Kiwis move to open borders in boost to Aussie rugby
New Zealand Rugby has signalled it could relax its strict policy of keeping Test players on home soil in a bid to revive the Super Rugby Pacific competition.
New Zealand has long made All Blacks eligibility conditional upon players representing its professional teams in Super Rugby and the National Provincial Championship.
Beauden Barrett and Ardie Savea at Optus Stadium. nna\sworthington
However, NZR chief Steve Lancaster has opened the door for Test players to represent Australian Super Rugby teams by saying the New Zealand-dominated competition needed more ambition and bold thinking to transform itself.
"We’re aligned with Rugby Australia and the Super Rugby clubs that we need people who wake up every day focused on engaging fans, growing revenue and working with broadcasters and the media," he said in a statement on Thursday.
“We’re open to working on things like player movement, a competition-wide salary cap and centralising commercial assets across the key markets.
“Those are conversations we will now have with Rugby Australia, the Rugby Players Association and the Super Rugby clubs."
Super Rugby teams on both sides of the Tasman are highly reliant on funding from the national rugby unions.
The competition will field 10 teams next season, having lost two in three years.
Moana Pasifika were disbanded at the end of the 2026 season, while the Melbourne Rebels folded in 2024.
No Australian team have won a Super Rugby championship since Michael Cheika’s NSW Waratahs in 2014 and none made the semi-finals this year.
Australia's decline has rung alarm bells in New Zealand that a lack of meaningful competition may ultimately hurt the All Blacks' global competitiveness.
The Wallabies have not held the Bledisloe Cup since 2003.
Champion Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw - a Scotsman - told nine.com.au on Tuesday that Super Rugby needed to be better at spruiking its positives.
Coach Clark Laidlaw of the Hurricanes at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Getty
“From an on-field perspective, I think the rugby is as good as anywhere else in the world,” Laidlaw said.
“I’m watching a lot of European rugby at the minute and everybody’s talking about their attack. But ironically some of the defence looks like it struggles now that teams have decided to attack and have a mindset around keeping the ball.
“Which has been almost amusing to watch.... too many points all of a sudden in England and France. And so I think from a pure on field perspective, it stacks up well, around its entertainment and the type of rugby we want to play.
“Something will have to give around how we continue to evolve it over the next two, three, four years, which is probably a fair bit above my pay station.
“But I do think we need to keep thinking how we involve the fans and engage people wanting to be involved in Super Rugby.“
In a rare move, one-Test Wallabies winger Darby Lancaster has signed to play for Jason Holland’s Blues next year.
“I’m sure there will be ideas around that, where players could play in the competition, maybe cross-border,” Laidlaw said.
Darby Lancaster of the Rebels celebrates scoring a try. Getty
“Whether that was a set number, I’m not particularly sure... our job is to create a style of rugby that people want to watch and people want to come and see and inspire the next generation to want to play it. That’s where our focus is and that’s what it’ll continue to be as we reach pre-season and beyond.”
NZR chief rugby officer Mike Collins added that Super Rugby would become more independent of NZR’s day-to-day management, allowing the governing body to focus more on the NPC and developing the community game.
NZR also endorsed the 14-team NPC format but said five teams would have their operations consolidated with the Super Rugby sides in their home cities to drive better outcomes, with implementation targeted for 2028 after a final board decision.
The measure forms part of NZR’s work to reduce costs by five per cent and create a NZ$20 million ($16 million) annual improvement from 2028.
“While these changes will reduce duplication and cost, more importantly they simplify rugby operations and player pathways in our major cities and ensure we are operating as one team from community rugby through to the All Blacks,” Collins said.
Watch the Wallabies and All Blacks in the Nations Championship. Add the Stan Sport package to watch rugby live and on demand with no ad-breaks in play
