RUPA president Damien Fitzpatrick says any and every option should be on the table for a tier-two competition restructure but that costs must be optimized in these tough financial times.
Fitzpatrick has also thrown his support behind the letter, penned by 11 Wallabies captains on Tuesday, that cast Rugby Australia into further dismay, though he did stop short of calling for a complete overhaul of the game's board and the removal of chief executive Raelene Castle.
But it's clear the coronavirus pandemic, which forced an average salary cut of 60 percent for Australia's professional players after a fortnight of, at times, tense negotiations, has presented the players with an opportunity to demand change and it appears a Super Rugby restructure or a new second-tier provincial competition is at the top of their list.
"I think right now we need to have a really strong look at firstly the structure of, let's call it our second-tier provincial competition, and whatever the model is, now is the perfect time to have a really strong look and discussion amongst ourselves," Fitzpatrick told a conference call on Wednesday afternoon.
"I know the captain's letter yesterday was proposing a committee to overlook for the game and to report back to the game. For a personal level, and for RUPA as well, we do agree that change has to happen and we want to play a role in that, and we are going to invest time in making sure that the change happens from the bottom right to the top.
"I think we need to be looking at all possible opportunities to improve; whether it's a domestic comp or Super Rugby or trans-Tasman, we just need to optimize costs because at the end of the day money is everything right now, and this conversation has brought light on that.
"We need a competition that is not only going to bring in broadcast and commercial revenue, but is also going to optimize the money that we save as well."
In his third year as RUPA president, Fitzpatrick finds himself leading the players at what is the most turbulent time for Australian rugby since the lead-up to professionalism in 1996.
He has the benefit of two separate Super Rugby stints to reflect on when it comes to the once mighty southern hemisphere competition, and that seems to have swung him towards the common belief that the competition may have passed its expiry date.
"I think it's fair to say that there's not the fan engagement, raw numbers tell you that ... you know there's a problem with your product if you go to South Africa on a Saturday afternoon at Loftus [Versfeld] and they can't seem to put bums on seats," Fitzpatrick said.
"So I think SANZAAR is probably having a really strong look at how the competition can engage fans and bring them back to levels that they used to be at when crowds were coming into the game."
Pressed on what kind of transformation he and RUPA would like to see, Fitzpatrick couldn't settle on a single competition structure. But it is clear they want some form of competition change, a demand they earned through their willingness to help Australian rugby avoid financial ruin.
"I think in terms of a competition restructure, operationally, we can do much better in terms of the communication; the communication from Rugby Australia to rugby bodies; from Rugby Australia to players; from rugby bodies to players ... to the community game, to the average punter buying a pie. I think we can be far more transparent as a code," Fitzpatrick said.
"And, look, I don't know the exact details right now. In our detail, we've advocated for a seat in those discussions. And we're really hopeful in the very short term those discussions are going to start to be had and RUPA gets to play a role in that because I think the players have a huge amount of respect for the game and they feel a real responsibility.
"There are some really clever guys in there who I think will be able to shed some light on something like a competition restructure. At the end of the day we're the ones out there who are playing and have got a really strong sense of what's going to work and we really want to have our say in that."