Supa Iberica de Rugby
Roar Guru By Working Class Rugger, 13 Jul 2009 Working Class Rugger is a Roar Guru
Last Sunday saw the inaugural final of the inaugural season of the SupaIberica de Rugby. The SIR is the brainchild of Michael Robinson and the Spanish Rugby Clubs Association in response to the perceived fall in competitiveness of the Spanish National team and the inaction of the Spanish Rugby Union to amend it.
The SIR is Spain’s first tentative steps toward establishing a greater Professional league in Spain and Portugal along with growing Rugby’s presence in the community and its participation numbers.
Its first season had 6 City based franchises. Originally four Portugese teams were to participate but the Portugese RU decided to hold back to see how the first season was received and the Spanish RU reaction to the competition.
The SIR as you may have already figured is not sanctioned by the Spanish RU. On face value they have given the SIR public support but the relationship behind the scenes in far from friendly. The Spanish RU has tried everything in their power to disrupt and stall the SIR to no avail.
For the record the 6 professional set ups are the Madrid Gatos, Sevilla FC Adulucia, La Vila Mariners, Vacceos Cavaliers, Catalunya – Blaus Alamgovers and the BasqueKorsarioak. With the Gatos defeating the Mariners in the final.
All the games were broadcast live and in prime time on Canal+ who also sponsored the competition alongside Powerade, Adecco and Canterbury who were the official kit providers.
I’m currently trying to find out about next season, crowd figures, TV audiences, standards of the competition and whether the Portugese team will join either next year or the year after. And of course that the SIR website be published in English.
On the German front, this weekend sees the Hannover 7’s in full swing, with the SIR already proving useful as the Spanish team made the semi- finals. Hopefully they can beat the crowd attendance from last year where they sold 35,000 tickets predominantly to German locals. If all goes to plan next year could see the arrival of the WILd Titans out of Heidelberg as a professional the European Challenge Cup.
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March 7th 2010 @ 4:14pm
Working Class Rugger said | March 7th 2010 @ 4:14pm | Report comment
Following on from my last post there have been a few developments. One of the two new teams will definitely be Portugese. The Portugese Rugby Federation has decided against entering two franchises at this time instead choosing to concentrate all its best talent into the one organisation most likely to be based in Lisbon. The new team will be Spanish. So far there has been two locations put up so I cannot with any certainty speculate on its location.
The other development relates to the relationship between the SIR and the Federation Espana de Rugby (FER). They have for all intensive purposes have formed a co-operative agreement regarding the Supa Iberica De Rugby. Over the next 3 years it will move toward a 12 team Championship. Alongside this a second tier will be established. The Top 10 Gold will form the level directly below the Pro SIR.
Finally, Canal+ have remained as the competitions prime broadcaster and sponsor. The ratings for the first season gained a 8 point ratings share. They will also be launching a re vamp Rugby magazine show called ‘Hemisphere Rugby’. The 3 other foundation sponsors (Adecco, Gatorade and Canterbury) will be there for version two alongside a few new groups soon to be announced.
It would appear the after many years of stagnation Spanish Rugby may be beginning to move forward.