1
Recipe for Champions Cup tastes better than Super Rugby right now
By Hamish Bidwell
If you like rugby, I can recommend the Champions Cup.
At least in comparison to our upcoming Super Rugby Pacific tournament. Featuring the best of French, South African and British rugby, the Champions Cup is of a high standard, played in front sizable crowds and seems to matter to the participants.
The reaction of the Bath players and fans to beating Racing 92 the other day was striking.
These weren’t people going through the motions. The Bath team didn’t feature players wishing they’d put a sabbatical in their contract or counting down the minutes until their sabbatical starts.
One the losing side, star Racing recruit Siya Kolisi looked genuinely crestfallen.
You remember him, right? Same as you would the Stormers and Bulls who, like Kolisi, used to grace our own franchise competition but now play in the Champions Cup.
But fear not, long-suffering fan, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and Rugby Australia (RA) have a plan.
They can’t articulate that plan just yet but promise that, from 2025 on, Super Rugby Pacific will have you on the edge of your seat.
It’s all part of a strategy to put fan engagement at the forefront of their thinking.
This year’s competition has crept up on NZR and RA, so the 2024 season will look much the same as 2023’s, the two governing bodies announced in December.
They do promise one innovation, though, which is to potentially limit the interference of the Television Match Official and encourage less stoppages and more minutes where the ball is in play.
I’m not against that notion, it’s just that - with all due respect to a few Super Rugby Pacific squads - watching more bad rugby from more inept teams doesn’t really seem a strong selling point.
The Champions Cup is an elite competition. It involves many of the world’s best players. It’s eight weeks from go to woah, which means that results have consequences.
In short, it’s pretty much everything that Super Rugby Pacific is not.
Cast your eye towards New Zealand’s 2024 Super Rugby Pacific squads. Look at the names and see how many you recognise and then tally up how many of those blokes you’d actually pay to watch.
The good folk at NZR and RA can come up with all the marketing ideas they like, but it’s good players playing against other good players that engages fans.
I heard a story of a lad named JT the other day. Someone asked what the initials stood for and the bloke prefaced his answer by saying his father was once a fanatical Hurricanes fan.
Turns out the young man’s christian names are Jerry Tana.
That’s fan engagement but, sadly, it probably belongs to an era of Super Rugby we’ll never see the like of again.
It wasn’t novelty that made the early years of Super Rugby compelling and turned players such as Jerry Collins and Tana Umaga into folk heroes.
The competition had a devoted and enthusiastic audience because it featured the very best of New Zealand, Australian and South African rugby.
It’s a recipe that appears to be working in the Champions Cup.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
South Africa player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series
3
Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu admits anger at Australian rugby
4
Fissler Confidential: Willie le Roux rumours ignite after Bok star spo
5
Latest Comments
There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.
Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.
Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.
They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.
Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.
Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen
Go to commentsWas it? I just brought it up in some of my posts to rub it in that the AB last year nearly put 100 on a top 6N side lol
I agree to be honest. The biggest key to me that they might be jadded was none of them had mom performances, or even as good as their last three games.
Go to comments