Super Rugby: Five reasons why Super Rugby needs a player draft

Last week's NFL draft provided a model that Super Rugby could follow. Photo / Getty

Kris Shannon outlines five reasons why Super Rugby needs a player draft.

1. Spread the wealth

The United States, that bastion of equality, has long known sport should be contested on a level playing field.

In an attempt to prevent the kind of obscene talent collection that turns some European football leagues into predictable processions, the worst teams in American sport are given their pick of the best young players.

Although that simple concept isn’t always effective — bad teams are often bad for a myriad reasons — the draft system does offer bad teams a way out.

There’s little worse for fans than being stuck in a cycle of mediocrity, while watching the rich get richer. Success begets success and it’s obvious why young stars, given the choice, take their talents to the best teams.

Removing that choice is problematic, admittedly, but drafted players aren’t consigned to a career of sucking. Ideally, their presence sparks a resurgence; if not, they can escape when their first contract elapses.

Overall, it’s a much more equitable system than allowing yet another promising No 10 to extend the Crusaders’ unending dynasty.

2. Make the grassroots greener

At a time when all rugby in New Zealand seems in service of one team, a draft would be inevitably increase interest in lower levels of the game…in service of five teams.

Schoolboy and NPC rugby is already a feeder system to Super level, but as currently constructed that pathway remains opaque.

Fans might notice a standout youngster on a provincial side and follow their progress as the season progresses. But chances are they’ll miss the minor press release announcing that player has signed with the Super Rugby franchise of his choosing.

With a draft, those fans are granted an easy opportunity to continue keeping tabs on the young star who caught their eye.

Similarly, any supporter whose Super Rugby team has endured a tough season — I’m looking at you, Highlanders fans — can fix focus on the lower levels and dream of a better future.

They can watch NPC games with a vested interest and maybe, if they have too much time on their hands, even get along to some local schoolboy rugby.

3. Fill the dreaded downtime

Rugby is almost a 12-month sport and don’t we love it. Nothing says summer like reading a story about squads assembling and players running up sand dunes or whatever.

But what if we could remove ‘almost’ from that equation? Doesn’t that sound appealing to you sickos?

A draft to conclude each year, parcelling out young players before a new campaign, creates all sorts of tantalising possibilities for filling that dreaded rugby-free stretch at the end of each impossibly long season.

The content mill in that period is now occupied only by the All Blacks, whether through a northern tour or, when we’ve been on best behaviour, the World Cup. But even those weekly tests provide only so much relief.

You’d be shocked to learn how far we media folk can stretch a draft. First, any athlete with hopes of being chosen will assemble for a combine, where teams can poke and prod and measure attributes both physical and, into a pseudo-scientific way, mental.

Then there’s the speculation about which team will select which player — who’s going No 1 overall, in which areas are teams trying to improve, will anyone be bold enough to pick a prop early?

Add finally, to ensure we can live the dream of reading about rugby near Christmas, the draft itself.

4. Start the show

The show, unlike the rest of that garbage, is where a draft would really be additive to rugby’s landscape.

Matching the American spectacle won’t be easy; fans barely attend games so getting them along to a draft may prove difficult. But it could become appointment television for anyone with even a passing interest in the code.

Unlike last week’s NFL draft, spread across three days as 32 teams picked 259 players in seven rounds, this could be a one-night-only affair.

Six New Zealand-based teams selecting in reverse order to their finishing position from the previous season. Five picks each, with undrafted players free to pursue employment through traditional means. Ten minutes per first-round pick — providing ample time to analyse the selection, interview the player and show some highlights — then five minutes for the following rounds.

That’s a three-hour show, filled with (hopefully) high-quality chat to inform fans and hype the following Super Rugby season.

5. End the Crusades

The Chiefs are currently doing the Lord’s work, and Scott Robertson’s impending departure will surely help, but as a country we must come together to tackle one of our most vexing problems.

Forget about limiting climate change, economic inequality and the housing crisis (please don’t forget about these things). We need to stop the Crusaders.

Short of banishing them from the competition, which I have investigated but seems infeasible, a draft is the best way to ensure that dynasty does eventually end.

If the Crusaders are picking outside the top three in initial drafts, they’ll at least keep their greedy mitts off the elite, buying time for other franchises to thrive.

Or maybe the Crusaders are smarter than everyone else and their draft class will invariably prove the best despite selecting from disadvantageous positions. Nah, can’t be that.