Richard Loe: NZRU must find a way to stick with South Africa

Richard Loe

I am not sure the general rugby public quite understand yet the major dilemma facing the game in this part of the world, with the inability of the Sanzar partners to agree on a new Super 14 format.

The South Africans have stuck firm with their insistence that the Currie Cup - their domestic competition for which they have struck a lucrative TV deal - must hold sway. They have been arguing consistently for a new Super rugby format which gives them an extra team and timing which leaves the Currie Cup undisturbed. New Zealand are insisting that the Super 14 not start until March.

That meant Super rugby might have to stray into the June test window - meaning all the best players would be missing, as they would be turning out for their national teams - or the competition would have to halt during the tests and start again afterwards.

If agreement is not reached, there is a threat that the South Africans will walk away and replace the Super 14 with another competition, perhaps involving Northern Hemisphere sides.

That means the New Zealand teams would have only the Australians, a Pacific Island side or sides and maybe the Japanese to play against in a new competition.

Whatever happens, the NZRU have to find a way to keep the South Africans. A competition involving island and/or Japanese teams doesn't do it for me and I don't think it will do it for fans either.

If that's the case, you can only wonder how much TV will be prepared to pay for a competition of lesser interest.

It's all very well for Steve Tew to say that rugby is the leading sport viewed on Sky. So it bloody should be. But the plain fact is that numbers watching on TV are shrinking - and you wonder what TV negotiator is going to pay more for a sport where fewer people are turning up to grounds and where audiences on the box are reducing.

TV, of course, provides the money that enables us to pay professional players and I'd suggest that New Zealand, Australia and South Africa all need each other and have to work out a solution pronto.

I don't blame the South Africans for taking a stand. They have nurtured their domestic competition to the point where it is worth a great deal of money to a TV operator - perhaps even more than they get out of Super 14.

That contrasts with New Zealand's Air NZ Cup, which has been allowed to run down, while Australia doesn't even have a domestic competition. They are the most exposed in all this.

It may be that there is a lot of chest-thumping and brinkmanship going on and that there will be a deal done closer to the June 30 deadline for going back to the TV operators for a new Super 14 deal.

The latest idea from the Boks was just plain daft (see Gregor Paul story, p66 ) - but it shows what a strong hand they have dealt themselves. They wanted to play two rounds of the Super 14 among themselves before the Kiwis and Aussies start. That would mean no Super rugby played by the South Africans during the June test window but the Kiwis and Aussies would - without their best players.

There is a lot hanging on this. Rugby has got some big, pressing problems right now and it needs to have Super rugby - part of the base on which professional rugby in this part of the world is built - healthy.

I don't like the idea of doing without South Africa, although a positive side effect might be that it would put more anticipation and value back into All Black-Springbok matches. But it's a high price to pay.

We need the NZRU to come up trumps here. The game needs it.