Create a Super Rugby conference in Argentina

RugbyFuture, That's a dream. Unworkable in short term. Argentina cannot afford it. I have some thoughts about it, and my impression -knowing Argentine economical conditions- is that an expansion team (perhaps two) would fit better. Not counting that could be very useful to the PLADAR project, using the professional players under contract with UAR.

Personally I'd love two specially created teams playing from southern Brisbane and western Sydney. They would be able to tap into the rich rugby (mostly league at the moment) playing stocks of Melanesian and ,especially, Polynesian families. So in the spirit of London Irish, London Scottish and London Welsh, I give you the idea of Brisbane Pacific and, most essentially, Sydney Pacific. With a three conference Super 18 in the pipelines, these two teams would enable both the Australian and New Zealand conferences to have six teams, in line with the six from South Africa with the eventual inclusion of a Southern Kings/Spears. Sydney Pacific and Brisbane Pacific would alternate between the Australian and New Zealand conferences. Not only would Australian rugby gain a better foothold in the relatively untapped southern suburbs of Brisbane and Logan, but also the western suburbs of Sydney, where the NRL is currently able to attract great players from a Pacific heritage.

Creating a whole conference is too risky to ever take of. When Super Rugby expands to 18 teams, the Kings or spears should get the south african spot, with one team from buenos airies and another pacific islander team filling the spots in the nz and aus conference (unless nz can find a region with a significant economy to support a super rugby side)

Here is an idea.... stop using the super 14 as away to develop rugby in a country. It has only had limited success in Australia in the period from 1996 to 2004. Along came the Western Force and the wheels fell off in Aus. Another thing one must not forget is the new Melbourne based team will be heavily reliant on Argentine imports to prop up its numbers and not dilute Aus playing ranks. Its time for Arg and Aus to sort out their internal competitions, it would make the super14/15/20 whatever it will be a lot more competitive and wont damage the collective pyshicy of the nation when none of their teams makes it to the play offs. Super rugby should be the icing not the filling.... we killing our players through the amount of rugby and travel. Super rugby should follow the Heineken cup format But I am truly excited to see the Argentines in four nations.

Argentina have a similar problem to Australia in that their great domestic strength is in a single city club competition, the URBA very much resembles Shute Shield. Although they have a provincial competition aswell, I imagine the clubs of Buenos Aries wield all the power in Argentine Rugby. This is a significant hurdle to overcome, how will argentina spread the talent across all provinces? A team in Patagonia? How will they compete? Where will they be based? IMO the grand plan for SH rugby should include the inception of an eight team south american provincial competition, 6xArg, 1 each for Uruguay and Chile, with the top 4 qualifying for SH Super Rugby. Leave Canada and the US out - they are in a completely different environment to Sth America and must develop their own provincial comp.

and where does New Zealand's NPC fitl into this plan ?

I'd rather see 4 regional teams from Argentina compete against the 8 South African teams (currie cup) in a super 12 Atlantic Conference, while another 12 from a Pacific Conference (trans-tasman with possible asian team) compete in another - and then meet in a finals system. That way the Currie Cup continues.. travel costs are reduced. would make sense with the expansion of tri-nations. - something like Beunos Airies,Cuyo, Tucuman-Salta, and central (Cordoba, Roario, Santa Fe). The South african teams could have seperate finals for Currie Cup as well as Super 12. 4 professional argie teams would take time to be competitive with the Bulls/Sharks etc.. but wouldn't be embarrassed by the lower half of the Currie Cup teams.. boland/Leopards etc.

The self contained conference system is certainly is the only way to go - but be careful what you wish for - Australain rugby's pretty light on at the moment - but maintains a #3 spot due to the fact it's players have had regular exposure to the top drawer quality players / teams from NZ and SA ... moving to a solely self contained conference will severely limit that exposure and may see the overall quality regress ...

"Has the thought occurred to anyone else that the direction SH rugby is taking is increasingly along the lines of Packer’s touted World Rugby Competition (WRC)" Only the shape of the competition, the difference being that the unions control the player base.

I like the idea, of an elite level competition in argintina, and with a conference systym could be teid into super rugby, since only the conference winners will have to travel it wouldn't be that big a deal. The big problem as i see it is that argentine rugby will never be able to compete with the Salaries on offer in europe, it is a problem faced by all of southern hemishpere rugby but perhaps even more so by argentina. The simple fact is european clubs have huge finacial resources, they are capable of generating much more revenue, the reason is simple too their fans pay in pouns or euros while our fans pay with dollars and lira or pesos or whatever they use in argentina, it would be great to see domestic competitions full of the best domestic talent but it is hard to get players to turn down financial security

If Super Rugby ever went to the Americas it would need to be a self contained competition in itself. In fact, Super Rugby should be moving toward a situation where they have 4 or 5 independent conference's with only the Top 2 from each conference meeting those from the other 3 or4 conference's in the finals series. Thus the travel cost would be far less. As for the WRC comment. Yes, I have noticed that too.

And the economics of it all??? Cost of paying Argentine players + cost of their travel to NZ/AUS/RSA + cost of NZ/AUS/RSA teams' travel to Argentina = enormous. Where is all this extra money going to come from? On another point: Has the thought occurred to anyone else that the direction SH rugby is taking is increasingly along the lines of Packer's touted World Rugby Competition (WRC) rather than the original Murdoch SANZAR vision? Following the 1995 World Cup and when rugby was about to turn pro there was a battle between Packer and Murdoch for rugby union. Murdoch won, the Super 12 (taking existing provincial sides) was formed and Packer's WRC quickly forgotten. Now, however, we seem quite a way from that as we're creating franchises out of nothing (more akin to Packer's WRC vision).

exactly, for argentina's benefit their future must lie with SANZAR not lowly US and Canada but the jaguars should stay as development for the Americas. Maybe sometime in the future we will see an americas conference or an argentina conference but it is a couple of years away

No I want Elite Rugby played in the Americas to raise the standard of the game in both continents. And why is it 'Empire building' because its Rugby.