South Sea Bubble could provide tonic for rugby

RUGBY has made many false moves and poor decisions over the decades and what is so frustrating is that on quite a few occasions the authorities got incredibly close to absolutely nailing it before making the wrong call.

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

I was reminded of this the other morning when listening to the former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark talking about how New Zealand can prosper in the Covid-19 era by in effect creating a new, and this time prosperous, South Sea Bubble.

New Zealand, through its own brilliant management of the crisis, is virus-free, Australia did a great job containing it and thankfully its impact on the far-flung Pacific Islands was minimal.

Her point was that there could quickly come a moment – well in advance of the rest of the world – when free travel will be allowed within that tightly controlled South Sea area and normal trading and sporting relations resumed, albeit with stricter protocols.

Rugby-wise this has interesting connotations. New Zealand this week revealed plans for an internal tournament between its five Super Rugby franchises and at some stage that could be upgraded to a cross-Tasman tournament and if Covid-19 issues restrict travel to the rest of the world surely it’s time to invite the three major rugby playing Pacific nations to the party.

That Pacific pentagon of nations has always offered up a natural rugby tournament, whether at club or Test level and frustratingly it nearly took off fully 30 years ago.