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The ARU has fronted the press in reaction to yesterday’s announced Super Rugby changes, saying that the Brumbies will not be cut from the competition, and a decision will be made and announced likely in the next 48-72 hours about whether it will be the Melbourne Rebels or the Western Force who are cut.
The ARU will respond to yesterday’s announcement regarding the changes to Super Rugby in a press conference this morning. Join The Roar for live coverage of the press conference, starting from 9:30am AEST.
Yesterday it was announced that from 2018 onward, the Super Rugby competition will be cut from eighteen teams to fifteen, with one Australian and two South African sides to make way.
» Five talking points from Super Rugby Round 7
SANZAAR said they would allow the South African and Australian governing bodies to make the decisions on which sides they would withdraw from the competition.
It is widely believed that the Western Force will be the Australian side to be cut, while the Kings and the Cheetahs appear to be most at risk in South Africa.
There will be no changes to the New Zealand conference, but the competition will be reorganised into three conferences of five teams, with the Sunwolves joining four Australian teams and the Jaguares joining four South African teams.
However, it is being reported that the ARU will not announce which team they are cutting from the competition at today’s press conference. Despite that, it is bound to bring significant insight into their plans for the future.
“No we haven’t been prescriptive on a deadline,” SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos said last night.
“We understand that it’s a pretty significant decision in each of those markets.
“I know that the national unions are working furiously at this point in time in dealing with all of their stakeholders.
“We are hopeful that we will have finality on the composition of the South Africa and Australia pretty quickly.”
Marinos said the current Super Rugby structure wasn’t working for the competition.
“Without being too melodramatic, I don’t think we would’ve had much of a product to put into the market come 2020 (with 18 teams),” he said.
“It simply wasn’t working.
“The drop-off we’re seeing from a viewer point of view and attendance was getting was significant.
“We’re in a very competitive and congested marketplace, not only in Australia but in global sport, where people want to watch the best playing against the best with unpredictable outcomes and increasingly we were getting ourselves in a position where those outcomes were becoming more and more predictable.”
Join The Roar for live coverage of the press conference, starting from 9:30am AEST.