The rugby storylines to follow in Australia & New Zealand in 2022 – ESPN Australia

If it feels like the rugby season only finished a few weeks ago, you're not alone. Add to that the fact that Rugby Australia has this week been drip-feeding its 2021 awards, and you could be forgiven for wondering whether the players have had a break at all.

Or maybe you were able to switch off and enjoy the cricket and the Australian Open, at least after Novak Djokovic departed Tullamarine with his tail between his legs?

No matter which way it's been, the reality is that the official kick-off of the Australian and New Zealand rugby seasons is now just two weeks away.

A bumper 10-month calendar awaits, highlighted by the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific, the visits of Ireland and England to New Zealand and Australia respectively, Rugby World Cup 2021 [delayed from last year] and of course the Rugby Championship and spring tours.

As usual, there will be just as much happening off the field as on it as both nations continue to struggle with the realities of professional sport amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read on as we cover some of the major storylines to across in 2022.

CAN MOANA PASIFIKA AND FIJIAN DRUA SAVE SUPER RUGBY?

After two years of separation - and the successful Aotearoa and AU tournaments - the five New Zealand franchises and their five Aussie counterparts are fully reunited in Super Rugby Pacific. They have been joined by fledgling outfits Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua, with the teams to be based in New Zealand and Australia respectively.

Given the success of Super Rugby AU; the way the competition appeared to resonate with fans; the fact it supplied Australian winners week in, week out, and it's gripping finale; Rugby Australia faced pressure to retain the tournament on its own - and those calls only grew louder when the Kiwi franchises dominated the crossover Trans-Tasman series 23-2. But there was always the belief from both NZR & RA that the competition was better - and stronger - together. Certainly the other school of thought for Australian rugby is that its franchises needed to be playing their Kiwi counterparts more, not less.

Fast forward six months, and the competition draw has already been revised, while this week NZR sent its six teams south to Queenstown to mitigate the risk of COVID infection across its playing cohort. Western Force, meanwhile, have headed east to escape Mark McGowan - or the state's hard border at least - and there remains the very real possibility the tournament will have to be finished in Australia once the Kiwi teams head to Melbourne for Super Round. All options remain on the table.

The hope is, however, that the two new Pacific teams bring a different element to the tournament and that there is considerable improvement across the five Australian franchises. If the wider Australian sporting audience is to be engaged at all, the Brumbies, Reds, Waratahs, Force and Rebels must mix it with the Kiwis. While that will be a key indicator of the tournament's success, there is a quiet belief that Super Rugby at last has its props in a row: A tournament that rugby supporters actually want to watch.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE GITEAU LAW?

For a few months last year, the vagaries of Rugby Australia's updated Giteau Law appeared hugely beneficial for Australian rugby. Samu Kerevi and Quade Cooper first returned to the Wallabies, having an instant impact across a four-Test winning streak during the Rugby Championship, while Sean McMahon also joined the party but only managed a short cameo.

The whole scenario smelt of roses, until Wallabies management decided to select the trio despite the lack of a firm guarantee they would travel onto Europe after the team's Japanese stopover. Almost inevitably, the three men got cold feet and instead opted to do right by their clubs and prepare for the League One preseason.

So out went Cooper, Kerevi and McMahon, and in came Rory Arnold, Tolu Latu, Will Skelton and, later, Kurtley Beale. While none of the quartet had the same impact as Cooper or Kerevi, all but Latu suggested they were worth persisting with if the situation presents.

And that's exactly the problem: What is the situation? The Giteau Law has been under review by RA board members Phil Waugh and Daniel Herbert, alongside chief executive Andy Marinos who told ESPN in late October that "we are going to be looking at our eligibility policy at the end of this year".

That was to involve a report from Wallabies coach Dave Rennie, who was clearly chastened by the dramas in Japan, which also may have played a part in the non-renewal of director of rugby Scott Johnson's contract. But the report is still a no-show.

The sooner the updated restrictions are released, the better.

EDDIE RETURNS HOME, WITH ENGLAND; IRELAND TO NZ

Just what shape the Giteau Law eventually takes will determine which of Australia's overseas based players will be eligible to face England in a huge three-Test series in July. Japan's League One season will have concluded by then, so it's reasonable to suggest that Rennie will have presented a case that sees Kerevi available at least [Cooper was already eligible under the original guidelines].

Whatever the case, the series represents Australia's best opportunity to snap a run of eight straight defeats by England. After he oversaw a 3-0 sweep in 2016 - which started the miserable run for the Wallabies - Eddie Jones will bring his usual mind games and mischief Down Under, alongside a squad that has already undergone some transition, and has since been forced into even more for the Six Nations following a raft of injuries.

Meanwhile, Ireland head to New Zealand for three Tests of their own, coming off an impressive last-start win over the All Blacks when they largely dominated Ian Foster's side. But Ireland have never won a Test in New Zealand, and the All Blacks will be intent on revenge after a poor outing in Dublin in November.

