Why New Zealand Rugby chair David Kirk ‘nearly’ wants the Wallabies to win the Bledisloe Cup

Thursday, 14 May 2026

The new All Blacks coach has ruled out a comeback for Brodie Retallick this year and Richie Mo’unga also appears unlikely to make the South Africa tour.

They’re words that might have some All Blacks fans screaming ‘treason’, words you’d not expect to hear from New Zealand Rugby’s chair.

But David Kirk said it - that not only would it be good if an Australian team won Super Rugby, but the Wallabies winning the Bledisloe Cup also wouldn’t hurt.

Indeed, here it is. Word for word.

“I think it would be good if an Australian team won Super Rugby,” Kirk told The Australian. “It would just put a lot of tension, a lot of jeopardy back into [Super Rugby].

“The same goes for the Bledisloe Cup. I can’t quite say I actually want them to win, but I kind of nearly do.

“It would actually be really good for trans-Tasman rivalry, for attendance at matches, for the media hype, for the build-up to matches, all the sort of stuff that everyone wants to see is always enhanced by strong, even competition.”

The Wallabies, of course, haven’t held the Bledisloe Cup since 2002, while the last Australian team to win Super Rugby was the Waratahs (2014).

It’s unlikely the Super Rugby drought will end this year, too, given the top four spots on the ladder are held by Kiwi teams, who won 13 of the 20 regular season matches against Australian opponents.

The Reds and Brumbies are on track to make the playoffs, but the chances of them heading across the ditch and triumphing in a first-round playoff match are remote.

With just two Bledisloe Cup tests scheduled - October 10 and 17 - the Wallabies have the unenviable task of winning both matches to win the trans-Tasman trophy back.

A three-match series is planned in 2027 with the addition of the Anzac Day match.

Off the field, Kirk, who once considered making a play to join the Rugby Australia board, but turned down an advance because he couldn’t stomach ‘wearing an RA tie’, said NZR and the Aussies must work closely together.

“We’ve got similar problems,” Sydney-based Kirk told The Australian.

“Challenges with keeping our best players in this part of the world, which goes to the quality of the tournaments and our ability to pay them, both countries are wrestling there.

“We do have some things we’re working through, which we’re doing so very constructively and working together, and that is an Anzac Test, and also the fact the All Blacks play South Africa this year and that means there’s no Rugby Championship and what are the implications for RA.

“I’d say New Zealand has been slower to get the fact you need to create environments where there is interest and engagement and the media’s got something to write about, questions to ask and interest to pique.”