Cheika suggests Super split as rugby's popularity continues to plummet in Australia

Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika's recent suggestion that Rugby Australia withdraw from Super Rugby to focus on its own provincial competition has turned the microscope yet again on the sport's ongoing struggle for popularity across the ditch.

Speaking to The Roar's Christy Doran, Cheika - who spent six years in charge of the Australian national side - insisted RA needs to cut the cord from Super Rugby and establish its own competition to help grow both its homegrown talent and ensure the sport doesn't follow its current trend and fade into obscurity.

While the traditional powerhouses of AFL and rugby league have been thriving, rugby union has continued to plummet.

Mainstream media outlets are further dialling back their rugby coverage, while it's onwards and upwards for the NRL and its expansion.

"It's chalk and cheese between rugby and rugby league at the moment," Doran told SENZ Mornings. "You can just see the connection that rugby league is achieving right across the country.

"They're expanding across to Perth by bringing back the (Western) Bears, looking to get into Papua New Guinea.

"AFL is really dominating right across the country and then you've got rugby, which is just shrinking unfortunately. Apart from the hardcore 30-50,000 fans, rugby just doesn't resonate with the country at the moment.

"Sydney Morning Herald is going to start not covering rugby next year in the same way because it just doesn't move the needle and that's the concerning element - when the traditional mainstream media is starting to abandon Super Rugby, and that's what's occurring."

The Wallabies lack of success hasn't helped matters. They’re amid a 22-year Bledisloe Cup drought and last year failed to make it past the group stage of the Rugby World Cup for the first time in their history, a sad fall from grace for the two-time champions.

But as Cheika noted, success on the Test stage doesn't equate to popularity. He guided the Wallabies to the World Cup final in 2015, which he said, "didn't really change too many things".

The Matt Giteau rule allowing foreign-based players to represent the Wallabies hasn't paid dividends. Marika Koroibete is the only Wallabies regular plying his trade abroad.

Cheika believes the key to achieving long-term success and fan reengagement is to restart with the foundation of a self-sufficient domestic competition.

So, what would this alternative competition look like?

Australia have attempted to recreate the premise of New Zealand's National Provincial Championship and South Africa's Currie Cup with their National Rugby Championship, but its various iterations have failed to catch on.

Doran suggests using their Super Rugby sides as a base and expand to as many as eight teams, with two apiece in the traditional rugby strongholds of NSW and Queensland and building from there.

Of course, the competition would require significant start-up capital, identifying Australian business magnate Andrew Forrest - a long-time rugby advocate - as a potential source of financial support.

With the British and Irish Lions tour approaching next year and the Rugby World Cup looming in 2027, Doran says the sun is shining and RA needs to desperately make hay - before it's too late.

"If Rugby Australia doesn't sort it out over the next three or four golden years by hosting the Lions and the home world cup in 2027, they won't get another opportunity," Doran told co-host Ian Smith.

"These are the years they've really got to capitalise and have that strategic thinking.

"Rugby will continue to be played but how successful will Australia be? Will they ever return to the golden years? I don't necessarily think they will.

"You're seeing the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and currently, rugby is very much the latter."

Listen to the full interview below: