By Brett Papworth

So rugby in Australia is struggling. Well actually, that isn’t completely true.

For those who love local, tribal competition, club Rugby goes from strength to strength. Crowds are up; passion for the game is as strong as it was when a Sydney club game often saw 10 Wallabies on the park; and importantly, it is bloody hard to pick a winner. Plus, it is the only free to air TV Rugby you can watch, in our game’s biggest market, NSW.

The Rugby community is voting with their feet, and while crowds are not flash at the professional end of the game, it is blatantly obvious to me that a strong pulse still exists at a local, tribal level. Junior participation is strong, and interest in schools Rugby is as passionate as ever (even though AFL and others are making big inroads).

So, while the game really battles for relevance in many places, the heart beats strongly. The question is; will those who direct the future of our game take any notice?

I won’t rehash the issues Rugby faces, as you are all well aware of what they are! Except to say that if it had been the NSW Waratahs who had been cut a week or two back, would we have cared? I venture to say that it is the Super Rugby concept that is the problem, not which teams are in or out?

Where to from here? What should our game look like? How do we regain some relevance?

Let us start with a basic premise or two:

1. The job of the governing body is to do nothing more than encourage and develop an environment that enables us to select 23 quality people to win a rugby game. Ideally a Bledisloe or World Cup. Everything else comes after that, including money.

2. A total of 80% of all registered players come from NSW and Queensland. It is imperative we get it right in our heartland. Yes, WA and Victoria are important, and should be developed, but if we fail in our heartland it just won’t matter.

Firstly, make the competition as strong and competitive as you can, as low down the chain as you can. You need heroes playing as locally as possible, so the kids see that level as a worthy dream. Seven home games at Moore Park is simply not getting the job done. We need a domestic competition if we are to regain any relevance on the sporting landscape.

When local heroes emerge at our 12 Sydney clubs (and nine in Brisbane), and grade Rugby is important again (to a wider audience than just us), you will have 21 clubs in Rugby’s heartland doing the development work and providing a meaningful pathway for our kids. Allow the clubs to be successful and important again and they will generate the revenue required to attract and retain the kids. Broadcasters are interested in matches people want to watch, so let the players play in them and sell it.

The NRL has 192 matches per year (excluding finals), with 11 NSW based clubs. It works a treat!

We have seven Waratahs matches at Moore Park!

We have 108 club matches in NSW alone that actually matter, and 72 in Brisbane. Even half of those on TV in the game’s biggest markets are worth more to the broadcaster than Super Rugby matches that no-one watches and involve teams we don’t care about.

Then we can move on to a provincial or state based competition, perhaps to run parallel with New Zealand’s NPC. It’s important here to keep a presence in Victoria and WA, because they have done a lot of work and we owe it to them to not walk away.

I tend to favour a NRC style competition, because it gives you a broader base, and can include potentially more teams, and therefore provide a greater number of players an opportunity at a higher level. There is no reason why we can’t also have a state-based National Championship, which gives the Rebels, Force and Brumbies some continuity and purpose, while also giving the broadcaster some meaningful content.

There is clearly plenty of detail to work through; like scheduling; but even rough numbers tell me that right there you have potentially 40 odd provincial matches and 180 club matches (excluding finals) that involve our best players. That has to be more attractive to broadcasters than 142 Super Rugby matches that mostly involve teams we don’t really care about, at times when most of us are asleep. I believe we could make a case that continues to fund the game to the level required.

These are just my thoughts and ideas, and there are plenty of quality people who have others. It probably doesn’t matter what we do, as long as the basic premise is adhered to. In my opinion, we have to get good again, and when we do the world will want to play us, and the international dollars will come.

The big issue the ARU has is that the broadcast deal includes 13 international broadcasters, and some big money is paid by Northern Hemisphere broadcasters to watch the Cheetahs play the Sunwolves, at a viewer friendly 9am. We in Australia benefit financially from those TV rights funds, and the issue for us is whether local broadcasters can adequately fund the game if it is only domestic, with a few international matches thrown in? Probably not, so the issue is complex.

But the key is club Rugby, and making it stronger. No more formal high performance programs run by the ARU (because I think we have evidence that it doesn’t work!), my idea being that the clubs become the developers, and dominating first grade becomes the first requirement to playing at a higher level. The journeyman 30-year-old gets a start ahead of the prodigious teen if he is better at winning games. End of discussion.

Clubs create an environment whereby 150 young men know the deal: work hard, listen to the coach, develop your game and your body, and when you are ready you will get a chance to be a great first grader. No shortcuts. That is where the culture of Australian Rugby begins, and must be regained if you want to beat New Zealand.

The current SANZAAR deal has three years to run. If we can walk away now we should. If, however, that is an option that proves too difficult and too expensive, then we see out the three years, and get to work on setting up a structure that better serves Australian Rugby. Start to implement it progressively over the next three years, so that when we have extricated ourselves from SANZAAR, we are full steam ahead and ready to run.

“But how do we pay the players,” I hear you ask. “They will all go overseas,” you say? I say bollocks!

Pay the players what the game can afford. Pay the really good ones lots! If they win, pay them more. But if they think the grass is greener elsewhere, let them go. Create enough meaning domestically and you might be surprised at how many are happy to stay.

Apart from which, the current system doesn’t keep them here anyway! How about this lot, just for a start: George Smith, Digby Ioane, Berrick Barnes, Anthony Fainga’a, Cliffy Palu, Scott Higginbotham, Peter Betham, Greg Holmes, Dave Dennis, Cooper Vuna, James Horwill, James O’Connor, Matt Giteau, Peter Kimlin, Adam Ashley Cooper, Dean Mumm, Sitaleki Timani, Mitch Lees, Ben Hand, Leroy Houston, Mike Harris, Liam Gill, Will Skelton, Ben Mowen, Nic White, Joe Tomane, Ben Tapuai, Will Genia, Kurtley Beale. And that’s only a selection from the last couple of years. They all head offshore for different reasons and are motivated by different things. That will never change. Pretty good squad actually! Tough and experienced, and would be a great asset in the development of our future stars.

As you know, that is only scratching the surface. There are literally dozens of “lesser known” players who have left our shores because our system didn’t want them. I strongly believe that if you create an environment that values performance and maturity over potential, and has meaning and appropriate reward, we will see the benefit.

This brings us back to the beginning. Our game is at a crossroad, and we need to get it right. The grassroots community needs to be front and centre of the ARU’s thinking, because our hearts beat strongly and we know what we are doing. They need us now more than ever, and the truth is that we don’t need them.

The grand final between Warringah and Northern Suburbs will be further proof.

This article originally appeared in Rugby News’ Shute Shield grand final program.