Gregor Paul: The real reason Australia and New Zealand's rugby relationship is so hostile

OPINION:

It's unlikely that the All Blacks will feel much love while they are in Australia for the next seven weeks.

Perth and Queensland should, given the now almost 30-year partnership between Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby, feel like a home away from home for the All Blacks.

But it won't. It will feel more like they are behind enemy lines – Australians likely lending their support to Argentina and South Africa on the double-header weekends, because they simply won't be able to bring themselves to root for the All Blacks.

This may not strike anyone as being something out of the ordinary as New Zealand's Sanzaar marriage with Australia has always been stormy.

Rarely, since 1996 and the onset of professionalism and their formal alliance as Super Rugby and Rugby Championship partners, have they lived in domestic bliss.

What has kept them together, through thick and thin, is a mutual appreciation, however unpalatable, that they need each other.

They accept they are stronger together: that if the All Blacks and Wallabies are to hold their place in the global pecking order, New Zealand and Australia must have cross-border competitions and use each other to grow their talent pools and collective abilities.

Theirs is a marriage of necessity and it's this which continues to bind the two nations, albeit only just.

For the last 18 months the relationship has descended into a permanently fraught, almost tempestuous state.

Trust between the two national bodies has been destroyed – a fact that neither NZR nor RA deny.

As the All Blacks will become aware while in Australia, things have never been this bad and what's driving this new phase of bickering, public undermining and seeming desire to stab each other in the back at every opportunity is the fragility of RA's balance sheet.

The Australians dispute this and say the source of the distrust was New Zealand's causal arrogance in unilaterally disbanding Super Rugby last year and then somewhat callously and patronisingly inviting clubs across the ditch to reapply for inclusion.

RA has also cited the late call to not allow the All Blacks to travel to Perth last Saturday as more evidence of an arrogant and self-centred mindset that has the intent to antagonise their partner.

(R-L) Samuel Whitelock, Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, Aaron Smith, Codie Taylor and Brodie Retallick of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.

There is validity to their belief. NZR were indeed guilty of treating Rugby Australia with incredible disdain last year when they blew up Super Rugby as we knew it.

The pompous, superior tone was more English Home Counties than it was Aotearoa – coming across with an undeniable sense of entitlement and ownership as if Super Rugby was in fact New Zealand's to do with what it liked.

Many observers considered NZR's actions to be unjustifiable, but what had driven them to take such an uncompromising stance and what continues now to keep them on a belligerent footing when it comes to transtasman relations, is their fear that RA is in truly horrible financial shape.

Any sense of NZR and RA being equal partners in the Sanzaar alliance has long gone.

For most of their marriage, New Zealand and Australia have had similar financial profiles which has enabled them to agree to, roughly, equally share costs and revenues.

But in the last few years RA has fallen on the hardest times. They lost almost $10m in 2019 and suffered a further $27m deficit last year.

They lost long-term Wallabies jersey sponsor Qantas and their broadcast deal, after making the mistake of walking away from Fox, is believed to be only worth about $100m over three years.

This compares with the estimated $400m over five years NZR secured in late 2019 with Sky TV and the financial divide is only going to get greater after NZR secured $50m a year of sponsorship from Ineos and Altrad – a $38m per annum lift on their existing deal with AIG. And they still have one major kit deal – their training apparel - to come.

The All Blacks perform the Haka during The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.

RA have also borrowed money from HSBC, took an advance payment from World Rugby in 2019 and are not, according to those in the know, willing to reveal just how big the hole in their balance sheet really is.

And this is why the relationship is strained and hostile. NZR fears RA stands on the edge of a financial abyss and is driven by desperation rather than sound judgement.

After it became apparent last year that Covid had killed the prospect of Super Rugby continuing to involve teams from South Africa and Argentina, NZR were understandably reluctant to rebuild the competition with five Australian teams and continue to equally share costs and revenues.

RA were understandably panicked a few weeks ago when NZR held the All Blacks in New Zealand to postpone the scheduled match in Perth on August 28.

The game will net RA $5m – money that would almost ruin them if it didn't come.

NZR and RA are loveless, unequal partners and until the latter, via an impending private equity deal, hosting a British and Irish Lions tour in 2025 and potentially the 2027 World Cup rebuilds its balance sheet, the relationship will continue to be driven by distrust.