Lions tour looms over Super Rugby as the tournament itself faces scrutiny

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Super Rugby Pacific opener Friday will raise the curtain on a Southern Hemisphere season in which the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia looms large and the future of the tournament itself remains a matter of vigorous debate.

The collapse of the Melbourne Rebels means only 11 teams will take part in the 2025 Super Rugby tournament, which adds an imbalance to a competition already struggling in a competitive sports market.

A six-team finals series, a fantasy league and a Player of the Year award are among initiatives organizers are implementing in a bid to make Super Rugby more appealing to fans.

“We are fighting for the attention of fans,” Super Rugby chief executive Jack Mesley said. “To do that you make sure your product is as compelling as it can be and you then make sure you’re telling that story in a really compelling way.

“Our focus is to make sure our on-field product is as good as it can be and that our fans hear all the stories that go in and around that and are engaged by them.”

Lions series looms

One of those stories this season will be coach Joe Schmidt ’s effort to assemble a Wallabies squad capable of beating the Lions as an important prelude to the 2027 Rugby World Cup which Australia will host. Another is Rugby Australia’s search for a coach to replace Schmidt when he steps down in October.

In New Zealand, Scott Robertson will be intent on building a team capable of producing better results than his first season in charge last year when the All Blacks lost four tests.

Expansion option

One of Super Rugby’s expansion options would be to reintroduce a team from Japan, a prospect favored by All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett.

“I’d love to see the Japanese become part of the competition,” he said. “I feel like we need to grow the competition and in that respect, that would be great.

“From a player point of view we’ve lost South Africa. We need to grab another country and fill those spots so it creates a better competition.”

Barrett said Super Rugby also has to keep the interest of players to deter them from heading overseas.

New Zealand’s head of professional rugby, Chris Lendrum, said “we’ve always felt Super Rugby sets the standard for club rugby around the world in terms of quality of product, excitement and skill level. And it’s got a massive role to play in preparing players for what might come beyond at international level.”

South African clubs joined Super Rugby in 1996 and competed against Australian and New Zealand clubs until the 2020 season — also involving teams from Argentina and Japan — was abandoned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A player draft?

Barrett’s All Blacks teammate Will Jordan believes a draft system would be an extra incentive, allowing players from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and the Pacific to move away from their home countries but stay within the competition.

“I think the stuff around the draft, it obviously creates a huge amount of excitement and equity across the competition right?” Jordan said. “You see it in American sports a lot and it does add a lot of excitement.”

Hands off

In pursuit of a better on-field experience, organizers also have moved to reduce interventions from Television Match Officials, a constant source of negative feedback from fans.

“So for example for TMO interventions we will limit where that can take place,” Mesley said. “Yes, we will have the same foul play mechanisms. But when TMOs can intervene in the game we have a different, more restricted view than what you saw in the November tests for example.”

What next?

On field questions include whether Jordan’s Crusaders can improve on their 4-10 record last season, one of the worst in their history, whether 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year Ardie Savea can make an impact as captain of Moana Pasifika and whether the Sydney-based Waratahs can turn around 2024’s last-place season.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby