Looking back on three decades of Super Rugby, the Crusaders truly cemented themselves as one of the great dynasties of modern sport, securing half of all championships as well as all but one in the last nine years.
As significant as this achievement is, you can’t help but ask: What is the point of a competition where one team dominates to that extent? And how does this serve Australian rugby?
The NRL and AFL are strong models of competitions where multiple teams are pushing for the premiership each season, and small margins have led to many different premiers over the years.
Here, dynasties like the Panthers and Hawks last years, not decades.
Mechanisms such as salary caps and draft systems spread talent, and ultimately level the competition. Closer matches build tension and offer championship success to a broad spread of teams and fans over time, which in turn fuels engagement, growth and fandom.
Ioane Moananu of the Crusaders celebrates after scoring a try during the round seven Super Rugby Pacific match between Crusaders and Moana Pasifika at Apollo Projects Stadium, on March 29, 2025, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
As tempting as this is, there is a key reason why Super Rugby does not go down this path: The Wallabies and All Blacks.
As Ben Darwin of Gain Line Analytics often points out, a team’s success can be explained by player cohesion (or how long players have been playing together), player quality (often approximated through player salaries), and coaching (to a lesser extent).
The NRL and AFL have no serious international competition and therefore do not require national cohesion. They spread talent widely to grow their domestic game without risking poor international performance.
Super Rugby does not have this luxury and is therefore designed to support the national teams by concentrating, rather than spreading, talent and resources.
New Zealand teams have been the biggest beneficiary of concentrating resources. NZR earned nearly $A175 million each year between 2018 and 2021. Between 2022 and 2024 revenues temporarily inflated further to over $250 million annually with private equity from Silver Lake.
By contrast, Rugby Australia earned $120 million in 2018, rising to $126 million in 2024.
NZR rightly use their financial advantage to strengthen investment in domestic development pathways, the National Provincial Championship (NPC) and retaining players onshore.
Cohesion is an important element for their success. Reportedly, when a player debuts for the Crusaders, they have already previously played with around eleven of their teammates through their two NPC feeder teams. By contrast, the Waratahs are fed by 12 Shute Shield teams, greatly lowering cohesion for new players.
This flows into the All Blacks, who (again rightly) often lean towards a core squad drawn from one to three Super Rugby franchises each year rather than drawing from an even spread of players across all teams.
Cohesion requires sufficient salaries to retain top players in the team for an extended period.
The NZR Collective Agreement totalled around $74 million in 2023, of which $50 million went to men’s Super Rugby and All Blacks players.
While the Rugby Australia Collective Agreement isn’t public, media releases and news articles suggest it totalled around $53 million in 2023 (31.7% of the combined $118 million in RA player-generated revenues and estimated $50 million in Super Rugby team generated revenues).
Of this, $43 million likely went to men’s 15s players (after around $5 million to RUPA, $2 million to women’s rugby and $2 million to 7s rugby).
Unsurprisingly, greater salary budgets in New Zealand, combined with greater pathways and greater cohesion by retaining players domestically for longer, leads to greater Super Rugby and national success.
As hard as it is to say as an Australian rugby fan, we do not have the financial means to develop and retain talent sufficient to win Super Rugby, or for domestic Wallabies players to seriously challenge the All Blacks.
All Blacks star Cam Roigard in action against the Wallabies. Photo: Getty Images
Rugby Australia tried to cling to the idea of a competitive Wallabies, prioritising funds towards Wallabies salaries and rugby league signings for short term boosts.
But under the surface, this required letting many of our sub-Wallabies players go overseas (eroding player depth) and letting community rugby spending decline from 12% of Rugby Australia revenues in 2001 to 4% of revenues in 2017.
As such, while Rugby Australia eroded our Wallabies pathways and depth, lack of competitiveness eroded interest in Super Rugby for Australian fans, prevented players from learning how to win, and eroded team cohesion as desperate coaches dropped players to bet on the next big star.
Australian Rugby cannot grow until we move away from quick wins. We must:
• Increase investment in pathways. Rugby Australia has already increased community rugby investment from $4 million in 2018 to $9 million in 2024.
• Build cohesion. Super Rugby AU is already drawing in fringe players to build cohesion before they enter Super Rugby Pacific.
• Build a winning culture that attracts fans and revenues. Promote Super Rugby AU as a premier competition that domestic teams and fans truly fight for, while Super Rugby Pacific continues as a Champions Cup to build intensity into the Test season. Super Rugby AU should not significantly expand team numbers or risk Wallabies cohesion.
• Focus on retaining sub-Wallabies players. Every $800,000 player retained onshore requires losing two quality $400,000 players. Super Rugby teams are better served by two quality players that continually push each other as they compete for a position, than by a developing player paired with a Wallaby whose position is safe. And the Wallabies are better served by retaining quality players domestically for longer to build cohesion, before releasing top Wallabies to keep fighting for their position in richer competitions in Europe.
Rugby Australia is taking small steps in the right direction. But without real change, Super Rugby will continue to do a disservice to the Wallabies and fans.
Piccolinohttps://https://ift.tt/Sf1dOK3 Super Rugby is doing a disservice to the Wallabies and their fans
Post a Comment