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The awkward question no one in Australian rugby wants to answer: Should another Super Rugby team be cut?
Just two rounds into the Super Rugby season, Rugby Australia’s call to axe the Melbourne Rebels has been vindicated. But there remains an elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.
It has taken just two rounds of the rejuvenated running game to vindicate the difficult decision to cut the Melbourne Rebels from Super Rugby Pacific.
The few true believers south of the Murray River who actually gave a hoot about rugby are understandably livid at the demise of the Rebels, but everyone else who sees the bigger picture knows this was one tough call Rugby Australia did get right.
Battling to stay afloat on and off the field, the struggling code’s embattled leaders simply couldn’t afford to keep five professional men’s clubs when it desperately needed to tighten the purse strings.
Worst of all, spreading the talent pool too thinly was killing the Wallabies’ brand and chances of returning to the top on the world stage.
For too long, rugby’s administrators tried to blame the NRL for ruthlessly poaching their best young players when the bitter truth was it was their own fault for not doing more to retain them.
Already, the first green shoots are starting to emerge. The best Rebels players have all found new homes, helping raise the standard of all four surviving state teams because of the increased depth and competition for places.
It is still early days, of course, but everything is trending in the right direction.
All four Australian teams are in the top six on the table with the Western Force, Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs all undefeated while the ACT Brumbies are the only Aussie team to lose so far after going down to the Force 45-42 in a 12-try thriller that could just as easily have won with some smarter game management.
The real challenge will come from the New Zealand teams as the season progresses but there are already enough signs to suggest the Kiwis won’t be as dominant as in previous seasons.
It won’t have gone unnoticed across the ditch that the real headline amid all the excitement around Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii’s debut was that the notoriously brittle Waratahs held their nerve to defeat the Highlanders side in round one.
The Highlanders have since franked that formline by knocking off the defending champions, the Auckland Blues, in round two.
The most obvious indicator of the improvement of the Australian sides this season has been the return of a more potent attack.
Aided by new, experimental laws designed to reduce wasted time at scrums, lineouts, penalties and conversions, as well as giving halfbacks more space to clear the ball, the opening two rounds have been wild, with 97 tries scored from the first 10 matches played.
The Force and the Brumbies have each scored 12 tries from their two matches – including six apiece in their 97-point frenzy at Canberra on Saturday night – while the Waratahs crossed six times against the Highlanders and the Reds piled on eight tries in their 56-36 romp against Moana Pasifika at Brisbane on Friday.
Collectively, the Australian sides have averaged 43.5 points and 6.1 tries a match and the entertainment value has never been higher.
The flipside is that questions still remain about their defence with the Aussie clubs giving up an average of 39.1 points and 5.3 tries each game.
2025 SUPER RUGBY ATTACK STATS
Western Force – 2 games, 2 wins, 0 losses, 12 tries, 90 points
ACT Brumbies – 2 games, 1 win, 1 loss, 12 tries, 78 points
Queensland Reds – 1 game, 1 win, 0 losses, 8 tries, 56 points
NSW Waratahs – 1 game, 1 win, 0 losses, 5 tries, 37 points
But if that’s the price for the improved collective performance that has come from cutting back to four teams, then it’s worth paying, though it will lead to an awkward dilemma if the wheels fall off.
How much better off would Australian rugby be with just three provincial sides?
That’s the curly teaser no-one wants to talk about just yet but it remains the elephant in the room going forward with plans already in the works to bring one or two Japanese sides into join Super Rugby in the near future.
Regardless of how they do in Super Rugby, the true measure of the depth of Australian rugby will be put under the blowtorch during this year’s British and Irish Lions later this year.
The Wallabies will start as the underdogs to win the three-Test series while the Super Rugby teams will do well to chalk up a single win between them because victories over the Lions are so rare.
While the Brumbies managed to upset the Lions during their last visit in 2013, the Reds haven’t beaten the Lions since 1971 and the Waratahs since 1959. The Force have never won against the combined forces of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
There are already strong whispers that the Australian states will be under orders to rest their best players this year in case they are needed for Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies Test squad, an idea which carries obvious benefits and risks.
Outside of regaining the World Cup or the Bledisloe Cup, nothing would give Australian rugby a bigger boost than knocking off the Lions.
But equally, nothing will deflate rugby’s loyal fanbase more than if the Wallabies and the Super Rugby teams get belted by the tourists.
With Australia hosting the men’s World Cup in 2027, the stakes are already high and with little room for error.
Julian Linden
February 24, 2025 - 7:04AM
News Sport Network
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Originally Posted by AndyS
