All Blacks Titans John Kirwan and Jeff Wilson have expressed their dismay over the quality on offer in Australia during the early phases of Super Rugby Pacific.
To date there have only been a total of three rounds in the competition. Long awaited cross-border matches have yet to take place in this series. Kirwan and Wilson have both remained certain as to where the respective teams are currently standing.
Current indicators have shown how New Zealand franchises have been able to easily dominate their Australian rivals over the past few seasons. It also appears that this current string of victories are unlikely to change for the rest of 2022.
Speaking in an interview, the two players said that Australia was not cultivating the sort of playing ability they had during the victorious years in the 1990s and early 2000s. This, at the time, while most greatest players have often gone overseas while being in their prime.
As an example, Samu Kerevi, Marika Koroibete are in their late 20s and yet they are honing their skills in Japan. Another player, 31-year-old Rory Arnold, is occupied in France despite signing for Toulouse in 2019.
Speaking on The Breakdown in New Zealand Wilson claimed that the reason why Australia had been losing is due to a lack of “quality players”.
“The number of quality players that they don't have in Australia at the moment is definitely weakening their Super Rugby sides,”. “Michael Hooper‘s not playing at the moment, Andrew Kellaway's not playing, who was outstanding last year. “But because they've got five teams and then you remove this level of talent from across those sides, I think it's damaging their Super Rugby chances but also some of their confidence as players because they're just not here to make these connections with these guys. “And we need superstars in the game,” he said.
During the interview Wilson mentioned the likes of Ardie Savea and Will Jordan who, according to him, have been performing well.
“We've got Ardie Savea on the top of his game; Will Jordan playing fantastic. At the moment I'm looking across the Tasman and I'm going where are they? Where are the game-changers? Where are the guys that we want to come and watch so it's going to be a more even competition?”
It was stated on Vwin sports news that Kirwan believes that because of the lack in talent in Australia, there has been a clean incapability to sustain five franchises. He further stated that he firmly believes that they need to cull one of them to increase their chances of becoming a better rugby playing nation.
“We've had this conversation before about Australia dropping a franchise and they don't want to do it, and it's going to kill their own rugby,” he said.
“You go over there and you have massive arguments, they tried to get rid of the Force, and we did, and they blew up, and they started playing in a different competition.
