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Would you like to see Argentina, Fiji, Samoa and other teams genuinely competing regularly against Australia and New Zealand rather than just at a World Cup made up of players who could get a release from their European clubs?
Sick of seeing the best Islanders play for New Zealand because of a lack of genuine alternatives?
SANZAR are now discussing the future of the game, but will they get it right? Probably not.
The main issues are Super 14 expansion and finals, and the Tri Nations.
At the end of the day, they will go for whatever politics and money allows. But it seems that they haven’t really put much thought into it at all.
Look at the current proposals and what they have been doing.
Anyone remember Australia Vs New Zealand in Hong Kong, best described as a rather desperate attempt to raise revenue, not the profile of rugby. It was nothing more than a hair brained, despicable, money grabbing exercise.
The attempt to bring Japan or any one other country into the Super 14 just won’t work. It would only degrade their local competition and would make watching the Super Rugby more complicated.
A combined Pacific team just won’t work, for obvious reasons.
Put simply, the minnows of the World Cup don’t get enough game time against the more established nations, and even when they do, the teams are often second or third tier players, which really just denigrates the players and countries involved.
At the last World Cup, Fiji showed they can match it with the best given half a chance. Imagine what they could do if they played together regularly?
Samoa, Tonga and even Zimbabwe have shown they can go toe to toe with the best, but fall off usually due to fitness issues.
Here are some suggestions:
Super Rugby
1. Super 14 becomes at least Super 15, with Melbourne the logical choice to give rugby a more genuine Australia-wide representation.
2. Finals for the Super competition must be longer as the current set up is too short and only 4/14 (28%) opposed to most other competions 8/16 (50%!) make the finals. (50% or more making the finals is pretty pathetic). As a Super 15, I propose 6/15 make the finals. First and second have a week off whilst third to sixth play for the right to have a crack at the top two for a place in the final.
The trouble of involving other countries in the Super 14 is that it’s not possible to get all the countries in the competition. Besides, it would be a little lame to have just one club in the Super competition to the detriment of their local competition.
Euro/Six Nations style cup for Non Euro teams.
There are a couple of options for this:
1. A Southern Hemisphere Cup, just like the Euro Cup (soccer)
This would be played every four years in between the World Cup in a format somewhat similar to the World Cup.
2. An Annual Six Nations-like tournament. So no country is left out in the cold completely I would split it in two competitions with relegation like the English Premier League with eight teams in each division.
Australia
South Africa
New Zealand
Japan
Argentina
Fiji
Tonga
Samoa
other nations
Canada
Kenya
Zimbabwe
USA
China
Korea
Any Non Euro country
Further, can someone running Super 14 do two things:
1. Free to air TV is a must!
2. Every Friday and Saturday there must be an Australian team playing in Australia during prime time.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.