Marc catches up with NZ cricket stars at the 2018/19 ANZ NZ cricket awards, Sunwolves likely to be cut from super rugby and Lisa Adams smashes world para shot put record.
COMMENT
Derided as rugby's administrative dunces and guilty of taking Super Rugby to the brink of financial oblivion, Sanzaar has against all expectation come up with a near faultless long-term vision for Southern Hemisphere rugby.
The announcement that the Sunwolves are being axed from the 2021 competition is not illustrative of catastrophic short-term thinking, but is instead the beginning of a strategy to build a two-tier Super Rugby competition to progress Japan and other nations such as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and potentially the USA, Uruguay and Brazil towards taking places in an expanded Rugby Championship.
Credit where credit is due – Sanzaar has finally come up with a plan which is not the usual array of ill-fitting compromise agreements that leaves Super Rugby looking like Mr Potato Head.
It is true that Sanzaar, after compounding disastrous variations of the competition format, almost killed what was once the best provincial tournament in the world.
And yes it is true the administrative body may have struck its new vision more by luck and lack of alternatives than by good management, but the important thing is, by hook or by crook, Sanzaar has finally delivered something that looks like it may in time deliver the sort of genuine global competitions it has always dreamed of running.
Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere now has a blueprint to survive and possibly even thrive regardless of whether the mooted 12-team League of Nations comes to fruition in 2022 or not.
The process of restructuring Super Rugby began with the bigger question of working out what the Sanzaar partners wanted the long-term future of the Rugby Championship to look like.
There was universal agreement between New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina that it was imperative to have an expansion plan for the Rugby Championship, be it as part of League of Nations or not.
The four Southern Hemisphere giants clearly want the League of Nations to happen for the simple, and highly compelling, reason it will bring them the sort of financial windfall they crave. To make the League of Nations a reality and to get their grubby mitts on this increased loot, the Rugby Championship has to have six teams playing in it by 2022.
But even if the League of Nations doesn't come to fruition, the four Sanzaar partners believe they still need to expand the Rugby Championship at some stage soon if they want to grow the financial value of the competition.
With that in mind, they have leaned heavily on the Japanese Rugby Union (JRU) to give assurances they would underwrite the Sunwolves beyond 2021 because, again, there is an agreement Japan will need a team in Super Rugby to prepare its test players for potential entry into the Rugby Championship.
That has effectively been made a non-negotiable for Japan to take a place in the Rugby Championship – that they must expose their probable test players to something tougher and more intense than their domestic Top League.
When the JRU refused to provide that financial assurance, the Sunwolves were told they would be kicked out of Super Rugby at the expiry of the existing deal as Sanzaar can't take its new proposal to broadcasters – which they intend to do in a few months - without each team being underwritten by a financially sound organisation.
Amanaki Mafi of the Sunwolves. Photo / Getty Images
Any broadcaster bidding for Super Rugby would take one look at the unsupported Sunwolves and run a mile – rightly arguing that the Japanese team could fold at any time.
There have been suggestions that South Africa drove the Sunwolves out, but that's not strictly true.
Teams from the Republic don't like the increased travel burden that comes with playing the Sunwolves and the South African Rugby Union were incensed that Japan didn't vote for them to host the 2023 World Cup.
But South Africa are particularly desperate for more cash and they like the increased payments that will come with the League of Nations – payments that only come if Japan are in the Rugby Championship and Japan can only be in the Rugby Championship if they have a club team in Super Rugby.
So the door to Super Rugby was held open to Japan for as long as it could be and when it became clear the Sunwolves weren't going to be backed by their own union, work accelerated on Plan B - which is to partner with Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest to build a meaningful second tier Super Rugby competition.
Forrest supposedly has the money and Sanzaar the expertise, so if they combine their skill sets, the Global Rapid Rugby (GRR) competition will be expanded to include the Sunwolves, a team from Fiji most likely and possibly even a New Zealand side in 2021.
Also in the pipeline is a second tier Rugby Championship, which may see the current Pacific Nations Cup – Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga – combine with the current Americas Championship – USA, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile.
If it all works out then Super Rugby will be a shorter, more compelling tournament while there will also be a genuine pathway for the Southern Hemisphere's emerging nations.
It could yet fall over and the Sunwolves, instead of being transitioned into a better-fitting competition in 2021, end up being disbanded, leaving a big problem on how to get Japanese rugby up to speed and convincing as good enough to play in the Rugby Championship.
But right now there has to be a degree of confidence that Sanzaar has at least given Super Rugby the best chance to get back to its former glory. The end goal of a sustainable six-team Rugby Championship is feasible if emerging nations such as Japan, Fiji and the USA are given enough quality games and time to prove they are ready.
