Rugby Union in Australia is 'in the sick bay,' according to the head of the Waratahs. But Andrew Hore fervently believes if the Super Rugby tournament was revamped with more Australia-New Zealand blockbusters it would leapfrog league and become the main rugby code in the country.
He is also deeply concerned about the lack of say the Australian Super Rugby provinces have, with the centralised approach of the Australian Rugby Union akin to 'a communist state.'
Hore, who last year took over as the Waratahs chief executive after four seasons in charge of the Ospreys club in Wales, told ESPN that rugby had to promote itself better, but most importantly make its competitions more appealing.
The expansion of the Super Rugby tournament to 18 teams has prompted widespread criticism for being unwieldy, confusing, lopsided, fragmented and littered with games of little interest. With it, provinces are either in major financial trouble or struggling to make a profit.
Hore believes Super Rugby would be enlivened if Australia and New Zealand provinces played in the one conference on a home and away basis, prompting a succession of important traditional local derbies and tense Trans-Tasman battles that would all draw a crowd.
Then they would confront South African teams at the play-off stage.
"There's no doubt we've slipped to being the fourth football code," Hore told ESPN.
"But I can't see any reason why we can't leapfrog rugby league. I genuinely don't...if we promote the health and safety positives of the game, our value set as a sport, and continue to improve the structures at the junior level.
"Rugby League has a problem with declining participation as well, and there is a big blow-up with the clubs who don't want the money going into the development program. Our threat is not Rugby League. Our threat is rugby versus soccer and AFL.
"This (NSW) used to be a rugby state- whether it's union or league, it was a rugby state. It's not a rugby state anymore. To change that, the key is to improve the competition structure.
"If a mum takes their son to rugby league or union, as we haven't sold how safe our game is, they think it is about the same. But it isn't. Actually, rugby is statistically safer.
"When they get there, are mum and dad having a great experience? League versus union. One has a really bad problem with sideline violence etc etc. One hasn't. We are poor at saying we're a decent sport.
"Rugby League has 5.1 million recognised supporters. Rugby has 3.8million, of which 41 per cent are based in NSW. When you look at the raw numbers, rugby is not that far behind.
"The difference comes in creating a platform to make that noise heard- whether it is mixing up free to air coverage with pay TV, or providing a competition that makes people crow.
"The area where we really fall down is that rugby league has a great senior competition that people buy into, week in week out. There's content, a feeling of belonging, and it's a simple competition which is easy for people to understand.
"So our No 1 priority has to be getting our competition structure at the elite end right."
That involves more matches with meaning. Hore does not need reminding how well promoted local derbies draw capacity, profitable crowds. On the weekend, Hore was among the 40,000 who attended the Big Bash cricket match between the two Sydney teams- the Sixers and the Thunder at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Next door at Allianz Stadium, a similar number was at the A-League soccer derby sell-out between Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers.
Of the seven home games this season, the Waratahs will only be involved in three local derbies- against the Force, Rebels and Brumbies. The sole Waratahs-Reds match- once the most eagerly awaited game in Australian Rugby- will be played in Brisbane.
"We have to value tribalism. What makes footy great is when there is a bit of niggle," Hore said.
"We can't see Super Rugby as just a thing that our internationals play in. It needs to be something that has niggle, a bit of nastiness where the Queenslanders want to give it to NSW and the Brumbies want to give it to both and so on. There's a bit of old school we need to bring back to the competition.
"The other thing TV love is a good play-off series. So maybe then we bring in the South Africans, but not in the main body of the competition."
Hore argued it was imperative the Super Rugby provinces were more involved in the planning of the tournaments they are involved in, rather than the ARU and SANZAAR determining everything.
"The (Super Rugby) competition has to be simplified. And there needs to be more voice from the clubs who are in it, and that may create a constructive tension between ourselves and the national union.
"We need to be more open and honest and have more of a round table approach...because what suits the international game may not suit the domestic game. Yet what we're trying to do is have the domestic game and the international game be run by the same group with the same rules. But it is a completely different clientele.
"The issue we have is a lack of content. There are enough teams in this competition to give it meaning, enough rivalries to create interest, and enough possibilities to create more content, which would generate more money.
"All the critical factors that could take this sport somewhere are there. But we're failing the sport by not sitting down and addressing what the issues are, and separating our issues from international issues. We are embroiling the two together and we're becoming a communist state."
Hore said it was silly to say Australian rugby was 'a dead duck.'
"Look, the game is not dead. It's just in the sick-bay at the moment. But with the right antibiotics we could be out of there."