{"id":681595,"date":"2026-05-19T21:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681595\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:20:13","slug":"all-blacks-legend-sir-john-kirwan-declares-super-rugby-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681595\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan declares Super Rugby ‘over’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan insists it is time for change and that New Zealand must move on from Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

The southern hemisphere tournament was created after the game went professional in 1995 and for a period was the strongest club competition in the sport.<\/p>\n

However, interest has waned over the years and the loss of the South Africa franchises has not helped matters, even if their exit was inevitable according to former NZ Rugby chair Brent Impey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Super Rugby\u2019s financial problems<\/p>\n

Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> was set up in an attempt to get it back on track but finances have been an issue with Melbourne Rebels going bust in 2024.<\/p>\n

Moana Pasifika will go the same way unless a buyer is found, meaning that it will go down from 12 to 10 teams in 2027 if nothing alters.<\/p>\n

Kirwan does not believe that it is a product which is capturing the fans\u2019 interest despite the on-field entertainment and feels it is the time for radical change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that Super Rugby has been amazing for us for the last 30 years but I think it\u2019s over. I think we need to redefine it, we need to understand what it is and I believe that we need to get back to tribalism and traditionalism,\u201d he said on the Rivals podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was me, I would bring in another three New Zealand<\/a> sides and I would say to the Australians, \u2018why don\u2019t you bring back Randwick?\u2019 And we play like an NRL.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, the other thing that needs to change in rugby is we need to divide up the money differently. We need some television rights for the franchises so they can start being professional and start surviving by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: The \u2018bigger picture\u2019 problem with Australia\u2019s lack of success in Super Rugby and the forgotten Wallaby knocking on the door<\/a><\/p>\n

The derbies have consistently drawn the best crowds in New Zealand and Kirwan<\/a> wants the sport\u2019s decision-makers to play on those rivalries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for change, it\u2019s time to have courage and I think tribalism and traditionalism is what great sport nations go on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou meet someone from England, \u2018where do you come from?\u2019 and they say: \u2018Manchester.\u2019 Well are they United or City? You ask them and they will go, \u2018my team\u2019s Tottenham\u2019 for example or in rugby, will go Harlequins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to take a real good look at rugby. We had courage to go professional 30 years ago and we need to have courage now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the northern hemisphere, I think France is going great, I believe the English game is really buoyant with big crowds, but in the southern hemisphere we\u2019re getting smaller crowds and I just thing we need to have come courage to make some change, and I think that\u2019s tribalism and traditionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks legend\u2019s view<\/p>\n

Springboks legend Victor Matfield, who joined Kirwan on the show, then chimed in, insisting that it is something South Africa have got right at youth level.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk about tribalism and I think that\u2019s what we get in South Africa with schoolboy rugby at the moment. All these big schoolboy games get at least 20,000, it\u2019s sold out. It\u2019s packed every weekend. Every weekend there are three or four big derbies,\u201d Matfield said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, that enthusiasm is less prevalent in the professional game. While franchises have drawn bigger crowds for the all-South African clashes, they are finding it more difficult to shift tickets for the other games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bulls play at Loftus right next to it and they don\u2019t get 20,000 people and that shouldn\u2019t be like that,\u201d Matfield added.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (the fans) do get it but they get it when they play the Stormers or they play the Sharks, or even when they play the Leinster\u2019s or the Munster\u2019s, but when we play Zebre, Benetton or one of the Welsh sides, people don\u2019t come to the games. They would rather sit at home or go to school games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat part of the game, South Africans haven\u2019t caught onto it and it\u2019s the same thing with the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me that\u2019s the best competition to play in. If you want to be considered the best club team in the world, you need to win the Champions Cup, but the South African fans haven\u2019t bought into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: SA Rugby president backtracks on comments following Champions Cup controversy amid South Africa\u2019s \u2018unique problem\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan insists it is time for change and that New Zealand must move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,3925,66248,5386,29897,217781,215801,818,10569,216832,1736,44,12061,760,1184,85,29898,33009,11229],"class_list":["post-681595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blues","tag-brumbies","tag-chiefs","tag-crusaders","tag-fijian-drua","tag-highlanders","tag-home-page","tag-hurricanes","tag-moana-pasifika","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sir-john-kirwan","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby","tag-waratahs","tag-western-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681595","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=681595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}