New Zealand Rugby has signalled it could relax its long-standing policy of keeping Test players on home soil, part of a bold push to revive the struggling Super Rugby Pacific competition.
The governing body has historically made All Blacks eligibility conditional on players representing New Zealand’s professional Super Rugby sides and its National Provincial Championship. But NZR chief executive Steve Lancaster has now opened the door for Test players to turn out for Australian Super Rugby teams, arguing the New Zealand-dominated competition needs greater ambition and fresh thinking to transform itself.
Alignment Across the Tasman
Lancaster said NZR was aligned with Rugby Australia and the Super Rugby clubs on the need for people “who wake up every day focused on engaging fans, growing revenue and working with broadcasters and the media.”
“We’re open to working on things like player movement, a competition-wide salary cap and centralising commercial assets across the key markets,” he said in a statement. “Those are conversations we will now have with Rugby Australia, the Rugby Players Association and the Super Rugby clubs.”
Rugby Australia endorsed the NZR statement, saying it looked forward to working on the next phase of Super Rugby’s evolution, including the “relaxing of restrictions on player movement across the competition.”
Financial Strain and a Shrinking Field
Super Rugby teams on both sides of the Tasman Sea are struggling financially and remain heavily reliant on funding from their national unions. The competition will field 10 teams next season, having lost two in three years: Auckland-based Moana Pasifika were disbanded at the end of the 2026 season, while the Melbourne Rebels folded in 2024.
Australian sides have also lost their competitive edge. No Australian team has won a Super Rugby championship since the New South Wales Waratahs in 2014, and none reached the semi-finals this year.
That decline has rung alarm bells in New Zealand, where officials fear a lack of meaningful competition could ultimately erode the All Blacks’ global competitiveness.
Structural Shake-Up on the Horizon
NZR chief rugby officer Mike Collins said Super Rugby would become more independent from the governing body’s day-to-day management, allowing NZR to focus more on the NPC and the development of 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. Implementation is targeted for 2028, subject to a final board decision.
The measure forms part of NZR’s effort to cut costs by 5% and generate an annual improvement of NZ$20 million (US$11.26 million) 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.