All in all, for three straight weeks in July, it's a rugby paradise.

FOSTER TO FEEL THE HEAT?

It won't be paradise for All Blacks coach Ian Foster if he drops even one of those Tests against Ireland, however.

Having retained the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship last year, Foster had quietened the doubters who believe he is not the man to get the best out of this current bunch of All Blacks. But then they lost to the Springboks, so too Ireland and France, and suddenly the wolves were barking once more.

Any other nation would largely be thrilled with 12 wins from 15 Tests. But not New Zealand. One defeat is understandable, even two ... but three? That's cause for alarm.

Certainly the expectation will be that they sweep Ireland 3-0 in July, deal with the Wallabies as per usual, so too the Pumas, and then battle with the Springboks for Rugby Championship supremacy. That would leave just the spring tour, when they came unstuck last year.

If things don't go to plan, then you can expect calls for Scott Robertson to be catapulted into the top job a year out from the World Cup won't just be coming from the South Island. Foster believes he knows where he went wrong last year - the proof will be in the All Blacks' 2022 results.

PRIVATE EQUITY DEBATE WILL ROLL ON

Having already dragged on for much of 2021, New Zealand Rugby's dalliance with private equity continues as the fight between the governing body and the Players' Union shows no sign of abating.

NZR is desperate to secure the investment from PE firm Silver Lake to reinvest into its grassroots, but the Players Union believe a better solution is to have NZR listed as a public company and be truly owned by the fans.

Silver Lake, who recently invested $130mAUD for 33% of Australia's A-Leagues football competition, was to buy 12.5% of a newly created commercial arm of NZR, while the Players Union proposed an initial 5% public floating as a means to raising badly needed capital.

Meanwhile, across the ditch, Rugby Australia is keeping a close eye on developments in New Zealand having already engaged Silver Lake in discussions of its own. There is, however, a seemingly more accepting acknowledgment from all stakeholders in the game that without PE investment the Australian game, from the professional right down to grassroots, is on borrowed time.

Australian rugby has also long courted the big end of town so a deal with an international PE firm perhaps appears less frightening. We are, however, yet to hear from Australia's Rugby Union Players Association on the matter, and that may be where a deal hits the same stumbling block as it has across the ditch.

It's very much a "watch this space" situation.

A MASSIVE YEAR FOR WOMEN'S RUGBY

Delaying Rugby World Cup 2021 wasn't ideal, but it was the only possible solution amid the COVID-19 pandemic and New Zealand's international border restrictions.

What the postponement to 2022 has done, however, is give each of the competing 12 nations an extra year of preparation, which will be particularly valuable for both the Black Ferns and Wallaroos. Both playing cohorts have been short on rugby in recent times, the Wallaroos in particular whose 2022 Test calendar was wiped completely.

The Black Ferns did travel north to Europe, where they were walloped by both France and England in a huge reality check before they host the tournament later this year. The launch of Super Rugby Aupiki will be the first point of improvement, with New Zealand's women at last having a proper professional tournament of their own.

Australia's Super W has been up and running for a few years, but was shoehorned into a tighter window and shifted to Coffs Harbour amid the pandemic last year. ESPN has been told the 2022 draw isn't too far from being released and that the "intention" is to include a Fijian Drua team as part of the tournament as well.

Both the Wallaroos and Black Ferns will then contest the Pacific Four series with the United States and Canada later this year, alongside other Test matches in their build-up for the World Cup.

If all goes to plan, this should be a watershed year for women's rugby in both New Zealand and Australia.

WHO WILL TOUTAI KEFU ENTICE OVER TO TONGA?

Firstly, it has been brilliant to see the global rugby community rally around Tonga since the tsunami struck the Pacific island a few weeks to go. Money has been raised in all corners of the globe, while on Saturday the Queensland Reds are staging a fundraising legends match as the curtain-raiser for their trial against the Force.

Playing in that match will be Tonga coach Toutai Kefu, who has recovered from a violent home invasion in Brisbane last year, and who also now has access to an even greater talent pool following World Rugby's Test eligibility change that was mandated last year.

Suddenly the likes of former All Blacks Charles Piutau, Vaea Fifita, Steven Luatua and potentially Ngani Laumape are all eligible - or they will be by the time the 2023 World Cup rolls around -- so too exiled former Wallabies fullback Israel Folau.

Kefu is a beloved figure not just in Australian rugby, but far beyond it, too. And he may yet bring together a squad that will have the likes of Pool B - where Tonga will land providing they qualify - rivals Scotland and Ireland looking over their shoulder.

Samoa and Fiji, too, will have access to a greater playing pool, but it's Tonga who look like being the big beneficiaries of World Rugby's historic decision.

The rest is here:

The rugby storylines to follow in Australia & New Zealand in 2022 - ESPN Australia