How to FIX Super Rugby!

Super Rugby is no longer the premier Rugby competition in the World! But here at The Sports Booth, we wanted to first understand why, and then see if we could get it back to the top!

Have a watch of us explain how we would get the Super Rugby brand to be the biggest competition in the world.

If you enjoy what you see please don't forget to like and subscribe, also chuck as a comment and let us know what you think!

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#rugby #superrugby

[usarugbyleagueunionfan]

Seeing the Fijian Drua crowd made me shed a tear. That atmosphere was one of the best I’ve ever seen. That’s great for Super Rugby. Up the Tahs!

[MichaeldeSousaCruz]

My word, where do I start… I’m just going to get straight to the point. First, I’ve been disenchanted by Rugby at the moment, so my comments come from someone who was obsessed watching any and every game I could, to not bothering unless it’s USA or Portugal national teams (of which I’m absolutely devastated by what happened in the Repechage). So here we go…

Second, the fix? Play in smaller stadiums. Simple. It looks like shit on screen with empty stadiums. Simple fix.

Third, 12 is a fine number of teams. Clubs have got to reach out to locals and INVITE them to come, give out free tickets even or $1 tickets. My saying, “An empty seat costs more than a free ticket.”

Fourth, do more off the field than on the field. Literally, go get the fans, the players, the coaches, the owners, go get the people, come to them, get in that community. You can only give lip service so long to calling Rugby a “community game”, and not even bother to go out into the community. If all you concentrate is on training, lifting weights, building muscle and winning, then you will lose on all categories, especially in the community.

Fifth, remember the saying “a rugby game broke out at a brawl.” Yeah, that’s it, that’s what this is all about, the Rugby has always been secondary to everything else going on on and off the pitch. If you concentrate on the rugby, then you will lose. Simple. So, people used to go to rugby games in the past because they wanted “the biff”. Ok fine, brawling is “out of fashion” these days. So, make another event. “A rugby game broke out at a Food Festival”. “A rugby game broke out at a Music Festival”. Whatever! The Rugby is secondary, the main event is everything else. For us in the USA, it’s the Tailgating that gets us at the games. Have you ever just randomly walked around and shared a beer with a complete stranger outside a stadium, or have someone yell at you to come over and try their best in the world barbecue chicken, a burger or sausage and peppers? Or give your kid a Football to take and keep? This is the stuff that makes a sport a success, it has nothing to do with what’s on the field.

Look your whole video is about tinkering with names and places. It’s fun, I’ve done this too, but this is not the solution. It’s everything that matters.

[rubesjames]

Love the amount of effort put into this, thanks so much.
I feel like it’s pretty confusing though. I would prefer keeping Super Rugby Pacific as it is however having a tier 2 competition where the five Aussie teams (pretty much the existing team’s B teams) play each other and the New Zealand NPC teams.

*edit: I also think super rugby is poorly promoted, like even the name doesn’t make much sense, wouldn’t it be better to call it the Pacific Rugby Championship or something? Just so your average viewer immediately understands what the go is?

[henrygordon]

Good idea to include the Southern Africans (South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe), I don't think you'll get the Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions, that ship has sailed. In a few years those teams will be making good money in Europe and hopefully with some of the SA talent returning, SA will be quite competitive in the Champions Cup. The other South African teams are fair game. There's good talent in the Cheetahs, Pumas, Griquas and Griffons. They don't compete in the URC but are still giving the bigger franchises a proper challenge in the Currie Cup. The key problem is that NZR wants most of the money, and I think the other unions are tired of it. Considering the tiny population of NZ, with a viewership of 1.3M vs a 34M viewership in South Africa, there's no way that SARU will get in bed again with NZR. NZ Rugby is top quality, but if the NZR bosses don't start sharing the wealth, you might soon be on your own, or perhaps in a league with Japanese teams.

[titoelcolombiano]

Townsville v Asia 4 in front of 200 people on a Wednesday night will surely turn the game around 🤣🤣🤣

[chrismia]

I think you missed some key points. South Africa brought in 70% of the revenue to Super rugby from 1993-2018 and shared this equally with Aus and NZ 1/3 each.
NZ got a huge sponsor but did not want to share the revenue with SA or Aus so NZ kicked SA out of Super rugby. The Kiwis needed to keep SR relevant so they kept Aus because they knew Aus had zero bargaining power having sapped the greatest share of revenues they did not bring in for years. Aus also has next to zero revenues to bring so NZ would be all powerful. SA would be able to say hey, for 26 years we funded SR and shared equally with you so hang on mate, 1/3 that revenue is ours - and the Saffas would be correct. NZ definitely did not want to share when it was their turn so here we are. SR is broken and bleeding cash and it ain’t going to get fixed, all because of NZR greed and lack or fair play.

[michaelcampbell]

I wish Super Rugby was a Champions league. Each country has its own domestic league like NPC and Curry cup and Aussie Provincial Championship and maybe a combined Pacific/Asia League and maybe North and south America League, with each league would have a double round robin or if you have 2 pools in each league have double round robin in the pool with single games against the other teams. The top 4 or 5 from each league go into 4 to 8 groups of 4 or 5 and compete in a Champions league.

If a double round robin is the way to go you could do a 10 to 14 team NPC 18 game season or 26 games a season + top 4 finals or if split into pools 18 or 19 or whatever the number game season + top 2 finals in each pool. Champions get some sort of advantage in a Super League.

