It's neither mad nor brave to take one look at Australia and see themas an anchor, waiting to pull Super Rugby under.
Australian rugby is broken. It's got no broadcast deal in place for next year, no fan base to support the game and why would New Zealand, with all that it has going for it, try to drag the carcass of their old foe into Super Rugby next year and hope that miraculously everyone suddenly loves the idea of the Rebels playing the Highlanders on a wet night in Invercargill.
That would be dumb. It would be disastrous and NZR is right to be looking at its lunch plate right now and telling the Australians it's no longer willing to share.
Not like they have been. Not with Australia bringing its meagre rations to the table and then pigging out on what it finds on New Zealand's plate.
The Australians can be part of Super Rugby Aotearoa, but under New Zealand's terms, conditions and governance. If their teams can meet the criteria, then they can be included.
That makes sense and in fact is the only feasible path the competition can follow in its pursuit of sustainability in this part of the world.
Australia can't turn up with five mediocre teams, a small pile of cash and expect to help themselves to the superior broadcast deal New Zealand has secured.
No longer can they take a four pack of Double Brown to the party, stick it in the fridge and glug down gallons of New Zealand's craft beer.
Super Rugby as we know it won't continue from next season. Photo / Photosport
It wouldn't be fair to say that Australia has pulled a con job on New Zealand for the last decade, but they have recognised that their little brother across the Tasman has an inferiority complex and exploited that.
Little old New Zealand has sent the All Blacks around the world beating everyone up and commanding enormous audiences, broadcast dollars and sponsor interest and then thought it was the junior partner in the Super Rugby alliance.
No one should be mad at the Aussies as all they did was see an opportunity and go for it. New Zealand Rugby should have been stronger – spent fewer man hours convincing themselves they were the little man of the Pacific who needed to be holding someone's hand to feel safe.
In the last decade it has bowed to almost every demand made by South Africa and Australia – both of whom have been granted licences to enter more teams and in the case of the latter, negotiate a bigger slice of the financial pie in the process.
The more those two got, the less they gave and the stronger New Zealand has become. New Zealand sides have won the last five titles, and seven of the last 10 and 17 of the 25 since the whole business began.
And this deference is all because New Zealand has laboured under the misapprehension that Australia is bringing more to the table – a bigger population and giant economic clout.
But it's not. That's a myth, at least as it applies to rugby. Australia does have a powerhouse economy but rugby is not tapping into it.
New Zealand's Super Rugby future is set to come in the form of a trans-Tasman competition from 2021, featuring a Pacific Island team. Photo / Getty
Rugby is a niche sport in Australia and there might be 25 million people over there, but how many of them are watching rugby every week?
How many of them even care or know what it is and the reason they are having such a torrid time securing a new broadcast deal is exactly because of that – the sport doesn't rate. It's right up there with lacrosse and underwater hockey.
The truth is that the Australians have lived off New Zealand's stability and excellence for way too long.
They have been getting more than they have been giving and even more perversely, they have been able to wield a power that far outweighs their real standing or contribution.
Back when Super Rugby launched, the set-up and distribution of finances better reflected the relative strengths of the three participating nations.
Somehow that got twisted over time and the Australians were able to hoodwink New Zealand and South Africa into paying for them to have the provincial competition they had always craved but couldn't build on their own.
New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson. Photo / Getty
The final insult in all this of course was not the debacle of the co-hosting rights around the 2003 World Cup. It was Australia's brazen vote for Japan and not New Zealand to host the 2011 World Cup.
New Zealand signed off on the Western Force entering Super Rugby in 2006 and a few weeks later the Australians threw their weight behind Japan's bid.
The Australians have said they won't entertain this master-servant relationship, but they won't get a better offer.
