All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan has rejected the notion that Super Rugby is better off without the South African sides involved.
The Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers were ousted from the southern hemisphere tournament in 2020 and joined the United Rugby Championship.
Many believe that it is has negatively impacted Super Rugby and would like to see them return, but chief executive Jack Mesley disagrees.
“Well, if you go back and look at the data, those games did not rate well,” Mesley said last week.
“They did not attend well. They did not rate like we’re rating now. They did not attend like we are attending now.
“So, I think there is a romance associated with the South African days.”
Kirwan hits out
Kirwan’s response to those comments was blunt as he said on the Rivals podcast: “That’s bull****”, before stating that “the CEO has to say that.”
He then posed the question: “What is Super Rugby? Is it a competition or is it a high performance competition to prepare us for Test matches?”
Victor Matfield joined Kirwan on the show and gave his view on Super Rugby having competed in it while playing for the Bulls.
“Super Rugby was the best competition in the world, I get goosebumps thinking about it,” Matfield said.
“Waking up as a kid, looking at the Blues running everyone wild and then the Crusaders taking over, and then we came through.
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“Every Saturday morning, I was up at four or five watching the games – that was the closest to Test match rugby you could get.
“I thought it was tougher to win Super Rugby than a World Cup because you needed to perform at a high level for 12 weeks. Then you maybe needed to go overseas and win a semi-final in New Zealand, whereas in a World Cup you only need to win three tough games.
“It was a brilliant competition when it was Super 10, Super 12. After that when they started going to this pool system, it lost a little bit and where it’s standing now, only you guys can tell.”
All Blacks hampered by Super Rugby
Many believe that the lack of South African teams in Super Rugby has hampered the All Blacks and Wallabies at Test level. That includes Kirwan, who feels that New Zealand have been disadvantaged by the change in format.
“I understand why he said that, I just do not agree with him at all. I don’t agree with him from a high performance point of view because I think we are missing the physique and the style of rugby South Africa bring,” he said.
“From a high performance point of view, I think we’ve gone backwards. That means the leap from Super Rugby to Test rugby is way bigger than it used to be.
“I would love to see the data around the crowds, I just don’t think what he said was on the money.”
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