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The solution to fix professional rugby in Australia is a competition that ensures an Australian team wins every week, and a strong focus on touring.
The regular proposals put forward to solve Australia’s crisis generally follow the NRL and AFL club competition models, however this provides a huge oversight in two departments. The player pool will struggle to be expanded beyond the four squads that we have in Super Rugby today. The money is not available to create the structure and local engagement needed overnight to run a professional competition.
The Shute Shield and Hospital Cup competitions are renowned for their competitive nature and tribalism. This club model is not broken and therefore we should not try to fix it. The clubs have tradition and following yet lack the infrastructure to deliver modern-day professionalism. Furthermore, creating a product identical to these two codes cements the rugby union position in Australia. No differentiation, no distinct market and competing in further diluted markets.
From the earliest recordings of rugby in Australia, there has long been a tradition of touring. In 1888, the British and Irish Lions travelled to Australia and New Zealand for the first time. The 35-match tour of two nations included no Tests, but they played provincial, city and academic sides. The British and Irish Lions tour next year is a timely reminder that touring, tradition and values are what make rugby such an extraordinary and unique sport.
Australia played its first Test against New Zealand in 1903 in front of a crowd of 30,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Between 1931 and 1981, the Bledisloe Cup was contested irregularly in the course of rugby tours between the two countries. It was contested annually from 1982 to 1995. Since 1996, the Cup has been contested as part of the Rugby Championship alongside South Africa and New Zealand. In 2026, the All Blacks are set for an eight-match tour of South Africa featuring three Tests and five provincial fixtures.
2026 provides Australia with an opportunity to reset the balance of their season calendar. At present, Super Rugby Pacific confines the domestic season from February to June. The international windows confine Wallabies fixtures to July. The Rugby Championship provides a paltry three home fixtures taking the Wallabies to a total of six in each calendar year. The time is now for Australia to walk away from a schedule, format and competitions that no longer serve them.
The Wallabies generate the largest share of revenue for rugby in Australia. To drive growth in the game means hosting more fixtures in engaging series that capture the imagination of the spectator. This would encompass New Zealand and Australia ‘touring’ during agreed months of the season calendar, with a tour in March and April involving all domestic teams and culminating in a fixture near Anzac Day. The reverse tour would be used to close their respective seasons in September. Keeping the Test series to two games would provide six All Blacks fixtures in Australia and vice versa.
To generate revenue for our domestic teams means hosting more than the seven fixtures that they are guaranteed every year in Super Rugby Pacific. The 2020 and 2021 Super Rugby AU seasons showed that there is an appetite for a state-based competition excluding NZ-based teams. Retaining the four existing teams is a cost-effective way of retaining a provincial structure that sets rugby apart from NRL and AFL. The calendar needs to be logically organised, accommodating for its supporters and a valuable entertainment product.
The proposal is to create a competition for the Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies and Force that encourages tour-based series. To provide a parity of fixtures to the current calendar, this would mean that the Force would tour New South Wales playing a minimum of three fixtures.
Tate McDermott of the Reds. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
This would create an opportunity for the Waratahs to host games whereby fixtures could be played in Sydney, Newcastle and other areas to engage a state-wide audience. With a home and away series, this would provide all four teams with nine home fixtures and eighteen fixtures in total.
The top two teams after all series are completed could then compete in a grand final to complete the season. Name the trophy for each series after players who have played for both teams, engage new audiences and provide more rugby for the television contracts.
While we continue to debate the future of Super Rugby and hypothesise over a national club competition, professionalism is dwindling due to a lack of fixtures and lack of direction. Going backwards to go forwards might just be the most pragmatic solution.
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