It's time for Australian rugby to go it alone.
Aside from probably the first four years of the tournament, Super Rugby by any metric is not a model that has worked well for Australian rugby.
The aim of Super Rugby was to lay the foundations for a successful Wallabies outfit.
In 20 years, Australia has slipped to seventh in the world, lost 17 consecutive Bledisloe series and only won the Tri-Nations or Rugby Championship titles in World Cup years where the tournament is shortened.
As we look towards 2021 and beyond, with the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, the chance for change is here.
So many competition models have been thrown up by many influential figures in recent months and a trans-Tasman option seems to be the one that continues to come up.
Despite everything we've seen over the last two decades, we're still contemplating an Australia-New Zealand competition.
That is a fundamentally flawed concept.
Rugby AU chairman Hamish McLennan recently described Australia's relationship to New Zealand Rugby as a "master-servant" dynamic.
At the moment, people like former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, who after calling Michael Cheika a clown during his tenure is proving to be a pot calling a kettle black, saying Australians aren't worthy of a trans-Tasman competition.
Maybe it's time for Australia to say, 'Go ahead without us, we'll see you at Bledisloe time,'.
If I look at the personalities and the people I played rugby with during my career, to think that we're coming out of that as the servant in this upstairs-downstairs relationship with New Zealand is so frustrating.
It's time to take a risk and not be crippled by the fear of getting it wrong because things have not been trending in the right direction.
We've clearly been getting it somewhat wrong throughout Super Rugby, or the Wallabies would not be sitting seventh in the world and at the risk of dropping below countries like Japan in the rankings.
There is not a single measure by which you could say that Super Rugby has been good for Australian rugby and in recent years, especially, we've created players who are mentally scarred by consistent losses to Kiwi teams.
Super Rugby's major Australian competitors in the NRL, AFL and even the A-League have a positive Australian narrative out of each weekend they play.
Australia's biggest rugby stars spend more time playing overseas than they do in Australia, when you factor in internationals and Super Rugby tours.
Meanwhile, aspiring rugby players and fans of the game are swamped with stars of all the other major codes.
There is that school of thought that Australian players need to be able to test themselves against New Zealand but let's just do that when the Wallabies face New Zealand.
That model has worked for us before and it can work for us again.
In the meantime, let Australian rugby have a positive narrative every Sunday morning.
Another question that is constantly brought up in this discussion is whether broadcasters would pay for and whether people would actually watch an Australian-only comp.
Looking at the first weeks of Super Rugby AU, people are watching and watching in similar numbers to previous years.
As for broadcasters, they're already reluctant to pay a premium rate for the existing Super Rugby competition, why is it held up as the benchmark?
We know that broadcasters have paid big dollars for deals with the NRL and AFL, both of which are domestic-focused competitions.
Why not create our own competition, invest in ourselves and then be able to reinvest in the Australian rugby community?
Yes, AFL and NRL have more teams and more premiership games but if you look holistically, there is a lot that rugby can bring to the table.
Whether that's creating a product with pathway options from schools all the way to Wallabies, maybe adding in a national club competition or looking at international province playoffs for the winners of Australia, New Zealand and South African competitions.
The only way to get out of the current rut Australian rugby is in is to change the model.
We don't want to be the Kodak of world rugby, we don't want to be a formerly great nation that let the world change without it.
Australian rugby has the perfect opportunity to carve out its own path now and we absolutely should.
This article reflects the views of the author and is not representative of Rugby Australia or its member unions.
