Professional Rugby

As one of the most ‘visible’ tiers that provides more direct representation of our significant rugby communities than the one test team will allow, Australia’s professional platform is an enormously important part of our ecosystem. Together with the test rugby, it’s entities (clubs) and the hero’s that pull on their jerseys shoulder the responsibility of capturing the hearts and minds of young people and drawing them into the participation layer. 

Unfortunately, professional rugby has failed dismally in this important piece of work, which I believe makes it the most significant factor in our game’s decline over the last two decades.

SANZAAR, RA and NZR administrations have scrambled to get it right which has meant this vitally important layer has taken on the most different number of forms in recent years and as such, it’s a hotly debated space across our rugby community. 

In addition to rebranding and somewhat streamlining our ‘domestic’ competition played with New Zealand, this proposal will also introduce a number of new professional platforms to be included within and following what was previously known as the Super Rugby season.

The goal is to provide a ‘jewel in the crown’ of domestic rugby while embedding additional offerings that deliver further opportunities for fans to engage and players to hone their craft in professional rugby. Furthermore, by structuring a strong professional domestic tier that prioritises fan engagement, the game will put itself in a position of power at the negotiating table with potential broadcast partners to not only maximise earnings, but ensure that the product is visible to a large audience to continue to grow rugby.

Australian Conference

New South Wales Waratahs

Queensland Reds

ACT Brumbies

Western Force 

Melbourne Rebels

New Zealand Conference

Auckland Blues

Waikato Chiefs

Wellington Hurricanes

Canterbury Crusaders

Otago Highlanders

• Ten teams play each other once and teams in their conference/country a second time for a thirteen-game season. 
• The eight interconference games that each team plays are played within the first ten weeks of the competition so each team will have played eight games against teams from the same conference and two games against teams from the other conference by the end of round ten. There are two reasons for this; one is explained within this tab and the other is unpacked under the ‘pathways’ tab.
• Each team has six home games and six away games with a game against a cross-conference team held during a Magic/Super Round that is sold to the highest city bidder during one of the last three weeks of the competition.
• The top four advance to a two-week playoff series. This is based on the combined ladder of both conferences and no conference is guaranteed a playoff spot.
• In addition to the ‘Tasman Cup’ that the champion lifts after the Grand Final, the ‘Tasman Shield’ adds spice to some encounters between Australian and New Zealand teams. Similar to the Ranfurly Shield, it goes up for grabs when the holder comes up against an opponent from the other nation. 

Weekly Schedule

Each round (not including the ‘Super’ Round) is made up of the following game times in these locations:

• Friday night in New Zealand
• Friday night in Australia’s east coast
• Saturday night in New Zealand
• Saturday night in Australia’s east coast
• 6 rounds include a Sunday afternoon game in New Zealand
• 6 rounds include a Friday or Saturday night game in Perth

Other key considerations

• Conditions that reflect more free movement of players between Australia and New Zealand should be negotiated with New Zealand Rugby to encourage a more even competition.
• That would effectively involve New Zealand and Australian players having the ability to play in the other country and not forgoing their eligibility to be selected for their homeland. 
• A ‘hands off’ clause would apply to support these negotiations whereby each Trans Tasman partner would commit to a policy that involves not selecting any player that has been bought directly into a TTR club system or changed residency after the age of 18.

Australian Union of Origin

New South Wales & Southern Unions vs Queensland & Western Unions

New Zealand Island of Origin

North Island vs South Island

• Upon signing a professional TTR contract, players development history is assessed before allocating them with their representative Union (Australia) or island (New Zealand).
• Following week ten of the TTR (after all interconference games have been played), the competition takes a one week break for these representative games to take place.
• Held on Saturday night in New Zealand and Australia and sold to TV as a ‘double-header’.
• Games initially rotated between Sydney (Allianz Stadium) and Brisbane (Suncorp Stadium) to establish interest before the big stadiums in Melbourne and Perth are added to the rotation. 
• Incorporated into the TTR, it creates a sixteen-week package of rugby that also includes the thirteen rounds of the regular season and the two-week playoff series.  

• While disbanding Super Rugby’s old format was a step in the right direction, efforts should be made to coax South Africa away from the URC and Europe at the domestic tier of the game. 
• This would be done by encouraging South Africa to establish its own competition to structure a calendar that has the domestic and international seasons fitting neatly together while incorporating a ‘champions league’ type concept into the season which South African teams would be an important part of.
• South Africa’s domestic competition would include places for the six clubs that they were big believers of while they were apart of Super Rugby plus a rebirthed Jagures from Argentina. Teams would play each other home and away for twelve games over fourteen weeks before the top four teams advance to a two-week playoff series. This would be played alongside the sixteen-week package that the TTR represents.

The twenty team involved in this concept would be made up of:

Australia’s five TTR teams

New Zealand’s five TTR teams

South Africa’s six teams

The Jaguares from Argentina (competing in South Africa's domestic competition)

The top three teams from Japan’s Rugby League One competition

• The twenty teams would be distributed across four pools of five teams.
• The structure of this would see no more than two teams from the same country in the same pool and teams would be seeded based on their finishing position in their club competitions to ensure the pools are somewhat evenly weighted.
• Teams would play opponents from their pool once for four games over five weeks before the top two from each pool advance to the quarter finals (mirroring the Rugby World Cup format).
• The knockout phase of the concept would be played over three weeks which would provide a total package of eight weeks to be played in the period following the Rugby Championship and before the November test window.