The professional era

On 26 August 1995 the International Rugby Board declared rugby union an "open" game and thus removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. It did this because of a committee conclusion that to do so was the only way to end the hypocrisy of shamateurism and to keep control of rugby union.
The threat to rugby union was especially large in Australia where Super League was threatening to entice players to rugby league from rugby union (which was still amateur) with large salaries. SANZAR was formed in 1995 by the New Zealand, Australian and South African Rugby Unions to try to counter the Super League threat. SANZAR proposed a provincial competition with teams from all three countries; this competition became the Super 12 and later the Super 14. Their proposals also included an annual competition between each country's Test teams, the Tri Nations Series. They were eventually able to get backing for the competition from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, with a contract totaling $550 million (US) for ten years of exclusive TV and radio broadcasting rights. The deal was signed during the 1995 Rugby World Cup and revealed at a press conference on the eve of World Cup final.
SANZAR's proposals were however under serious threat from a Sydney-based group called the World Rugby Competition (WRC). WRC was formed by lawyer Geoff Levy and former Wallaby Ross Turnbull; both wanted a professional worldwide rugby competition funded by Kerry Packer. At one point the WRC had a majority of the All Blacks and Wallaby teams signed up to their competition. In addition to this the Springboks had signed the WRC contracts but had decided not to hand them over. With the three national Unions struggling to sign up their test players, the WRC hit problems when the South African players, recently crowned World Champions, decided not to hand over the WRC contracts and signed up with the South African Rugby Union: the players had been told they would never play for their country again if they committed to WRC. Most of the All Blacks then followed their Springbok counterparts by signing with their Union. The Australians, realising that without the New Zealanders and South Africans WRC's proposal could not succeed, relented and signed for the Australian Rugby Union.
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