{"id":738587,"date":"2026-06-15T19:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738587\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:26:15","slug":"ex-all-black-reveals-frustration-at-super-rugby-punching-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738587\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-All Black reveals frustration at Super Rugby ‘punching bag’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former All Black and respected pundit James Parsons insists that modern day Super Rugby Pacific has been given an unfair rap.<\/p>\n

Once considered the best non-international competition in the sport, interest has waned over the years and the current format has had its critics.<\/p>\n

With South Africa exiting Super Rugby in 2020, it is now effectively a trans-Tasman competition, although there has been Pacific Island representation in the form of Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

Improving Super Rugby\u2019s product<\/p>\n

Over recent times, southern hemisphere bigwigs have looked to make it more fan-centric with particular attention paid to speeding up the game and reducing the amount of \u2018dead time\u2019 caused by unnecessary stoppages.<\/p>\n

That has created a high-octane product where attack has dominated, as evidenced by the weekend\u2019s semi-finals, but it hasn\u2019t necessarily brought too many more people through the gates.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that, despite the number of points scored. the Chiefs<\/a> v Crusaders and Hurricanes<\/a> v Blues encounters were blowouts.<\/p>\n

However, Parsons believes that Super Rugby<\/a> has found a good balance between appealing to the purists and making it exciting for the newer fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed the semi-finals on the weekend, there was still tension, there was still drama,\u201d he said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a game that has purposefully shaped new rules to bring in new fans; to hold onto the traditionalists like myself, which I still get out of the current game and current Super Rugby, and bring in new engaging fans where you\u2019re going to see a lot of points and wow factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first half of the Chiefs-Crusaders, my wife reckoned I said: \u2018Holy s***, wow, how did that happen? Who did that?\u2019 over and over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t comprehend what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurricanes v Blues: Five takeaways as All Blacks shine for \u2018record-breaking\u2019 Canes to ruthlessly punish \u2018ill-disciplined\u2019 lucky losers<\/a><\/p>\n

Top 14 comparison<\/p>\n

The interest in Super Rugby has paled in comparison to the likes of the Top 14, which is a competition that continues to go from strength to strength.<\/p>\n

Games regularly sell out in France, there is a big TV deal in place and, as a result, the budgets of the French clubs are significantly bigger than those in the southern hemisphere.<\/p>\n

But that does not mean it is infallible, especially when it comes to the entertainment on the field, according to former All Blacks hooker Parsons.<\/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

\u201cI think Super Rugby does become this punching bag. Go run your eyes over the URC<\/a> and Top 14, there are lots of blowouts and there are lower teams, it\u2019s not all roses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we necessarily watch so much of it that you can form enough of an opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper Rugby is a great product and if we can get a Super Rugby final that finishes 42-40, I\u2019m all for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Chiefs v Crusaders: Five takeaways as Damian McKenzie \u2018the architect\u2019 in hosts\u2019 victory while Leicester Fainga\u2019anuku \u2018fails to fire\u2019 for visitors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Black and respected pundit James Parsons insists that modern day Super Rugby Pacific has been given…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,44,760,85,29898,68429,134441],"class_list":["post-738587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby","tag-top-14","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738587","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=738587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}