Wednesday’s Rugby News has more money, more stats boasting, more science and more paratroopers than the rest of the G&GR rugby week combined!
65 million more dollaroos from new RA-Nine broadcast deal (but with no FTA)
The SMH reports that Rugby Australia will pocket an extra $65 million (or one high-profile Mungo signing) in a new five-year broadcast rights deal with Nine Entertainment with potentially more through bonus payments if the Wallabies and Super Rugby sides hit success targets during their campaigns. However, Super Rugby games will no longer be shown on free-to-air television under the terms of the new agreement. It returns the game to the days of Foxtel showing all Super Rugby games exclusively on Fox Sports.
Club rugby will have some free-to-air exposure. In Sydney and Brisbane, one game per round in the Shute Shield and the Hospital Cup will be shown on free-to-air in their respective cities. WA gets what it deserves in this regard.
Nine picked up the rugby rights in 2020 on discounted terms after RA (under then-CEO Raelene Castle) walked away from a renewal offer of only $20m a year ($37m a year less than the previous deal) from Uncle Rupert. The deal will see Nine and subscription streaming service (and G&GR sponsor) Stan Sport screen all Wallabies, Wallaroos and Super Rugby fixtures, for both men’s and women’s competitions. It does not include the 2027 Rugby World Cup, but Nine are also deep in talks with World Rugby about securing the broadcast rights to the tournament and the 2025 and 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cups.
G&GR’s fiercely independent reporting is not affected by the fantastic coverage of sponsor Stan Sport, nor the smooth good taste and rich wood flavour of sponsor Goodradigbee whiskies.
Super Rugby Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
The daft punks over at Rugby 365 and Pravda report that Super Rugby Pacific tournament organisers have released data which indicated this year’s edition is faster and more exciting than ever.
One minute and 13 seconds of static time has apparently disappeared from the average match in 2025. The organisers revealed that a combination of law innovations designed to speed up the game, plus game management from the officials, has contributed to reduced stoppages and quicker re-starts, making for a better product. Significant time savings have apparently been made at the set piece compared to the 2024 season, with scrums packing 19 seconds quicker and lineouts forming eight seconds faster. Goalkickers have also been doing their part with a near 30 second reduction in the time taken for penalty goal attempts and 14 seconds saved on conversion attempts.
Other released data claims:
- Currently the highest-scoring season of all time, with an average of 61 points and 8.8 tries per game.
- The average winning margin of 11.6 points is the sixth smallest in competition history, with almost half of matches decided by seven points or
lessfewer. - Increased jeopardy within games with an average of 4.3 lead changes per match, and more than a quarter of games (28.2 per cent) featuring a lead change in the final ten minutes.
- More than half of games (59 per cent) reversing a result from 2024 and the 11 teams currently sitting an average of 4.2 ladder positions away from where they finished last season.
- A historically low average of 2.2 penalty goal attempts per game reflecting teams favouring attacking, running rugby, brings a tear to the eye of Michael Cheika.
- A 21.5 per cent increase in average game attendance across the competition to Round 8, which would be even more if the Waratahs showed up to their games.
- Strong growth in TV audiences across Australia (30 per cent increase in Nine viewership to Round 8), New Zealand (12 per cent increase in Sky Sport viewership to Round 3) and Fiji (395,436 peak Walesi App viewership in Round 4 – more than a third of the Fijian population).
- Fantasy Super Rugby Pacific has reached 70,000 registered users, with over 2.5 million player transfers made by team managers, reflecting strong week-to-week fan engagement.
- 55 per cent increase in follower growth across Super Rugby Pacific social media channels.
- G&GR’s Wednesday’s Rugby News is the most popular G&GR news day (according to the actresses and supermodels surveyed).
Boffins refuse to defuse Bomb Squad
Science brought us the atomic bomb, and now it refuses to rein in boundary-pushing ex-Dutchmen. The Guardian reports that World Rugby insists there is no medical evidence that 7-1 bench splits will lead to more injuries and the governing body has no plans to outlaw the tactic as a result.
World Rugby chairman, “Check out the big brain on” Brett Robinson, acknowledged that 7-1 splits raise questions over the spirit of the game, but having made it a priority to increase fatigue in the sport the governing body does not see a scientific issue with teams loading their benches with forwards.
World Rugby’s chief executive, “living next door to” Alan Gilpin, said: “We looked at it from a science, medicine perspective. Was there a distinctive view that a bunch of fresh players coming on with 20‑30 minutes to go is going to create a more injurious position?, and the science said that’s not the case. So there was no reason from that perspective to look at how we might do replacements differently. Ultimately, there are a lot of different ways to win a rugby match.”
The World Rugby council, meanwhile, will vote next month on whether to introduce permanently into law 20‑minute red cards. There were four such red cards shown during the Six Nations this year.
“Paratroops Dino?” “Be a shame if someone was to set fire to them.”
As shown in this 15-second* video from stuff.co.nz, a paratrooper attempting to land on the pitch for a Toulouse v Sale game got snagged on the stadium roof and suspended in midair for half an hour.
The Guardian reports that supporters were evacuated from the area underneath (or did they flee out of fear of fallschirmjäger assault?) before stewards began setting up a makeshift crash mat out of tackle bags. The Toulouse mascot, dressed as a lion, lent a hand, carrying post protectors for further ballast and a bouncy castle, complete with blow-up rugby posts, was hoisted on to the empty seats to further act as a landing spot.
Captain Yannick Trouillet was eventually rescued by the fire brigade with a cherrypicker.
[*is the Kiwi media deliberately trying to alienate no-attention-span twenty-somethings with this sort of Peter Jackson cut?]
