World Rugby boss Bill Beaumont is backing New Zealand’s Super Rugby plans to involve Asia and the Pacific Islands.
He’s also encouraged by reports of a Hawaiian franchise, backed by former All Blacks, getting involved in the blossoming Major League Rugby championship in the United States.
Both moves would help ease pressure on World Rugby who have long drawn criticism for neglecting the Pacific Islands despite their massive talent base that continues to get exploited by wealthy areas of the game.
New Zealand Rugby is weighing up its options for Super Rugby in a new world dictated by the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been talk of abandoning South Africa and Argentina because of the travel complications and concentrating on a more compact championship that would involve the best of New Zealand against a leaner Australian component joined by Japanese and Pacific Islands outfits.
Beaumont sees the sense of that in the current environment.
Asked about the Hawaiian development and the prospect of Pacific Islands and Japanese teams getting involved in a new-look Super Rugby setup, Beaumont, appearing on Sky TV’s Breakdown show, said: “We should do, without a doubt … certainly there seems to be a huge enthusiasm south of the equator.”
Beaumont felt rugby needed to be creative as the sport looked to push on in the global health crisis and the Super Rugby plans fitted that landscape.
“Certainly the team they are talking about putting in Hawaii in Major League Rugby, I have heard that Fiji or Japan could be invited into Super Rugby – these are decisions that need to be taken because we are in a position at the moment where players and teams have been travelling the globe and I don’t think this will return in the near future.
“So what we have to do is be creative and work together with our partners.”
Beaumont, under pressure about the governance of the game which is now part of review on the back of his re-election as chairman, gave hope that the Pacific Islands could get more influence but also argued that he had already overseen positive moves in that direction.
“If you think in the previous four years I was there, we had extra votes. We had Fiji, Samoa came onto the council, Japan got extra votes, Argentina got extra votes. There is an opportunity now for countries to get a seat at the table and get extra votes, but I’m not pre-judging what will happen in the governance review. Let’s look forward and see what that has to say there,” Beaumont told Sky TV.
When was asked about his personal preference, Beaumont replied: “My personal decision is that you have to ensure they feel that the Pacific Islands are sat at the table, which they are at the moment, with the exception of Tonga.
“And I think you have a situation now where it is voting where some countries have one vote, other countries have two votes, others have three and four votes and that is on a weighted voting system and that is something that was decided in Tokyo two years ago.
“We’ve obviously had the coronavirus (since then) … what I have had to concentrate on is trying to pull everybody together around this dreadful pandemic we have got.”
