_Os_ wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:16 pm
The actual issue is World Rugby wants the sport to "grow". So where does Japan end up? Japan asked to join the RC and 6N (obviously the 6N idea immediately died and is now forgotten, but it did happen). If the RC tanks rugby will actually shrink, SANZAAR cannot run the show without money (telling that Super Rugby in its current form does not include any Japanese sides, despite the Aussies being really keen on the idea in previously, which hints at NZ calling the shots in Super Rugby now).
So where does Japan go?
The issue with Super rugby I see is that Covid and travel restrictions rammed home the message to the unions that their globe straddling, conference embracing engineered finals model was obsolete and unworkable...
no-one kicked anyone out. While borders were closed in Australia and NZ, those two countries held their own domestic comps involving their Super rugby sides. RA even reanimated the corpse of the Force after stabbing the poor thing to death with whatever they could find for years.
The SA teams had been talking for years about going to Europe and they went.
In the aftermath, NZR and RA were left with a choice in how they rebuilt a viable comp and that has turned into an endless dickswinging exercise led by Robinson in NZ who manages to make wiping his arse look too difficult, and Maclennan in Aus who seems to belong to that cohort of Sydneysiders whose delusions of grandeur regarding their incestuous little rugby shitpile is measured by how abusive they can be towards NZ and NZers in the name of having a good time on the harbour. The fact that NZ generated a substantial broadcast rights deal on its own and RA only managed to scrape up some left over chicken feed has rankled deeply and much of the posturing out of Sydney is resentment driven.
They're both wankers and the current Super Rugby format, with a hyperbolic 'Super' super round featuring all games held in Melbourne FFS to try and present a quivering lower lip to the sporting juggernaut that is the start of the AFL and NRL seasons
IN Australia is a shiny testament to the small minded battle for territorial ego strut they've got the whole shitfight locked into.
There are mutterings about Japan joining an expanded RC. There is still a possibility the club scene in Japan could be drawn into Super rugby somehow and the clubs have shifted their strategies around hiring overseas players so that short, single season contracts are no longer available and contracted players must commit to two years at least... they are definitely looking to improve their domestic product.
Where NZ could have gone with this before getting locked into the shitfight with RA was out into the Pacific. The money from the Silverlight deal could help fund an expansion that includes Japan and the Island teams with en eye on the Western seaboard of the Americas. That looks unlikely while they're embroiled in a shitty abusive relationship with Australia.
As for Argentina... the South American nations do hold a comp and there is a definite appetite for rugby there. Instead of forcing this fiasco of a Global League Wankfest onto everyone, WR could be providing pathways for that comp to develop and provide a serious support for Argentina's need to retain players. I would prefer to see a SH comp that brings all of those teams into the frame or even better, a Pacific comp.
