No pressure Queenslanders, but if you don’t win at least one of your next two games - against the Hurricanes in Melbourne and the Chiefs in Brisbane - it could be a long year for Australia in Super Rugby.

The Reds showed enough to provide some cautious optimism last week. The Waratahs did not, with the defensive contributions of some of their bench players not up to Super Rugby standard. The injury list is smashing Darren Coleman’s side.

And, frankly, Australian rugby needs at least one of its two heartland states to be successful to survive.

The Herald understands that Rugby Australia’s interest rate on the $80 million credit facility with Pacific Equity Partners is more than 10 per cent. The interest bill alone over the five-year term has the potential to be in the tens of millions. Not only should the Super Rugby franchises prepare for the funding freeze to remain, they should pray it isn’t going to be reduced further.

Queensland does seem to be swimming against that particular tide, and if the projections for Ballymore revenues prove accurate, they look sustainable.

However, it is on the field that counts over the next few weeks because there is no other Australian side currently with the potential to drive broadcast audience numbers like the Reds, or to create that elusive factor known as ‘buzz’. The Waratahs don’t have the team at the moment, and the Brumbies have the team but don’t have the support base.

Fraser McReight hits the ball up for the Reds against the Waratahs in round one.Credit: Getty

The expansion sides, the Rebels and the Force, have neither. The last available Rugby Victoria annual report, for 2022, showed there were 4027 registered players in the state, about 1300 fewer than the Southland province at the bottom of New Zealand. The equivalent number in Western Australia was 5809, and the Force’s first-up crowd against the Hurricanes last week was less than 8000.

It’s a hard slog in those AFL states, even with two sympathetic state governments (RugbyWA had $1.1million in debt forgiven in 2022) and, in WA’s case, the Forrests.