Trans-Tasman ‘innovators’ unveil plans to ignite Super Rugby Pacific in 2024

Chief executives from Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby insist that speed is key to bringing supporters back through the gates in Super Rugby Pacific.

The southern hemisphere’s flagship provincial tournament has declined in popularity over the years, but Phil Waugh and Mark Robinson are working together to alter that.

Super Rugby has looked to quicken up the game over recent seasons, while also making law amendments in an attempt to improve the product.

While they are not currently in a position to bring about further law alterations for 2024, Waugh insists that they are always thinking about ways to develop the sport.

“Leaders in innovation”

“Innovation is critical,” the former Wallaby said. “We’ve been leaders in innovation. When Super Rugby started, it was innovative, it was fast, it was the best provincial competition in the world.

“We need to get back there. If you think about what can we tinker with, interestingly everyone thinks about ball in play, but it’s actually ball out of play and stoppage time [that’s important].

“You lose a lot of consumer engagement. So for fans, how do you shorten the ball out of play, maximise ball in play and speed the game up?

“We’ve got an important role to play, not just in our jurisdictions, but with some of the innovations we’ve introduced to Super Rugby being taken on board at World Rugby level.”

As intimated, ‘speed’ is the key watchword for the two CEOs, which includes reducing the amount of TMO interventions, as well as the number of stoppages.

“We need to entertain the crowd, we need players to enjoy what they’re doing and to enjoy playing the game and not all this stoppage time,” Waugh said.

“We’ve certainly got a focus on how we speed up decision-making, while also ensuring stoppages in play are as short as possible.

“It’s a complicated one. It’s our intent to make the game as attractive as possible whilst not divorcing ourselves from global rules that World Rugby dictates. But we’re looking to speed the game up and hopefully the officiating plays to that.”

New Zealand Rugby recently outlined their intention to make the game more ‘fan-centric’ and insisted that they took a step in the right direction in 2023.

They are hoping to build on that in 2024 as they seek to make Super Rugby Pacific the world’s leading non-Test competition.

Still things to improve on

“We think internationally we are leading the way with a huge amount of creativity and innovation in that space,” NZR CEO Robinson said.

“We’re excited about what we’re bringing fans. We’ve also been very clear as relates to the international game, we’ve seen some fantastic rugby in recent times, and we’ve seen some examples where interventions are slowing the game down and causing some level of frustration.

“Those conversations about how we address that will be targeted in the appropriate forums at the end of February back in the northern hemisphere.

“We think we’re providing good leadership in this space, and that the product has really benefited from that, and next year will be another opportunity to build on that.

“If we reflect on the World Cup, we saw unbelievable rugby and then we saw some moments that caused fans a bit of frustration.

“In Super Rugby we saw incredible rugby, but still some things we think we can improve. So the base in terms of that shape of the game in some instances is really high.

“It’s just how we bring more consistency every weekend so fans can enjoy the product and know what they’re going to get.”

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