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Rugby Australia President Hamish McLennan.
Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images
Rugby Australia President Hamish McLennan fired a volley at his New Zealand their counterparts on Tuesday after a “wonderfully ironic” 16-16 test draw undermined claims that Australian teams do not deserve equal billing in renewed Super Rugby competition.
McLennan claimed his claim after the Wallabies’ greatly improved display in Wellington on Sunday, when they were inches from victory when Reece Hodge’s penalty after the siren hit the post.
“Throughout the year we have been told that we cannot compete, and that we don’t have the strength of the players, so a 16-16 draw was wonderfully ironic,” he told New Zealand. Stuff website.
Rugby governing bodies in New Zealand and Australia have been deep in discussions about the future of Super Rugby and the format of this year’s Test-level Rugby Championship.
Cash-strapped Australia has accused New Zealand, which has the biggest market and strongest teams, of arrogance after Kiwi officials said up to three Australian teams should be left out of a trans-Tasman Super competition. Rugby.
McLennan previously said the relationship between managers on both sides of the Tasman was at “the lowest ebb it has ever had.”
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa hosted national versions of Super Rugby this year after the southern hemisphere tournament was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.
But South Africa is now hoping to put four of its teams in Europe’s PRO14 after New Zealand put forward a proposal dropping South African teams and Argentina’s Jaguares.
Rugby Australia insisted that its five teams be included, rather than the two or four proposed by New Zealand.
As it stands, New Zealand and Australia will continue to operate separate national Super Rugby competitions in 2021, although plans remain fluid in such uncertain times.
McLennan said a Kiwi proposal to include untested teams from Hong Kong, Hawaii and an Auckland-based Pacific team was questionable.
“We were instructed that New Zealand wanted to create world-class competition, so three new teams advance, that’s a mockery of the original premise,” McLennan said.
“How do these teams compare to the Brumbies or the Reds?”
