With Australia’s implosion in Sante Fe at the weekend and the reminder over the past two weeks of how great a traditional rivalry between the Springboks and All Blacks can be, is it time to ask: Is this the beginning of the end of the Rugby Championship?
The tournament, which morphed from the Tri Nations when Argentina was included, hasn’t shifted with the times, and the growing unease about World Rugby’s failure to sort out the global season has made it an unnecessary strain on resources.
It isn’t a state secret that South African rugby has changed significantly since the move to the north and our involvement in both the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and Investec Champions’ Cup.
And it won’t be the first bit of copy that you read that will lament the 12-month season that is currently putting such a strain on SA Rugby. There is no doubt that from a local point of view, clarity is needed.
The window allocated to the Currie Cup has been a mixed success, but has gone hand in hand with an arbitration with MyPlayers - the players’ union - on when players get time off. If World Rugby is never going to sort out a global season, then South Africa needs to do what is in their best interests, and that may well be to ditch the Rugby Championship.
OFF SEASON NEEDED
Rugby needs an off-season - the demands of playing from September to July, and then going straight into tests and then a Rugby Championship can’t be sustained forever. This is the most-well known whisper across rugby at the moment.
And it is time to reassess where we currently are in terms of all that.
Of course, the implosion of Australia against Argentina and Joe Schmidt’s side dropping to ninth in the World Rankings has made this a more salient point. Coupled with the reports of the longer All Black-Springbok tours starting in 2026 - which has been widely shared but not officially confirmed yet - makes the thought of a Rugby Championship rather strange.
To be fair, despite Argentina’s form this year, they have never challenged for the title, while Australia have slid backwards as they changed coach every few years in their desperate search for short-term solutions. Firing exceptional coaches such as Dave Rennie and Robbie Deans has helped their situation little, and their structures are in a mess.
The Melbourne Rebels have closed through bankruptcy, and Rugby Australia is floundering despite World Rugby’s oversized and overly-generous help towards them. During Covid World Rugby already extended Rugby Australia a hefty loan to help them survive.
FINANCIAL BOOST
The British and Irish Lions tour should be a massive financial boost to them and then they were gifted a Rugby World Cup in 2027 as well. And recent reports suggested that they will keep the bulk share of a A$100-million television deal as a sweetener from World Rugby.
Imagine if the global governing body spent that much on say, rugby development in South America, or the Pacific Islands? Rugby Australia is at an all time low, and throwing cash at them doesn’t seem to be working currently.
It would be easy to point to the exit of South African teams as the catalyst for this slide, but in Australia it is much more than that. Poor management, poor decision-making and an overwhelming arrogance in dealing with Sanzaar partners has pushed it this far.
SUPER RUGBY A SHADOW OF FORMER SELF
Australia were for years hinting that they should go it alone without South Africa and play Super Rugby just with New Zealand. After 22 years of Bledisloe Cup woes, where they have become the All Blacks whipping post, has it worked? Super Rugby Pacific is a shadow of its former name, and New Zealand sides dominate it to such an extent that it could be called the extended NPC.
Financially it has also never made sense, with the All Black-Boks games being a boon but the rest of the tests hardly coming close. While Rugby has to guard that it doesn’t make the same catastrophic mistakes that cricket did in selling the game to only three nations, there is a genuine argument that the Boks are better off without the Rugby Championship.
It will give players a decent rest period between seasons, it will allow a more focused and nuanced test season as well that would be better all round for all involved and it would solidify the move to the north even more.
The Rugby Championship, in any case, is under threat from the new nations league that has been mooted over the past year.
And with a British and Irish Lions tour looming, Australia could host the most one-sided Lions tour in history, with the outlook for an Australian test victory being slim indeed - at least at the time of writing this.
Which reminds me of how the soulless 2021 Lions tour was played in front of no fans in South Africa and how Australia cheekily offered to host it to “save the integrity” of the tour - an offer that was firmly rejected.
Imagine the outcry if the Boks did the same?