A Super League would be perfect for Irish rugby but too many barriers stand in the way

Ruaidhri O'Connor

Vakh Abdaladze in training with team-mates Ross Molony, left, and Scott Penny during Leinster rugby squad training at UCD ahead of the Rainbow Cup clash with Munster. Leinster could be preparing to face leading the South African club sides in next year's revamped PRO16. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Vakh Abdaladze in training with team-mates Ross Molony, left, and Scott Penny during Leinster rugby squad training at UCD ahead of the Rainbow Cup clash with Munster. Leinster could be preparing to face leading the South African club sides in next year's revamped PRO16. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

April 21 2021 02:30 AM

As European football’s elite tears itself apart in this moment of existential crisis, Irish rugby waits on word from South Africa. It is expected that the four powerhouse franchises who were supposed to come on board for the Rainbow Cup will withdraw today, leaving Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht with a rather unappealing vista of an ill-conceived competition against the same old faces.

A Super League featuring the best clubs in Europe securing blue-chip television deals and guaranteed big games against top-quality opposition week in, week out?

Where do we sign?

Ireland’s four provinces are hamstrung by geography and other countries’ tradition, stuck in a competition with the other unwanted nations of world rugby.

The hope is that the arrival of the South Africans into an expanded Guinness PRO16 from next season will transform the competition and generate more interest and they will certainly add quality to the top end of a tournament full of average teams.

The Stormers, The Sharks, The Lions and The Bulls are big clubs who play at stadiums that dwarf the capacity of any of the existing PRO14 sides. They bring international players who play a different style of rugby and the will help prepare the best Irish players for international rugby.

They have been part of Super Rugby since its inception and, while there’s a passionate contingent of people who love nothing more than tuning into events from the southern hemisphere, their names do not scratch the surface of the general public consciousness.

Arranging the cross-continental Rainbow Cup in the middle of a pandemic was all about the cash from the European perspective and all about game-time for the home-based Springboks who haven’t played an international since the World Cup final.

The format was deeply flawed and it came at a price. The PRO14, which only featured 12 teams last season but was still split into two conferences for some reason, sacrificed a couple of rounds of regular season fixtures and its play-offs to rush through the 2020/’21 season.

Ulster were the biggest losers, achieving the same number of points as Munster but missing out at a shot at the title and fans missed out on a highly competitive semi-final between two highly competitive teams.

If you can’t remember the outrage that greeted the curtailing of the season, that’s because it barely caused a murmur.

All of the big decisions took place during the Six Nations and, even if they didn’t, the PRO14 simply struggles for media oxygen.

The league lacks a clear identity, most Irish fans will tune into the games involving Irish teams and ignore the Welsh, Scots and Italians who do likewise.

That, of course, is those lucky enough to have access to the majority of matches which are shown on eir Sport; a broadcaster simply inaccessible to large swathes of the population.

With eir exiting the market, there’s a chance to get more eyeballs on the games from next season and last we heard RTÉ and Sky Sports were the front-runners for the rights.

CVC Capital Partners have bought a sizeable chunk of the competition with a view to increasing its profitability and, considering they also have a stake in the English Premiership, there is some hope that the two tournaments could be closer aligned in future.

While the Top 14 is so strong and successful that it’s almost impossible to envisage the French ever breaking away, the Premiership is a struggling financial ship that could perhaps could one day be convinced of the merits of an expansion.

Certainly, the South Africans make it a more attractive proposition and add real heft in terms of numbers. It is expected that they’ll become part of the Champions Cup from 2022.

It will make the PRO16 and the Champions Cup harder to win, but that would be a price worth paying for better, more compelling fare throughout the season.

For now, locked-out fans of the Irish provinces will have to make to with three rounds of interpros, another three games against Welsh, Scottish or Italian opposition and, if their team does the business, a final.

Considering the season has been running for 35 weeks since rugby resumed, it’s a tough sell to the casual viewer.

Next season will be a bit better, but if the Irish provinces were offered the chance to join a breakaway Super League they’d bite your hand off.