waugh said.

“Both unions realise coming together and working together for the growth of the game, and the success of the game across our regions, is the most important objective of both our unions.

“So I’m really optimistic as to the future of the relationship, and about working with New Zealand Rugby to maximise the benefit and the legacy of the Rugby World Cup next year, and then how we work forward on all elements, including Super [Rugby].

“We certainly see it as a major partnership. Whilst we’ll battle it out fiercely for the 80 minutes on the field, off the field we’ve got such a competitive environment for the sport that we need to work together to ensure that we’re maximising the opportunity we have to grow the game and engage fans.”

Waugh said he understood the value of the New Zealand rugby summit, and connecting with all levels of the game.

“We’re very pleased with the conversations we’ve been having with New Zealand Rugby, and obviously we are very conscious they’ve got a stakeholder group as well, similar to us having a stakeholder group,” Waugh said.

“One of our biggest objectives has been connection from club to country, and they’ve got some similar ambitions around the connection from their community clubs right through to the professional teams, and a big part of their engagement with their constituents is very much around exactly that question of how does the game all come together to maximise the opportunity we have ahead of us?”

Officials from the trans-Tasman unions and representatives of Super Rugby recently came together in Sydney to discuss the future of the battling competition, which has shown decent health in markers like viewership, but also sees most clubs lose money every year.

Changing frameworks to create an “open border” competition is a strong consideration – meaning Australian and New Zealand players could play in either country and still be Test eligible. There is also a growing call for the more seismic change of RA and NZR relinquishing control of Super Rugby, and making it more attractive for private investment.

Waugh said he would always be “open-minded” and listen to any idea to boost Super Rugby.

“The real opportunity for us is how do we grow Super, and how do we engage with Australians and expats offshore to really engage in rugby at that provincial level? And New Zealand have exactly the same opportunity,” he said.

“So we’re working with them to maximise that, and we’ve got a very, very open mind because ultimately it’s around what’s the best outcome for rugby. If there’s a better solution than the path we’re on then of course we’ll explore that.

“But as I said, from the conversations we’ve been having with New Zealand, we’re really optimistic around what the future of Super Rugby.”

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.