Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen believes Rugby Australia should take notes from the success of New Zealand Rugby’s structure in order to help them become “more competitive” at the international level.
In recent discussions around next year’s Super Rugby structure, Rugby Australia have made clear they want to feature all five of their franchises rather than accept NZR’s proposal of having two to four Australian teams along with a new Pacific Island team.
But speaking on Gold AM’s The Country Sports Breakfast, Hansen said reducing the number of teams would do good for Australian rugby.
He says you can understand why they want all their teams because they want to grow the game in Australia and that’s the right thing for them to do, but Hansen believes that at the international level, Australia has suffered because they’ve had all those teams in Super Rugby.
He adds he thinks if they just went down to three at Super Rugby and kept the same competitions they’ve just had, they’d be a lot stronger, they’d win more, and come the international season, be in better shape mentally and be a lot more competitive.
[Source: Rugby Pass]
