Super Rugby Aupiki returns with unease as captains continue to call for further expansion
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Super Rugby Aupiki’s third season begins this weekend
There is an increase of matches across seven rounds in a full round-robin format, with a grand final on April 13
There are lingering concerns over its sustainability and captains continue to call for further expansion
New season, same issues. Super Rugby Aupiki enters a critical third campaign with lingering concerns over its sustainability after its troubled opening years.
Tuesday’s low-key launch at the All Blacks Experience tourist site welcomed the four teams’ captains to Auckland ahead of Saturday’s opening match between the Chiefs Manawa and Hurricanes Poua in Hamilton.
The uneasy question hovering over the elite domestic women’s rugby competition, which is essentially part-time and scattered with professional Black Ferns, is whether it can survive without further expansion.
There were familiar messages from each skipper on Tuesday, calling for more development.
They also acknowledged the work New Zealand Rugby had done to get the competition going, as well as the introduction this year of a more genuine pre-season and increased player payments for non-Black Ferns.
The latter has more than doubled to a minimum of $17,000 for the seven-week season (while top Black Ferns can earn approximately $130,000 per annum).
But there remains a desire, from players and coaches, for Super Rugby Aupiki to have greater resources, to be longer, to be more professional, to incorporate the Australian teams and to gain a foothold in a crowded sporting market.
One burning issue, too, is the NRLW, which could welcome the return of the Warriors’ women’s team in 2025 and ignite an intriguing battle for talent.
It’s an open secret that Australia’s league clubs are offering big, tempting contracts, although NZ Rugby has retained many of its stars through to next year’s women’s Rugby World Cup in England.
Hurricanes captain Jackie Patea-Fereti, a former Black Fern, said most of the players were happy with the slight increase of last year’s overall fixtures (from 10 to 13) and the guarantee of six to seven matches (up from five each) per team in the tweaked format that will also be in place for 2025.
Still, she expressed concern for the non-professional players. The difficult demands of their weekly workload was a hot topic last season when the competition was squeezed into five weeks.
“The rest of us are not full-time and only play while the season is running. Girls are still working or studying, Monday to Wednesday, then come into our camp Thursday to Sunday,” Patea-Fereti said.
“The strain, it's up there. I know last season that a couple of our girls got burnt out.”
The new season will determine if that’s a problem again.
Matatū skipper Alana Bremner and Blues co-captain Maia Roos, who are full-time Black Ferns, echoed Patea-Fereti’s sentiment.
“To be the best athlete, you need to plan and prep well. It’s really hard to do that when you have two separate lives,” Roos said.
Bremner, who lifted last year’s trophy for the champions Matatū, said they want more games.
“We're hoping every year it's going to grow. The idea would be to make it trans-Tasman at some stage,” she said.
“It's hard to know what's the right thing at the moment, but I know everyone is trying their best to work that out.”
Super Rugby Aupiki’s first edition in 2022 was effectively written off because of Covid-related dramas – it was three rounds packed into 10 days – but there was great anticipation for last season. It started only three months after the Black Ferns’ epic World Cup win on home soil.
This year begins with women’s rugby again battling for the spotlight, but the players are determined to adopt an exciting style to capture the public’s imagination.
Chiefs skipper and Black Ferns co-captain Kennedy Simon said they pride themselves on being innovative.
“That also means celebrating the little things,” Simon said.
“In New Zealand, we have this real humble demeanour, and you've got to have a game face constantly, but this year we're trying to encourage our girls to celebrate their tries and little wins.
“That's not in a cocky way, but in a proud way. We want to bring more excitement to the game.“
Super Rugby Aupiki, round one on Saturday
– Chiefs Manawa v Hurricanes Poua, Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, 2:05pm
– Matatū v Blues, Invercargill Rugby Park, 4:35pm