With the recent report released and the mumblings from John O’Neill around extending the Super 14 a major task arises of how the complete calendar of NZ rugby should look.  It is by no means a simple task, having to align club rugby, the NPC, the Super 14, Tri Nations, domestic tests and the end of year tour, but I thought I would have a wee attempt at coming up with a solution rather than just complaining about it all.

The point touched on in the report is that players want to play for one team with one coach and one trainer (in Europe) rather than the three they get here in NZ.  Now the reason they’d only have one of everything is because they won’t be able to play internationals but I’m pretty sure they could handle having two if they were able to play for the AB’s while being overseas.  So really it is a matter of having just the Super 14 and International set ups and taking the All Blacks completely out of the NPC (which is basically the case now anyway).

But what this would allow us to do is have the two competitions (Super 14 and NPC) running parallel, and the NPC acting as a feeder to the Super 14 alone.  As far as I’m aware this is how it currently works in SA so I don’t see any reason as to why it wouldn’t work here.  Players would still be drafted to S14 teams and the top x number of players would not play for their province unless coming back from injury but wider squad members would have a quality competition to keep fit in (not just club rugby which is currently used).  Or once you’ve played x amount of games for your S14 team you can’t go back to NPC.  This means outside your original squad, you’d use players from within the region when the need arises.

I don’t like the fact that the beginning of the NPC overlaps the end, and business part, of the club competitions where teams with good players who have earned their right to make finals are then robbed of those players, who helped get them there, when it really matters.  This would be addressed in my proposed set up.

The proposal of O’Neill’s, while it is heavily Aussie favourable certainly has some interesting and worthwhile ideas.  Number one being a lengthier, two round format, where teams (and squads) will be truly tested.  The expansion is also something that needs to be looked into, and I favour a two division, 20 team competition, including the likes of the Pacific Islands, Asia and the Americas (That would have promotion relegation).  I also think it would be great to include a knockout cup, involving all 20 teams which would expose every team and all players to pressure knock out matches, not just the top 4 teams.  Or perhaps a Ranfurly Shield type challenge system which would also improve the excitement and marketability of these types of games.  The competition would have a three week break for the inbound internationals.

It has also been bandied about bringing in traditional public holiday match ups, like the NRL, and I don’t think we should be too precious not to copy or adopt other successful sporting codes competition set ups and be more flexible with game days/times.  So a guaranteed Easter Monday AFTERNOON match between the Blues and Chiefs every year or a Queens Birthday clash between the Crusaders and Waratahs every year, whatever, lets just create some tradition.  And I don’t think we should be afraid of midweek games, sure Rugby is a lot more physical than Football but it can be managed.  If you look at the premiership some teams, such as Arsenal, use the Cups as a development tool for their young players while focusing their real efforts on the premiership title.  There is no reason why this can’t be adopted and modified for Rugby and be just as successful.  Plenty of emphasis then goes into having a quality squad, not just top 15 or 22. 

“What about player burnout?” I hear you say, but in the grand scheme of things players won’t play any more and may even get a longer rest and reconditioning program with this set up.  No rugby for AB’s and core S14 players from 29 Nov – 22 Mar, now that is a conditioning window!  (Or actual off season)

I also toyed with having the Tri-Nations (extended to include Argentina) within the Super 14, so every three weeks or so the Super 14 has a rest and is replaced with the two tests but I think this makes the Super 14 season too disjointed and it would be hard to gain any momentum.  This 4 team, home and away, format would also reduce the number of weekends played on to 6 while having the same amount of games per team as the current Tri Nations.

One of the biggest problems is the June inbound test window which is apparently immovable.  If this could be moved it would make things a lot easier to structure, however for arguments sake I have left it there.

So the big change is the NPC to the start of the year and S14 to the end as well as the Tri Nations to the end, finishing just before the EOYT.  I understand this would be a big difference for the NPC, as players picked from club games will be out over the Christmas period, but a break of 3.5 months and a month for pre season may not be a bad thing for these provincial teams.

Using this year’s calendar, this is how it would pan out.  I think it could work.

I’m not exactly sure how this aligns with SA and Aus competitions but if it’s workable for us it’d be workable for them (perhaps with a few tweaks).

Thanks Mr Hobbs, yes I am available for a job with NZRU.