RA versus NZR: Super Rugby stand-off continues

SPOTLIGHT: Rugby Australia might walk away from their Super Rugby partnership after the governing body was left disappointed with New Zealand Rugby, according to reports.

Fox Sports reported that representatives from Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby met in Adelaide ahead of the Rugby Championship clash between the Wallabies and Springboks.

The aim of the meeting was to secure a partnership between the two unions which would lock in a Super Rugby deal until 2030.

At the meeting, NZR chief executive Mark Robinson and NZR board members Bart Campbell and Bailey Mackey, as well as Blues chairman Don Mackinnon addressed RA CEO Andy Marinos,  RA chair Hamish McLennan, director Matthew Hanning, Waratahs chair Tony Crawford and Brumbies chair Matt Nobbs.

NZR chief executive Robinson reportedly agreed to Rugby Australia’s 50-50 split in broadcasting revenue.

Since then New Zealand has presented an alternative proposal.

However, with a British and Irish Lions series on the horizon in 2025, a home World Cup in 2027, and a private equity deal nearing, RA believes they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they accepted the proposal.

“The idea of that meeting in Adelaide was to get everyone together and try and ink a deal,” Nobbs told foxsports.com.au.

“And they had done a body of work, but it seemed that they had done the body of work before consulting with their members.

“It seems once they presented to us, they’ve then gone back to their members and said this is our proposal to RA and I think their members have obviously gone, hold on, ‘I think you probably need to try a little bit harder and let’s see if we can screw a bit more out of RA’.”

“I think if you’re going to have a fair and equitable partnership, which is what RA is striving to do, you don’t want a situation where you’ve got a dominant partner."

He added: “I think those northern hemisphere nations have caught up to us.

“Personally, I think we’ve got to work together to make this a really, really strong competition.

“To do that, it’s got to be a fair and equitable partnership because you don’t want a dominant part that is attempting to screw the other.”

Fox Sports reported that the tensions come as NZR attempts to push RA towards signing a private equity deal with Silver Lake.

After a year of negotiations, the NZR signed off on a $AU180m deal with the US firm. A number of other unions, as well as the Six Nations, have signed deals with CVC.

It means the NZR could be isolated if RA don’t sign a deal with Silver Lake.

Source: FoxSports.com