World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson has rejected suggestions the sport is slowly morphing into rugby league, but he admits there is plenty to discuss when the shape of game conference takes place later this month.
Robinson, who was in Sydney for Tuesday’s Rugby World Cup schedule release, was also forced to defend the decision that will see Australia open the 2027 tournament against first-timers Hong Kong China – a match that is expected to be incredibly lopsided.
But with the Six Nations beginning this Thursday, and Super Rugby Pacific set for kick-off the following week, discussion around the current state of the on-field product has again bubbled to the surface, exposing the long-running divide between the northern hemisphere, and more recently South Africa, and the trans-Tasman block of Australia and New Zealand.
Robinson, however, sees it differently.
“I actually think we’re better than we’ve ever been,” Robinson told reporters on Tuesday. “If you go back sort of 50 or 60 years, there was always this battle around the north and the south and the positioning of the product.
“Early on in the years of professionalism there was still a lot of pressure, but now we have a group of people, chaired through Abdel Benazzi as the chair of the rugby committee. We are more united than we’ve ever been.
“I mean, there is nuance around that; so we’re clearly going through a trial around the use of the 20-minute red card that obviously has been trialled a lot down here. Fortunately, now that’s a global trial, and I think the initial findings of that are quite positive, and that’s a good example of where there’s a challenge often in bringing the family together.
“But once we share information and share learnings, it certainly lands us in a much better place. But we still have work to do, and we all agree that.”
The change of interpretation on “escort runners” for high balls remains a particular bone of contention, with the chasing team now getting an almost clear path to contest against a defending player who is often coming from a far less dynamic position.
There is an argument that it has shifted that particular contest too far in favour of the attacking team, though former All Blacks winger Ben Smith, one of the very best under the high ball, said only this week it was incumbent on players to improve that part of their game in what was virtually now the backs’ own “set-piece”.
“I really like that part of the game that they’ve opened up, and they’ve made that challenge in the air, sort of 50/50 around being able to compete and go after it,” Smith said ahead of last week’s pre-season encounter.
“I suppose the forwards do a lot of scrummaging, and that’s their set-piece. And now for the backs, I suppose, around the high ball and getting after that, that’s sort of our set-piece around going after the high ball.
“If you can do that really well, then I reckon it sets up your game to be able to attack off the back of it. So that’s been a big part of the preseason, really getting confident in the air, around what we want to go after.”
But Smith, who is an assistant at the Highlanders, will also be acutely aware of the five law variations in place for the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season, one of which will see a 50/22 kick awarded even when a ball has been passed back beyond halfway.
The idea there is to make defending teams think twice about not having cover at the back out wide, in theory creating more space in the front defensive line for attacking teams.
Meanwhile, the competition has also removed two further opportunities for a scrum to be taken, with free kicks to be awarded for accidental offsides and a failure to “use it” at the ruck after the referees’ call.
With the number of infringements to call a scrum having already been reduced, most notably from crooked lineouts and incorrect scrum engagements, some rugby purists believe the key set-piece is slowly being eroded and the sport on a slow drift towards becoming more like rugby league.
Robinson, however, flat out rejected such assertions, pointing to the product that was on show in Australia’s stunning victory over South Africa last year as evidence rugby was largely in good health.
“Absolutely [I refute that],” Robinson said when asked about the rugby league comparison. “I was very lucky to, on my way heading to the north [last year], go to Johannesburg to watch the Wallabies play in Ellis Park, and if you can’t believe what an amazing game of rugby that was, and how entertaining that was, and the response by the Wallabies; Australia haven’t beaten anyone there for 60-plus years.
“I think that’s a big call, and I think we’re a long way from that [rugby league]. And look, the Women’s World Cup was a great example as well. I mean, that was just an amazing tournament of joy, of opportunity; the November window, we had some wonderful Test matches.
“We’ve got some things to iron out, which we’ve put on the table and want to deal with, as I said, in a couple of weeks’ time. But this conference for a week with our board meetings and the review process is really important that we land any change that we need and sort it by June, July.”
What may only inflame northern hemisphere feelings further however is the appointment of former New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson as World Rugby’s new Chief of Rugby.
With Robinson having previously sat on the board overseeing Super Rugby Pacific’s various law trials, there is the fear, misplaced or not, he may push what have been largely successful moves in the trans-Tasman club competition around the involvement of the Television Match Official and time-wasting onto Test rugby.
World Rugby chief Brett Robinson backed his new hire to succeed and for the game to unite at the shape of game conference as the countdown to the 2027 World Cup continues.
“The intention is to get everything we possibly can in order around ensuring that our game, you know, is enjoyable, is focused on the fan,” Robinson said. “We try and ensure that it’s attractive, it’s got, there’s a pace and a speed to the game, and there are parts of our game that we need to iron out, so we’ve actually put Mark Robinson as the chair of a match official review to look at particular elements of that.
“He’s actually just accepted a role to come on and be the Chief of Rugby for World Rugby so we are very keen to put more rugby pressure on the product.”
