New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson has told media Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan has “jumped the gun” after he announced talks had begun on a return of a combined ANZAC team to face the British & Irish Lions in Australia in 2025.
The ANZAC XV team, a combined team between the Wallabies and All Blacks, isn’t a new idea with a team coming together in 1989 where the side were downed 19-15 by the Lions. But McLennan put the idea forward again with the prospect of 100,000 fans crowding into the MCG for the event.
Speaking to media ahead of the World Cup 2021 semifinals in Auckland, Robinson said NZR was interested in the idea and the opportunity, but there was still much to be considered, especially with a three Test France series that would be taking place in New Zealand at the same time.
“It’s early days, isn’t it?” Robinson said. “Our mate Hamish [McLennan] has jumped the gun a little bit again, but I mean, we don’t disagree with the idea and the opportunity, and I guess in principle we see a lot of merit in it, but there’s a lot of work to do.
“We’ve got an amazing opportunity to host the French here in 2025 in what would be a massive series, and then there’s a whole range of things outside of schedule, player workload, commercials to be considered as well.
“There’s a bit of romanticism isn’t there around that game back in the late 80s, I can remember having one of the old ANZAC jerseys as a memento as a younger fella and I think it conjures up a whole lot of cool things around the ANZAC spirit that we’d like to see maybe reenacted but we’re a wee bit off it at the moment.”
He also revealed the idea was mentioned only briefly at the end of a meeting between the two national bodies on Wednesday but couldn’t blame McLennan’s passion to regain the Australian public’s imagination.
“It came up at the end of a very long meeting, over about 30 seconds,” Robinson said. “But you know, you’ve got to love Hamish and his passion for the game and seeing opportunity. He’s working really, really hard to make sure the presence of the game in Australia is really strong and looking for opportunities to capture the public imagination.
“We’re probably a little cart before the horse, but we’ll get to it, there’s a lot of other things on our plate at the moment, but we’ll get to it.”
The announcement follows NZR and RA’s second meeting in under three weeks as both governing bodies aim to finally nail down a deal for the future of the Super Rugby Pacific competition from 2024 and beyond. According to Robinson, the deal is close to being done with NZR hopeful to make an announcement in coming weeks.
“We are fairly confident we’re going to get there, we just need a little more time. We’re getting closer, I’d like to think we’re in a position to maybe talk with more certainty and finality, maybe in the next couple of weeks.
“It’s been a funny old couple of years, so you don’t know, you never say never in this game at the moment, but at the same time we had really productive meetings in Sydney two-and-a-half weeks ago, we had a really productive meeting on Wednesday and so I’m pretty hopeful we can get there pretty soon.
“We’re sort of almost there in terms of the main things with the deal. This is this has been a negotiation over a period of time, obviously based on a whole lot of different things, revenue’s one, there’s a lot of other things around the tournament format in the future.
“Things that we’re looking at that we can hopefully really set this competition up to be a world class competition for the future. With the timelines we’re talking about, we just want to make sure we do everything we possibly can to get the detail right.”
One of the biggest issues for the delay has been the revenue split between the two national bodies. McLennan has remained adamant that RA could walk away from the Super Rugby competition and go it alone if they don’t receive what they believe is a fair share of the takings.
“Revenue share’s obviously, part of the equation, but we just want to get clarity given we are looking maybe up to approximately 2030. We just want to make sure that everything is right in the space, so I think most things in terms of when you talk about sticking points, a lot of things have been resolved, it’s just being really, really clear now in the final detail before we can hopefully sign that off.”
Meanwhile, following the All Blacks close shave against Japan in Tokyo last weekend, questions have been raised of the potential inclusion of the Brave Blossoms into The Rugby Championship in the future. While there’s interest, Robinson said focus at this time is creating a global Test calendar with work being done for the potential expansion of the Rugby Championship.
“I think the main focus at the moment as it relates to the international game is to try and get this global season underway in which case you know teams like Japan and Fiji and maybe others in the Pacific could have an opportunity to come into that tournament and that’s where I think a lot of energy is focused at the moment,” Robinson said.
“There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes around what expansion of The Rugby Championship really looks like, and if that is viable and we probably just need a little bit more time with that. But there’s no doubt you know they’re playing at a standard that is incredibly high that you know taking on some very, very good teams at the moment performing really well and they offer a huge market commercially obviously.”