Saffi Vette, Phil Waugh and Bryson DeChambeau. Photos / Photosport
Why Aussie rugby boss won’t commit to Super Rugby Pacific beyond 2030 and what he is planning; the bold surfing plan that could blow up in the face of the Paris Olympics; and growing British sports streaming upstart DAZN nabs New Zealand rights to Joseph Parker’s next fight.
There’s one sure-fire bet beyond Saturday night’s Super Rugby Pacific final being won by a Kiwi franchise – the showdown will be a ratings wasteland across the ditch, where it’s likely to be watched by two men and a drover’s dog.
The competition’s struggling attempt to gain an improving foothold with fans in Australia largely depended on an Ocker team featuring in the final.
And while the Aussies have definitely improved on their dismal efforts of recent years, it wasn’t enough to get one of their sides to the Big Dance.
Some petty decision-making didn’t help the cause.
It was nonsensical to force the Brumbies to travel to Auckland to play their semifinal against the Blues on a Friday night, after having played the Saturday before in Australia.
The logical decision was to play the local derby between the Hurricanes and Chiefs on Friday with the Blues-Brumbies semi the next day, levelling the playing field for the Canberra-based side by providing an extra day’s preparation.
But Kiwi parochialism and self-interest won out again over common sense.
And don’t think it wasn’t noticed across the Tasman either.
It may be just a coincidence of timing but the public comments last week from Rugby Australia’s (RA) chief executive Phil Waugh about the future of Super Rugby Pacific should be flashing warning lights to New Zealand Rugby (NZR).
Talking to Australian media, Waugh refused to commit to Super Rugby beyond 2030 and, not for the first time, talked up the merits of a national club competition.
The former Wallaby revealed Australia already had a plan for life after Super Rugby and would implement it, if certain “financial metrics” continue to spiral downwards. That means crowds and TV ratings.
“One of our jobs is to ensure we’ve got a financially stable model,” he told Aussie scribes.
“We’re very committed to Super Rugby and we’re committed to the JV [joint venture] agreement we have with NZR through until the end of 2030.
“We’re also very conscious of the game’s need to change and we need to scenario-plan for whatever the future may hold when we go into the next broadcast cycle, which starts in 2026.”
That’s code for “we might bail and do our own thing” after the next broadcast deal.
And it’s not a hollow threat.
RA have been through some traumatic times in recent years, with a new nadir reached by the financially-forced abandonment of the Melbourne Rebels franchise.
Strategically, Super Rugby needs a Melbourne presence. But the cold, hard reality is that the bulk of Australian sports fans simply don’t care enough about rugby to commit any of their viewing hours ahead of the big rival codes, the NRL and AFL.
Nor are they seemingly seduced by the supposed cross-border appeal of Australian Super sides playing teams from other nations, including ours.
In fact, quite the opposite.
Aussie fans prefer watching two of their own against each other (just like Kiwis prefer local derbies, too).
Australian TV viewing figures clearly show eyeball preferences for games between two Aussie sides rather than against a Kiwi one. This is a fundamental challenge for Super Rugby.
In Australia, ratings figures, as well as crowd figures, soar comparatively whenever Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) clash in Super Rugby.
That’s because it’s a tribal clash between two states with a bitter history with each other in the rugby codes. It’s something the Rebels could never manufacture against the likes of the Melbourne Force or Canberra-based Brumbies.
It is this “tribal” element that Waugh openly laments as being missing in Australian rugby compared to the NRL and AFL – and it’s why he is musing increasingly about a national club competition replacing Super Rugby as the game’s shop window after 2030.
The NSW Shute Shield club rugby competition is in particularly fine fettle and teams like Randwick, Sydney University and Warringah have proud histories that could be leveraged into a fledgling national competition, including some of the Brisbane heavyweights like Brothers and GPS.
With a strategic presence in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, and the NSW and Queensland country strongholds, Waugh and RA would be backing themselves to create a higher-appeal, tribally-based competition that would draw greater interest from Australian broadcasters.
Currently, RA barely makes A$30 million ($32.5m) annually from broadcasting rights – while the NRL pulls in north of A$400m.
Little wonder that league can pluck Australian rugby talent seemingly at will, the latest being Wallabies World Cup first five-eighths Carter Gordon, who blindsided new coach Joe Schmidt last week by signing a long-term deal to play NRL for the Gold Coast Titans.
Rugby in Australia couldn’t afford to lose Gordon.
Normally, Waugh could be accused of fostering a pipe dream. National club competitions don’t happen out of nothing and can be expensive.
But let’s not forget that short of a catastrophe, RA will be cashed-up by 2030, following a British & Irish Lions tour windfall next year and hosting the 2027 World Cup. It will have money to invest.
So the lesson for Kiwi fans might be to enjoy Super Rugby while you can because it’s looking increasingly likely it won’t be around in six years (which begs the question of what NZR’s plan for post-2030 is?).
Don’t forget who did who over first. That’s why Rugby Australia is justified in standing up for itself.
Any criticism of what the Ockers ultimately decide about Super Rugby’s future needs to be counter-balanced with New Zealand’s misguided attempt to take the competition over during the Covid pandemic.
I am told a number of Australian rugby officials still harbour resentment over the ham-fisted attempt by the NZR board to make Super Rugby Pacific a wholly-owned Kiwi property, whereby “licences” were issued to Australian franchises to compete.
