Super Rugby Pacific (SRP) administrators want to revive the “Super Round” concept, which was previously staged in Melbourne, but in a bold and extremely popular move, the event could be set up for the transition to Fiji.
Last week’s report in Fiji raised the prospect of “Bula Round” and speaking on Monday about the ESPN Scrum Reset podcast, SRP CEO Jack Mesley confirmed that the conversation was taking place to see if the idea could come true.
With this concept, all matches are seen in one round played in the same venue over three days.
“I certainly hope so. How good is it? It’s going to be great… it’s a truly special event day in Fiji,” Mesley told ESPN when asked if the concept could return.
“And yeah, we’re investigating it. I’m certainly hoping to take home the Super Round. And we have a lot of discussion with different territories about it. And Fiji is certainly one of them.
“I think it’s a great road trip for rugby fans to come out there, watch Super Rugby on the weekends, have a great cultural experience, and spend a few days tying up on the island or Nadi.
Listen to our full podcast with Jack Messley here
Fijian Drua is a standout success story for Super Rugby Pacific, and now it’s the fourth season, but initially as a competition of 11 teams, Pacific Islanders perform in front of sold-out crowds at their homes in Lautoka and Suva.
The other vibes of Super Rugby Pacific don’t get close to that in Drua’s home games. Since the team was included in 2022, product sales and TV ratings have skyrocketed in Fiji.
These logistical restrictions – currently pushing for whether there are no stadiums equipped with the lights needed for night games, but likely to require an upgrade to changing rooms and training facilities – prove to be too much of a obstacle to overcome.
“Yeah, I think that’s possible (but) we need some infrastructure,” Messley continued. “So, the argument we have there is also about the infrastructure needed to enable it. So, if something like Nadi’s Lights need to play five games on the weekend to enable night games (you need to play at night).
“But yeah, we’re investigating all of these things because Drua is a very integral part of our competition, and the real point of difference from us from other competitions, and we’re taking a lot of people out there to see what it’s like.”
Mesley also revealed numbers in favor of the story that this year’s SRP competition was at the record high, at least five rounds, as television ratings rose in both Australia and New Zealand and Fiji’s wares streaming apps were booming.
“Yeah, they’re having a great season,” Mesley told ESPN.
“So Sky (Sport) has given out some data. I think last week, at the end of Round 4, it rose about 12.5% in the same period last year. Stan (Sport) also rose over double digits. I think it would have been 17% if my memory was working properly.
“And they’re just keeping records breaking every week. Last week they put out 396,000 people on the Wareshi app, meaning that in terms of the proportion of the population, it’s just astounding.
“All our social metrics are off the charts, and while we know the crowds we see, the crowds take time.
These positive numbers are a large part of the uniformity of the competition.
“I think 9.6 points, average margin, 44% of the game was under 4 points,” explained Messley. “So the concentration of closed matches combined with high point scoring was the best season of Super Rugby Pacific after five rounds, averaging 62.4 points per match, and then I think I was in the top three or four seasons on the runmeter five rounds later.
“So I think the combination of a great style of play that brings lots of tries, a really high runmeter, is a really close margin that gives us a great combination.