John Drake: Give the Australians a waltz in the NPC

COMMENT

Bring on the Aussies, but lose the South Africans. That's my recipe for a shake-up of rugby in New Zealand.

In a nutshell, we should scrap the Super 12 and base our rugby around the NPC - and invite Australian teams in.

I would like to think we could put a very good case to the TV people whose money funds the professional game. They would get more games to air with a 22-round NPC, plus playoffs, running from March to the end of September.

It would give a bigger window for internationals - you wouldn't have the Tri-Nations every year and there would be tours here by England and others around July, while the All Blacks would go to the Northern Hemisphere every year after the NPC.

It would be bad luck for NPC teams with a lot of All Blacks - they would lose them for their NPC games during the mid-year tours.

Club competitions could be extended, with players able to move between those and the NPC teams to cover injuries and so on.

I put this idea to the New Zealand Rugby Union a couple of years ago and they said no, although those people are no longer there.

They gave the standard reasons - that they were locked into the Tri-Nations, Super 12 and Sanzar.

But Sanzar was only made up as a convenience to get $900 million off News Corp, and rugby could be re-structured to make it even better for Rupert Murdoch's pay television, even though, principally, I'm promoting this concept to improve New Zealand rugby.

Having Australian teams in our NPC would enliven the competition. Despite a lot of breast-beating, the first division only sparks up towards the finals, and it is the second and third divisions which thrive on the old rivalries.

It is virtually impossible for anyone outside of the five Super 12 franchises to succeed in the first division anymore.

We need to get back to our old rivalries and, apart from Canterbury, I don't know if that many people have really bought into the Super 12.

It has ruined rugby in the provinces. The five franchises are getting stronger, everyone else weaker.

The lower-ranked sides are totally dependent on handouts from the franchises and if the Waikato Chiefs have a losing Super 12, then teams such as Bay of Plenty are stuffed, while having little control over their own destiny.

The NZRFU can be generous, but I don't think the provinces want handouts. They want to stand on their own feet and be able to generate enough cash to pay their players a decent wage.

Under the present system, they get only five home games a year, which isn't good value for sponsors either.

We should be telling Murdoch's guys that we can provide more games, which is what they are always after, of equal quality to the Super 12.

I would invite two Australian teams into the first division - they could have a playoff to decide who they were - and one each into the second and third divisions.

If they're good enough, they can win promotion.

The deal is that the NZRU controls the competition, and for starters the grand final would always be held in this country and the Australian teams would pay all travel costs.

Just imagine if Thames Valley got a trip to Australia every year, courtesy of the Australians.

I would like to see a team based in one of the Pacific Islands as well - not a national team but a professional side who could source their players from anywhere.

If there was no Super 12, Australia would almost have to accept this deal. They could play with the South Africans, but we would have to take that risk. We must do what is best for New Zealand rugby.

The Australians are always claiming to have good depth. They could hardly resist this offer, and we would see how they go slogging their guts out in our provincial competition.

As for the South Africans, the Super 12 has always been lopsided. It's a ridiculous concept with South Africa virtually on the other side of the world.

The travel makes it very tough, especially on them, and it's just not user friendly because we have to get up in the middle of the night to watch the games live, plus we struggle to identify with their teams.

The South Africans are gone, no doubt about it. Bad luck, but maybe they could join a Northern Hemisphere competition.

So there it is. What we've got at the moment isn't too bad, but it's served a purpose and it's time to move on.