Ex-NZ Rugby chair claims South Africa made Super Rugby ‘completely uneconomic’ as the ‘killer blow’ which led to their departure revealed
Lions taking on Crusaders in 2018 Super Rugby final and ex-NZ Rugby chair Brent Impey.
Former New Zealand Rugby bigwig Brent Impey has claimed South Africa left organisers with no other choice but to axe them from Super Rugby with a return highly unlikely.
Fans, coaches and players have pointed to the exit of the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers as a key reason in the decline of the All Blacks and Wallabies.
Many have clamoured for their return since their departure in 2020 but, given the reasons for South Africa’s move to align with the northern hemisphere club season, it would be a surprise should they go back.
Impey was chair of NZ Rugby when those talks took place six years ago about Super Rugby’s future and revealed the three factors which resulted in the split.
The ‘killer blow’ for South Africa in Super Rugby
“I don’t think there was any choice. There were a combination of factors. First of all, there was Covid, which meant that we couldn’t travel to South Africa, or they couldn’t travel here,” he told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“There was that restriction, which was significant, and the cost of airfares meant that it became completely uneconomic and that unfortunately included the Jaguares out of Argentina.
“A second factor was that South Africa always wanted to go north, they’ve wanted to go north for a long time, but thirdly, and the killer blow – and it’s hardly ever been reported on despite many attempts to do so – is that from 1995 right through to 2020, all of Super Rugby and SANZAAR negotiations and television had been in US dollars.
“In 2020, SuperSport in South Africa changed it to the rand and in 1995 the New Zealand dollar was three to one for the rand. By 2020 it was 12 to one.”
NZ Rugby would have to ‘subsidise’ everyone
As a result of that decision to change the currency, Impey stated that it made it impossible for NZ Rugby to accept that deal and, as a result, they cut ties with the South African franchises.
The former chair of the governing body insisted that if the deal gone through, NZR would have had to prop up South Africa.
“The South Africans made it completely uneconomic and had we gone ahead with that deal, New Zealand Rugby would have had to subsidise not only Australia and Argentina, which South Africa and us had done for years in a very free and open manner, to having to subsidise the lot. We simply couldn’t afford that.
“It’s been one of my criticisms of the media is the lack of business and economic analysis of these sort of issues.”
Since leaving Super Rugby, the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers have aligned their club season with the north having joined the United Rugby Championship in 2021.
They have also been accepted into the continental competitions, the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, but the Springboks are still involved in the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship.
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