Australia is contemplating a Big Bash-style domestic rugby competition dotted with international names as New Zealand attitudes appear to harden against a five-team Australian presence next year | SMHsport
Australia is contemplating a Big Bash-style domestic rugby competition dotted with international names as New Zealand attitudes appear to harden against a five-team Australian presence next year.
The other half of the nine-person NZR board favoured a 10-team trans-Tasman model with a degree of open borders policy on player movement, sources told theBut if the conservative faction of the board were to win out, Australia would have no choice but to go it alone, building out a six- or eight-team domestic competition and opening up squads to South African and Argentinian players, in a riff on the international flavour of cricket's Big Bash League.
But in the face of potential strong-arm tactics from New Zealand, who would control the eight-team competition, RA is understood to be comfortable with an amped-up domestic option. One of the recommendations, widely foreshadowed in Australia in recent months, was to disband the 25-year-old SANZAAR joint venture at a Super Rugby level, leaving the four-nation alliance intact for the international level Rugby Championship only.
Unions could be forced to agree a one-year interim structure and reassess at a later stage, pending travel restrictions.New Zealand's concerns appear to centre on Australia's capacity to field five teams of sufficient strength.
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