Rugby Australia [RA] chairman Hamish McLennan has reinforced his wish for a draft to be implemented in Super Rugby Pacific, while also flagging expansion opportunities in both Japan and Hawaii.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Rugby Direct podcast in New Zealand, McLennan also again rejected claims RA was pushing back on the agreed independent commission to run Super Rugby and that he expected a plan would be rubber-stamped within one to two months.
But it is his pursuit of a draft that appears to be gathering momentum, particularly after New Zealand Rugby Players Association boss Rob Nichol threw his support behind the concept last week.
"Ultimately it's going to have to go to RA and the NZR [New Zealand Rugby] board and I guess the Super Rugby commission, but in this interview today if there is one thing we can collectively take out, if we can get a draft in place and do it quickly, and put a framework round so that again it's not overly burdensome, but that would drive viewer interest on both sides of the Tasman," McLennan told Rugby Direct.
"And if we want to be creative; that idea has been floating around for some time, the AFL do it, the American sports do it all the time; we can start to create new assets, so imagine us collectively creating a draft that we'd promote before the Super Rugby season starts -- that would drive incredible interest.
"And then if you look at the [2023] finals, well we only have one team into the semis, but you'll have incredible viewership on both sides of the Tasman if you've got players [from both countries] playing in respective teams. And I just think that will do more for improving the value of our collective media rights than anyone thinks.
"So if the commission is looking at trying to do things more laterally and creatively, there's an idea there that we should jump on. And I think Rob is absolutely right, I was pleased to see that he made those statements, because we may think that in our rugby world, in our bubble, that's a massive innovation. And yes, it is to some extent, but it's been done before around the world and it will drive value for both [nations]."
The theory behind a player draft is that it would help spread talent around the competition, lifting the competitiveness of the five Australian teams in particular who, as McLennan noted, only contributed the Brumbies to this year's final four.
A more even competition would then in turn raise the value of the tournament's media rights through greater fan engagement, the draft another layer of innovation that could herald the start of a new season or the finish of the old one - as is the case in the NFL and NBA.
And the increase in revenue through media rights would then, McLennan says, allow both Australia and New Zealand to fight off the raids of overseas clubs as both national unions could afford to better remunerate their players domestically.
Asked whether a draft would be aimed at emerging talent as is the case in American sports, or take the shape of a marquee system and offer star players the chance to ply their trade elsewhere in Super Rugby, on either side of the ditch, McLennan said both formats were achievable.
"I would actually do both; if we had a Damian McKenzie playing for the Rebels, that would just be extraordinary," he told Rugby Direct. "And if we took one of our good [young] players, and we've got some very good players coming through the system too; but I think for both [countries] that works, they should still be eligible to play for their country if that was the case, because where we really suffered through [ages] 19 and 20 was COVID, is that we lost a lot of players overseas.
"So if we can drive the value of media rights and interest in our [competition] we can pay our players more, and so that's something that's very factual and we should seriously consider it. And I also think there would be great interest in 19 or 20-year-olds coming through that can go and spend two years in any given team, again on both sides of the Tasman. You've just got to ensure that you get game time.
"And I think collectively, what we should be saying is 'let's try and stop the players going to France and Japan, let's try and build the value of that competition so they don't feel the need to leave'."
In comments that should please McLennan, NZR boss Mark Robinson also indicated a draft was also gathering support among New Zealand officials.
"We acknowledge it would create a greater degree of interest and is something that we should be moving towards quite quickly," Robinson told Newshub's Paddy Gower Has Issues programme.
"At some stage it might be the right thing for Ardie [Savea] or someone else in our leading player group to think about in terms of wanting to freshen up in another city across Australasia or the Pacific.
"So yes, we acknowledge that could be really interesting both to the fan and the player."
As for the independent commission to run Super Rugby Pacific, a body that was agreed would be set up when the competition was late last year locked away by RA and NZR to 2030 as part of a joint-venture, McLennan said progress was being made.
The RA chairman said Australia's concern about the commission was that it risked being overly bureaucratic and just another organisational body in a sport that already has a raft of existing governance; from World Rugby at the top, to regional and tournament specific alliances, individual unions and then domestic clubs and provinces at home.
Still, McLennan said he expected the commission would finally be set up in one to two months, giving it the opportunity to embed at least six months before the start of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season.
"Mark Robinson [NZR chief] would want it done tomorrow, yesterday; but I think it will be one to two months," he said. "But NZR, Robbo came to me late in December last year or early January and said 'can we expedite Kevin Molloy to come in as the chairman [of the planned commission] and we got all of our Super Rugby clubs onside.
"So that didn't' technically go through a recruiter, a proper hiring process, but I'd spoken to Kevin and heard about him from my old marketing and advertising days, and he's a very highly credentialled, great operator. We moved pretty quickly on that one and so that technically sat outside the term sheet and how we were going to recruit for key positions.
"So we are prepared to be flexible; all we're saying is, is there a better, more efficient way of doing it [a commission], and that's where the debate is. So I think it's probably one to two months away."
McLennan also defended his recent verbal battles with NRL chairman Peter V'Landys and said he thought the rival code was concerned about the run of big-ticket events that Rugby Australia was preparing to stage and what impact that could have on helping the code recover from its raft of failings in recent years.
Wallabies great Phil Waugh will take charge of that after he was last week confirmed as the new RA chief executive, the former back-rower indicating he wanted to reconnect grassroots rugby with the professional game.
But it appears he also has ideas on how to further enhance Super Rugby Pacific, too.
"Waughy believes that we should be housing a team out of Hawaii, so a US-led team, and Robbo has certainly talked a lot about Japan, which we agree, so I think if we can at least get two teams by then, then that would deliver us more teams, more hours, and a more robust differentiated competition," McLennan said of expansion.
"So I think collectively we've got to think how about expansion and how we continue to support the [Fijian] Drua, Moana Pasifika, our system, your system, and just make it the world's best provincial competition. And I tell you, the north, and the guys that I deal with at Six Nations and World Rugby, believe that that can be the case.
"So I think if we put our rivalries aside and say 'how do we grow the pie?', I think we'll have a very robust code, and then all the on-field rivalry will be about the rugby. But we'll get there, we'll absolutely get there."