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Scotty Stevenson: Lack of global All Blacks superstars highlights Super Rugby's marketing fail
Scotty Stevenson • September 17th, 2024 10:30 am
I was talking to a couple of friends on a podcast last night - one South African, one Australian - about the Bledisloe Cup and the sense of where the star power is for the clash this week is. It got me thinking about Super Rugby and where the star power is in the competition and that flows through obviously into the international game.
I thought to myself - is the game here lacking genuine superstars or what? Is that one of the issues around this Test this weekend?
I can't name a superstar out of Australia. Of course, the All Blacks are the All Blacks and they have some players, but we used to be able to go through a contest like this and reel off eight to ten names that would make a world XV, and I'm battling here.
The sheen is off the competition in this part of the world – and that got me thinking about something else.
The NFL season has just kicked off, the EPL has too, and the NBA is just around the corner. One thing about those three actual professional competitions run by professionals is that the conversation never stops.
Off season, in-season, out of season - it doesn't matter. There is just wall-to-wall, 24-hour-a-day coverage on who farted in their sleep, who's making the roster, who's off the roster, who's in trouble with the cops? Doesn’t matter what it is - there's a conversation around these professional sporting leagues.
As a thought exercise, I thought I'd visit the Super Rugby official website. To my surprise, the Rebels are still there, even though they've been banished.
So, they haven't even updated the number of teams in the competition. There is one news story from September which is trying to explain the finals format. The last story before that was from the 21st of July - almost two months ago on the official Super Rugby website. So, for two months you haven't updated a thing. Nothing.
So, they haven't even updated the number of teams in the competition. There is one news story from September which is trying to explain the finals format. The last story before that was from the 21st of July - almost two months ago on the official Super Rugby website. So, for two months you haven't updated a thing. Nothing.
You cannot expect me to take Super Rugby seriously if the way you communicate with your fans is this. Is there nothing happening in Super Rugby? Is there no content you could make out of Super Rugby? Is there no coach working at the moment, planning ahead for the Super Rugby season? Are there no players being signed, moving around? Is there nothing happening at all?
You're supposed to be creating stars. You can't create stars when you can't even be bothered updating your own website.
We had Super Rugby Pacific chairman Kevin Malloy on when we first started this show four months ago, and the first thing he said was 'this is the low hanging fruit, isn't it? We've got to get better in that online space'.
Well, they've done nothing.
Talking about superstars in the game, talking about players who are top of mind, talking about marketability of the international sides - it's all got to come out of the professional club competition, and they are running amateur hour here.
I think it shows in our connection to the players, the bit of ho-hum around the international game in this part of the world, a kind of ambivalence around All Black results. I think it all flows through. Unless you are giving people a compelling reason to stay engaged all the time, then you're wasting your time in professional sport.
Why don't we have generational superstars in New Zealand rugby at the moment? Is it a marketing problem? Is it our pathways? Is it just a lack of talent? Is it a lack of exposure to a world stage?
When you look at this group from a global marketability standpoint, you look at Beauden Barrett, you look at Ardie Savea, potentially Will Jordan if he's able to reach the heights he could get to. But outside of that - there's not many.
It's an interesting exercise to understand where we were at in the lifecycle of this team. Because you look at those South Africans and they are at a very different stage of life. They're trying to innovate by staying ahead of the game. But they've created a group of players now who are top of mind players and if you look through that squad and you know, you could throw almost an entire Bok team into a global XV.
If you're thinking jersey No. 7, you're thinking Pieter-Steph du Toit. There's almost no argument about that. You're thinking about a lock? You're thinking about Eben Etzebeth. There's almost no argument about that. If you're thinking about the best bench hooker in the world, you're thinking Malcolm Marx? There's no arguing about that. If you're thinking about the best wing in the world now, it's Cheslin Kolbe. If you think about the best halfback in the world, it's Antoine DuPont.
But what we're not doing is reeling off All Black and Wallabies names in terms of that conversation, certainly not as regularly as we used to and not with that ease of thought that would have just come to New Zealand fans, South African fans and international fans in the past. That's tough.
So, what are we doing? What are we creating here?
Tune into Scotty & Izzy, 6am to 9am every weekday on SENZ.