NZR’s desire to wholly own the competition, thereby shutting the Aussies out of sharing competition profits as happened under the previous Sanzaar alignment, was also instrumental in persuading the South Africans to finally make good on their threats to take their franchises to Europe.
The South African sides haven’t looked back since, while Australia, with justification, remain suspicious of NZR motives.
Super Rugby Pacific’s travails must be a recurring worry for tireless competition chair, Auckland-based businessman Kevin Malloy.
Malloy is inventive and innovative, which is why it’s disappointing to see his vision held to the whim of others.
During an interview with the Herald’s Rugby Direct podcast, Malloy said Super Rugby is toying with the idea of a Magic Round in Perth next year over Anzac Day weekend, with Kiwi sides pitted against their Australian opposites.
“Perth have put their hand up,” Malloy said. “There’s some challenges there with the distance of travel but in terms of stadium and support, Perth could be an attractive venue. Not so much Brisbane but potentially Gold Coast down that area.”
The organisers of the Paris Olympic Games made a bold decision a few years back when deciding the battle for surfing’s medals in Tahiti would be fought out at the fearsome Teahupo’o break.
It was a brave but bizarre call, and it risks either coming off as a spectacular success or a reckless and dangerous exploit.
Only discovered as a surfing break in 1985, “Chopes” (as it is described in the surfing world) is arguably a more dangerous wave of consequence than Hawaii’s feared Pipeline.
Eight people have died surfing the treacherous yet spectacular left-hand reef break, which Kiwi Olympians Billy Stairmand and Saffi Vette will take on in a few weeks’ time.
Vette badly injured her knee on her first wave of a maiden visit to the Tahitian break last year. She and Stairmand are there now preparing for the Games.
While Paris is of course an inland city, the south of France has some of the best surfing beach breaks in the world.
Tahiti is a strange destination and already the Olympics have failed to endear themselves to the local community by badly mismanaging the reconstruction and updating of a judging tower and damaging the prized reef.
But beyond the danger element, the decision is also controversial, given the huge advantage the venue provides to little-known local Tahitian surfers who have qualified.
“Local knowledge” of a break is already a massive advantage in surfing and is hugely amplified compared to other sports. It’s not so much the home advantage sports stars can enjoy from crowds but more the intimate knowledge of the reef built up over time.
So much so that the women’s gold medal favourite is Vahine Fierro, who grew up at Teahupo’o but does not have a ranking high enough to qualify for the elite World Surf League circuit.
Still, even her more widely known peers like eight-times world champ Stephanie Gilmore acknowledge she is the queen of the infamous wave.
She illustrated that by winning an elite WSL event at Chopes last month as a wildcard, taming the spectacular barrels with a mastery that her more experienced and better-known rivals couldn’t match.
Not surprisingly, Fierro is tipped to win gold for France, while another Tahitian local surfing for the French, Kauli Vaast, is among the men’s favourites.
Fierro and Vaast are immensely talented and their 10,000 hours-type commitment to mastering Teahupo’o propels them to a level few can match. Yet they are not as competitive at other surf events at breaks elsewhere around the world.
Maybe that’s the story the Games organisers want: a real life Happy Gilmore-style tale of inspiration.
But even the surfing community find it strange, some even musing aloud about the unthinkable – a serious injury or worse suffered by a comparatively inexperienced surfer at Teahupo’o.
Maybe the organisers will get away with it. We shall see.
One thing is certain... if a huge swell turns up like the one last month at the WSL event, the surfing will be must-watch TV during the Olympics.
Leading British-based sports broadcast streamer DAZN has dipped its toes in the New Zealand market by securing the pay-TV rights for Joseph Parker and David Nyika’s next professional fights.
The upstart streamer, which is less than 10 years old, has been making slow but steady progress around the globe but until now had resisted securing any New Zealand rights, and beat out Sky TV for the Parker-Nyika bouts.
Parker’s next fight is yet to be confirmed but he is keen to secure a rematch with Brit Anthony Joshua.
Comeback victories over American Deontay Wilder and China’s Zhilei Zang this year have propelled Parker to within reach of another world title shot. Parker is keen to fight again in either September or October this year.
“It would be nice to avenge that loss to A.J. [Joshua],” Parker said last month. “But I’ll fight anybody. I want to fight anybody who is above me or anyone in the top five so I can get closer to fighting for the world title.
“It’s about seeing who’s available and who wants to fight.”
Jahrome Hughes: He’s niggly, a champion baiter and a pain in the posterior. But he’s undefeated in matches against the Warriors. The Melbourne Storm Kiwi is a consummate match-winner. What a shame we didn’t spot him before the Storm.
Bryson DeChambeau: Another guy who can be difficult to like. But the shot of his life landed the American his second US Open crown in a memorable finish against the luckless Rory McIlroy, who must be wondering what he did in a former life to go 10 years without a major.
Israel Adesanya: Announces his fight return for UFC 305 in a blockbuster clash with South African Dricus du Plessis in Perth in August.
Boston Celtics: Added to their record tally of NBA crowns (18) but it was the first time in 16 years for America’s most winning basketball team. A sweet victory.
Veteran Sam Cane is given his farewell test appearance.