Champions league each Pool plays each other twice which would be 6 to 8 games depending on the size of the pool + Finals. There would be the sameish amount of games the Rugby players would play a season. If things are Geographic, then travel will be limited. And the Champions League format could open up to spinoff events like a preseason 7's tourney in lieu of Super Rounds. It would have more Tribalism amongst local fans, the games would have extra importance, More games of importance to sell to broadcasters like Sky and Super Sports and Foxtel, and the leagues themselves could compete with the AFL and NRL because risk can be divided between the leagues and its teams meaning if some teams fail you could still have a strong product to sell.

It could be a tool for soft diplomacy internationally Governments invest in the Pacific through Sports. I do know it is an ambitious idea. But I would like to see it from a simple Chiefs and Mooloos supporter.

[Davidsohn-lv]

This is exactly what killed Australian Rugby, spreading the little talent that you have into too many teams leaves you open and finding no working combinations for tests.

[feijoatree]

RA missed the boat on turning this into a rival comp to the NRL and AFL in the early days of SR. Samoa, Fiji, Tonga on their door step, could've absorbed the best talent into teams like the Force and Rebels, even another team like Adelaide. Yet still let them represent their Island nations. What you want is a strong fan base with a large population, so pretty much capital cities of Australian states. Moana should've just been the second Auckland team with relaxed representation rules for poly players thru out NZ teams. You negate the biggest factor in this, which is economics. You want to follow the NFL/NBA model, the best players playing in a single comp, building the franchise brand.

[AlphanumetriX]

Mate the champions league concept is absolutely the way to go, with Australia, NZ, SA, Japan etc. I've thought that for years. BUT, your thesis has one flaw in my opinion... toooo many teams and too many games!. I think the solution is less pointless games. Separate all the counties, play each other twice, establish a champion based on point, 1 team from each competition goes to the super rugby championship, and play off for supremely. Every game's high stakes, every point counts. There's not enough talent for a second division with Adelaide and whatever, the wallabies can hardly feild a squad. Punch the game up not down! Any way, I'd love to hear your rebuttal. 😊

[erinaporter]

They definitely won't adopt any system that cut out quarter finals, they want 3 weeks of finals because finals are the most watched games of the season.

[joeschannel]

My two cents:

Super rugby should be two divisions of 7 (14 teams total) so each team plays every team in their division twice (12 games total) with promotion relegation from division 1 to division 2. Sydney could definitely have two teams with one playing at Leichhardt Oval and the other at Brookvale Oval. Maybe another team in Queensland, central coast or Adelaide???


Most importantly players with super rugby contracts should be able to play for ANY team. I'm sure most Kiwis don't watch the Aussie derby's and vice versa, but if kiwi players were playing for the Aussie teams we would all tune in more (plus I miss Pete Samu at the Crusaders and I wish he could have stayed and played for Aussie as well). Australia also has a depth problem and that gap could be filled with NZ players. NZ players who want to make the abs but are struggling for game time have more than 5 options and could go to an Aussie team instead (thinking George Bridge here). And most of all the competition would be more interesting and competitive.

[paulrooy]

If you honestly think that Super Rugby Pacific is going to grow into anything significant let alone be the testing ground for you national teams then I think you need a re-think. I'm not being negative and it doesn't really concern me (SAFFA here) but there are a few things to consider:
1. Your audience is too small....
2. The NZ and other Pacific Islands teams style of playing are all very similar and Aus bring virtually nothing to the table in the way of competitiveness.... so how's that going to be a worthy testing ground for selecting players for your national teams?
3. Consider the negative impact being isolated from other styles of play has had on NZ & Aus.... and your answer is to isolate even more?
I think you need to reconsider mate...

[bradysylvester]

cheers for the video bro. Lots of effort and quality ideas.

[ViliameBaleikatuba]

The Drua has grown tremendously in the last 2 years. It will continue to grow. They've beaten the defending Champions Crusaders twice in a row in Lautoka. They've lost only 1 home game this Year. With current standings, history is likely to be created this Year when the current Champion Crusaders won't even reach the Quarter finals.

[JoshuaBallinger]

Mate I’m tempted to make a video on how to fix super rugby by simplifying it.

10 team competition, cut the force 3 Aussie sides, 2 pacific sides, and 5 kiwi teams with everyone playing each other twice once home, once away & top 4 finals.

[RichardHS]

The biggest problem Supa has.

NRL distribution to clubs 17-18m each per year
AFL 13m which will increase next year to probably 17m per year.

Supa rugby distro to clubs 4.8m per year.

Hard to compete when the money gap is so large.

NRL 17 teams
AFL 18 teams

I like your idea's, it will be a 2 decade rebuild for Rugby union in the Southern Hemisphere.

[Itsjamis]

That's pretty much Polynesian vs Aussie, Fiji and Asia I like it

[Samizouza]

COVID pretty much opened a new era for professional rugby, especially when SR Pacific is what they were missing this whole time due to poor economics from expansion.

Anyways still a good idea on how to innovate the current comp with all the hullabaloo going on at RA headquarters.

[hjorkera]

I love the idea, It would be hard to get SA on board thought, but I have no doubt that SRA and the Asian competitions would sign up immediately.