In a wide-ranging interview with the Rugby Direct podcast, Gillies outlined his belief that Super Rugby has a pimple that must be popped. Everything, from privatisation to player movement, transfer fees, New Zealand\u2019s contracting model, eligibility and kickoff times, should evolve for the competition to survive.<\/p>\n
Hurricanes co-owner Malcolm Gillies says Super Rugby must change or it will die.<\/p>\n
Gillies\u2019 public push for change comes as Super Rugby powerbrokers gather in Christchurch this weekend at the opening of the One NZ Stadium<\/a> to discuss the future of the competition.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we got involved, we knew the Hurricanes were losing money … the model doesn\u2019t work. Unless there\u2019s change, it\u2019s not going to work,\u201d Gillies told Rugby Direct.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got five, six, franchises in New Zealand and none of them are making a lot of money. There\u2019s got to be change. The whole system has to change. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s sustainable as it sits right now.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it stays the way it is now, I fear for it. If there\u2019s change, then I believe we\u2019ve got a product. But if it doesn\u2019t, I believe it\u2019s going to die. That\u2019s my honest opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cEven more than that, if it doesn\u2019t change, it\u2019s not going to achieve what New Zealand Rugby or private investment wants. It probably isn\u2019t going to achieve what the fans or players want either.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good people out there that know we have to do something for the betterment of Super and New Zealand rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n Gillies admits he doesn\u2019t have all the solutions. While some of his proposals would be challenging to pull off, there is no doubting his passion to drive change.<\/p>\n Backers willing to shell out millions on often loss-making sports teams are rare, but attracting further private investment is one avenue Gillies believes would help to sustain Super Rugby.<\/p>\n For this to be attractive, though, he says New Zealand Rugby\u2019s centralised contracting model, in which the national body pays the salaries of the five New Zealand Super teams, should allow the franchises more freedom to retain players and recruit overseas stars.<\/p>\n \u201cMy belief is it needs to be privatised. It cannot continue the way it is at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Gillies points to Sir Graham Henry\u2019s<\/a> recent criticism that Super Rugby isn\u2019t producing enough quality players to compete on the international stage.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to change the competition to give you enough competition to give you those sorts of players.<\/p>\n \u201cShould we bring in South Africa or Japan? Those things, I won\u2019t be here long enough. I\u2019m 67, I\u2019ll be dead before that\u2019s ever resolved because they take forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the collective agreement, NZ Super teams are permitted to sign a maximum of two foreign players. <\/p>\n \u201cSurely allowing overseas players to come and play in our competition would work. Why wouldn\u2019t you? Imagine if you had the big South African lock [Eben Etzebeth] coming over here. That would certainly solve some of the crowd problems because you\u2019re going to get people wanting to come and see world-class players.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s practical, but I do see the major problem that we\u2019re not producing world-class players, and that\u2019s because the competition isn\u2019t strong enough.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can\u2019t get other countries involved, we could get other players to come in and play. Look at Warner Dearns<\/a> out of Japan. Look at the difference that made. He\u2019s become a bit of a folk hero. Maybe we should open the gates and bring in more people like that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could explore all things. Should we [Super teams] be contracting and paying the players? Should we have a contract to release them for international duties? There\u2019s a lot of stakeholders here, and you\u2019ve got to get them all onside, but some of these things are no-brainers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want private investment in these Super clubs, you\u2019ve got to give them something to invest in. From what I\u2019ve seen, there\u2019s not a lot there at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, the Hurricanes will farewell two promising 23-year-old prospects \u2013 wing Fehi Fineanganofo, this season\u2019s leading try-scorer, and talented midfielder Riley Higgins \u2013 as well as lock Isaia Walker-Leawere and others. Flanker Devan Flanders is also contemplating a big-money offer from Japan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible,\u201d Gillies said. \u201cEveryone is struggling within New Zealand to stop them going from one Super team to the other, but from overseas there\u2019s no comparison. We cannot pay those players the numbers they\u2019re being offered, and that\u2019s a shame.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Super clubs, we\u2019re trying to get around the table and be proactive. Everyone with half a brain knows something has got to change. Money will be one of those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Gillies also questioned why there was no contracting metric that allowed a return on investment and development to New Zealand rugby when players cashed in abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a player goes overseas, why aren\u2019t we getting a transfer fee? Why isn\u2019t that passed back to the rugby club he came from, or to the Hurricanes? Why is it [that] we train and nurture our people and they go to Japan?<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got strength and conditioning trainers earning three times their salary abroad. You can\u2019t blame the guys for taking the money.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to have a goal in Super Rugby to have the best competition in the world that pays the most to the players and coaches. That should be driving us.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s never been as much motivation to look at things differently as there is right now.<\/p>\n \u201cAs chairman of the Hurricanes, I\u2019ve just got involved. I\u2019m the new boy on the block, but I sense there\u2019s a will to explore change and all options. There\u2019s a desire to not just try and tweak it. There has to be something fundamentally changed for this thing to work. All things must be on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Adopting some form of draft system to spread talent more evenly throughout the competition and allowing free movement, by which all players could represent New Zealand or Australian Super teams while remaining eligible for their national sides, are other possible avenues.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be practical. If you want your players to be getting quality competition and you can\u2019t give it to them in this country, why wouldn\u2019t you allow them to go somewhere else to play and still select them?\u201d<\/p>\n In an attempt to engage fans and bring back crowds, Gillies recently penned an open letter to Hurricanes supporters, imploring them to attend games.<\/p>\n After surveying fans, consulting Auckland FC and the Warriors \u2013 the latter of which have sold out Hnry Stadium this weekend in their sole appearance in Wellington this year \u2013 he has pushed to allow supporters on the field after full time, doubled the spending on entertainment such as bands and lights, brought in food trucks and instigated 500 $10 vouchers for kids\u2019 food. <\/p>\n He\u2019s not alone, with Blues boss Karl Budge<\/a> hiring music acts, such as the Drax Project last weekend, welcoming a light and laser show, a Lego kids\u2019 zone and a party area to Eden Park. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can to provide better entertainment and work with the stadium, fighting tooth and nail,\u201d Gillies said. \u201cWe know what people are saying, money is tight. People want 4pm games and we\u2019re forced to do it at 7. We want mum, dad and the kids to come, but we\u2019re playing at 7pm. We should be playing at 4.\u201d<\/p>\n Super Rugby\u2019s financial issues are prevalent throughout the professional scene, except in the French Top 14, where teams are bankrolled by wealthy individuals. Yet Gillies remains a believer if all parties can support the push for change.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of challenges, but they\u2019re not insurmountable. I\u2019m going to give it my best shot, but if it doesn\u2019t evolve, I won\u2019t be hanging around. If it doesn\u2019t change, it won\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n Liam Napier<\/a> is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a wide-ranging interview with the Rugby Direct podcast, Gillies outlined his belief that Super Rugby has a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[76070,64,63,20971,129642,27932,56112,302577,5393,130184,302576,10569,302578,36440,204256,760,44161,85,302579,1643,175598,302580,26429,206073],"class_list":{"0":"post-624671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-arms","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-call","12":"tag-chairman","13":"tag-change","14":"tag-changes","15":"tag-coowner","16":"tag-could","17":"tag-delivered","18":"tag-gillies","19":"tag-hurricanes","20":"tag-impassioned","21":"tag-made","22":"tag-malcolm","23":"tag-rugby","24":"tag-serious","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-suggesting","27":"tag-super","28":"tag-survive","29":"tag-unless","30":"tag-without","31":"tag-wont"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fehi Fineanganofo celebrates another try for the Hurricanes. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n