{"id":946103,"date":"2026-10-30T07:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946103\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:24:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:24:50","slug":"super-rugby-overhaul-rugby-australia-and-nzr-discuss-nrl-style-open-borders-competition-to-boost-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946103\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Rugby overhaul: Rugby Australia and NZR discuss NRL-style ‘open borders’ competition to boost interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iain<\/p>\n

October 30, 2026 \u2014 2:00pm<\/p>\n

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Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh says a potential overhaul of Super Rugby to create an NRL-style, open borders competition would be \u201cenormous\u201d, and is keen to fast-track talks with New Zealand counterparts to help revive the competition and make it more attractive to investors.<\/p>\n

As part of an overall recommitment to Super Rugby<\/a>, New Zealand Rugby announced on Thursday it was open to discuss a change of its eligibility policy to allow Kiwi stars to play for Super Rugby clubs in Australia, while still being able to play for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\"CouldCould Wallabies star Angus Bell end up playing for the Crusaders, or another Kiwi franchise?Getty Images<\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby currently doesn\u2019t allow any overseas-based players to be selected for the All Blacks. Australian rugby altered its policy in 2015 and now allows for the selection of three offshore players per series.<\/p>\n

New Zealand still counts as overseas for RA, but under a possible shift to \u201copen borders\u201d, both national unions would view playing for any club in Super Rugby as playing at home.<\/p>\n

That could potentially see Wallaby star Angus Bell packing down for the Crusaders, or All Blacks maestro Beauden Barrett reuniting with Vern Cotter for a season at the Queensland Reds, but then returning to their respective corners come Bledisloe Cup time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on the table, as are a whole raft of things,\u201d NZR chief executive Steve Lancaster said. \u201cOne of the things that we\u2019ve talked about internally and with Rugby Australia is that as we look at the future of Super Rugby, we want to be really ambitious and bold about the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BeaudenBeauden Barrett and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii pose during the 2025 Super Rugby season launch.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lancaster was speaking after the NZR board reaffirmed its commitment to Super Rugby and the NPC, after the option of the Kiwis walking away<\/a> from both was floated at a summit last month to address gloomy financial forecasts and ways to cut costs.<\/p>\n

While NZR discussing \u201copen borders\u201d in Super Rugby \u2013 similar to the cross-pollination of trans-Tasman players seen in the NRL \u2013 is still very tentative, it is still a big step. Rugby Australia has pushed for the change for years, but NZR weren\u2019t interested due to a lack of trust in the high-performance systems in Australia.<\/p>\n

Waugh said on Friday that \u201cthe relationship with New Zealand Rugby is as strong as it\u2019s ever been\u201d and that there was now a shared understanding that bold thinking is required to revive the loss-making Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be enormous,\u201d Waugh said of the potential impact on Super Rugby. \u201cJust the mentality of having a one-competition narrative rather than what has been historically, which is five New Zealand teams, a Fijian team, four Australian teams, and everyone talking about an Australian team versus a New Zealand team.<\/p>\n

\"RugbyRugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh with NZ Rugby counterpart Steve Lancaster at the Super Rugby Pacific launch earlier this year.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if we can elevate ourselves above that and focus optimising it as one competition, that is really powerful. Ultimately, you\u2019re looking at it as you\u2019ve got 10 clubs in the competition, and you\u2019ve got an open market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about the number of All Blacks fans that reside in Australia, and equally the Australians who are living in New Zealand, it\u2019d add additional spice and interest \u2013 and that ultimately leads to a more successful product.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone [at RA and NZR] is looking at rugby and how do we elevate rugby in our region, and we are very conscious we need to do that together with a positive focus \u2026 and not so much around a defensive mindset where we\u2019re just protecting our own backyard. It\u2019s very much around actually having a very open mind to what is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given no Australian side has won Super Rugby since 2014, or even had reached the grand final, an \u201copen borders\u201d shift stands to help the Aussie teams more than the other way around. But balancing out an increasingly predictable competition, and reintroducing an element of jeopardy, would still benefit both.<\/p>\n

\"DamianDamian McKenzie makes a break for the All Blacks.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Waugh said there would need to be safeguards about ensuring such a shift didn\u2019t come at the cost of opportunities for young homegrown talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to ensure that the opportunity for Australian players is there to come through the system, you\u2019d definitely need to ensure the balance is right,\u201d Waugh said.<\/p>\n

Though traditionally conservative \u2013 and loath to imperil the success of the All Blacks \u2013 New Zealand Rugby\u2019s financial struggles have opened the door for more progressive thinking, as seen by them agreeing to an Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup next year. All Blacks coach Dave Rennie was a key figure in supporting that event, and the former Wallabies coach might be influential around the open borders idea, too.<\/p>\n

Lancaster said Rennie would be one of the Kiwi contingent to consider the \u201cpros and cons\u201d, and along with Cotter, Simon Cron, Mike Cron and Joe Schmidt, there are now multiple respected Kiwi rugby figures with insights into Australian rugby who could give comfort about the high-performance environments.<\/p>\n

\"CarterCarter Gordon in action for the Reds against the Crusaders.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolute alignment with us and New Zealand Rugby around the fact that the Super Rugby competition needs to be investible in its own right. And for it to be investible, it\u2019s got to be the best competition in the world. It has been historically, and it certainly can be again,\u201d Waugh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverlaying all of that is that we know that they want to ensure that their teams in black need to continue to win, and our focus is our teams in gold winning and being in the final weekend of the Rugby World Cup. We want to be in the top three teams in the world as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yep, you need to have a competition that\u2019s underpinning that performance element. But equally you need to have a competition that stands on its own is really interesting and attractive for audiences to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Kurtley<\/a><\/p>\n

Waugh said he hoped to \u201cmove as quickly as possible\u201d on pushing through the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working with New Zealand Rugby closely across our executive teams for some time, just around what this could look like,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d much prefer, now that we are in a sort of position of certainty around the direction of travel, that we accelerate those conversations to get to an outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Close\"IainIain Payten<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 30, 2026 \u2014 2:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-946103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946103","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=946103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}