To get anywhere in the Super Rugby competition, a successful tour of South Africa is essential.
The Brumbies have just returned from a winning tour, taking away seven points from two matches, while the Reds didn’t win a match.
That’s cost the Reds dearly on the table, and the Waratahs stand to miss out on the finals altogether if they can’t turn their form around in the Rainbow Nation.
The trip to South Africa has traditionally been a struggle for Australian teams. The travel, the stadiums, and the crowds all combine to make victories over there as rare as hen’s teeth.
The tour is difficult and it’s meant to be. If a team is going to win the competition it should be able to win on its tour.
The question is – if touring is tough, are South African teams at a disadvantage having to travel to Australasia for an entire month?
The history of Super Rugby seems to suggest exactly this, with the vast majority of winners coming from New Zealand and Australia. With South African teams having poor statistics when they travel, is South Africa justified in complaining about the inherent bias in the Super competition?
Whatever the Northern Hemisphere may say, the Super competition is the toughest provincial competition in the world.
The tiniest disadvantage may be the difference for a side, and so, if there are different tour lengths between the nations, the Super Rugby competition should be viewed as inherently biased towards Australasian teams.
Although we often hear about the disagreements between the SANZAR countries (for instance, the current issue regarding the introduction of the Southern Kings) are South Africa’s complaints about this issue justified and should something be done to even out the Super competition?
It appears very little can be done to amend this bias. South Africa has to tour here if they want to play in the Super competition and aside from moving Australia into the Indian Ocean, their tours will always be longer. It’s an intractable problem of Super Rugby.
What this touring issue highlights is the delicate nature of the SANZAR alliance. SANZAR has done well to create the Super competition and now the Rugby Championship. These are the strongest provincial and international competitions in world rugby.
It’s no coincidence that every World Cup, bar one, has been won by a Tri-Nations team. However issues such as touring and the introduction of the Southern Kings always threaten to break apart this successful relationship.
All three nations are richer for playing against each other regularly. Although completely unlikely, the disintegration of SANZAR would make the global game a lot poorer.
For the good of the game, all three nations need to accept the difficulties the others face.
Ziggy
Guest
Bloem should prferably be in another galaxy - with all other alien life forms.
Tigranes
Guest
I dont know about being too biased. Certainly a few years ago, South African teams winning on the road was a rarity, but these days the South African sides bar the Lions all seem to get wins in Australasia, even the Cheetahs. I suspect one of the reasons behind this is the introduction of the Rebels and Force, which in turn weakened the other Australian sides. However, this year the Sharks, Stormers and Cheetahs all won games in New Zealand as well. Of all the three nations in super rugby, there is no doubt that Australia has benefited far more than the other two. We dont have a decent domestic competition, and if super rugby didnt exist, then the Wallabies would struggle to win any games in the tri nations - we would probably be on par with Scotland as our players wouldnt be playing at a higher intensity as much as other nations.
Tigranes
Guest
Brett Pretoria would be about 100km from Johannesburg
Jarmen
Guest
Canada and the USA would be much more at home in a pan america competition than they would be flying halfway around the world to Australia, NZ, Sri Lanka, India....
Bakkies
Guest
Have you heard of Supersport? Easily the best sports broadcaster on the planet and it's not run by News Corp. SA has the biggest tv market, matches get broadcast in other African nations, they have the highest crowd attendance figures. A South African bank is sponsoring the NZ conference. The 4 Nations pumps up the tv deal from News Corp and Supersport no wonder Uncle Rupert wanted Argentina in the last time the renegotiated. The Rebels got in because there was a new tv market of 5 million Victorians.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Agree with you LR, I think it evens out. One long overseas trip has advantages too: bonds the team together, clear focus on performance/rugby, small 1-3hrs journey between venues (Syd>Bris>ACK>WGN etc). Plus I dont think you're much more tired after a 3hr flight than after a 1.30 domestic flight.Transfers, packing/unpacking are time consuming/tiring and occur for Long haul and Short Haul flights, so... I think we'd better look at other reasons why kiwis have won the majority of SR tournaments played so far...(a guess: they are simply better than us and the saffas, no?)
LukeR
Guest
I've always wondered whether there is flip side: South African teams tough it out for one long trip to Aus and NZ. Before and following this they get long stretches of not having to travel far at all. They way they look at it, they just have to graft out a win and some bonus points on this tour and then they're in the box seat. I can think of quite a few occasions when the Bulls, Stormer and Sharks have stormed home to finish in the finals - aided by a long stretch of home and SA games.
Justin
Guest
No need when the backs run rings around them ;)
Johnno
Guest
lol funny that Moaman that for all the south african's so called hardness and physical nature and aussies are wimps, look at the records of Aussies vs south africans since south africa re-entered test footy aussies have won more so maybe it is the saffas that need to harden up not live on an urban myth that there harder than the aussies.
allblackfan
Guest
I made a prediction, I never said I was any good at it!:-) Okay, revamped prediction! Cooper to play for the Blues!:-) SBW to join him there! Cooper to start, SBW on the outside and the mascot will be that khader dud who's their manager!
steve.h
Guest
hahahaha that's Gold.
steve.h
Guest
yip it is
steve.h
Guest
Are you talking about Super Rugby or the Rugby Championship?
steve.h
Guest
Well if South Africa dropped out not only would you loose out South Africas massive viewing audience ( 1.7 milllion people watched the Bulls, Sharks game) but you would miss out on another massive audience no one ever seems to discuss on this site - EUROPE. Sky UK mainly televises the games played in South Africa due the favourable time zone. In Greg Peters latest report audiences in the UK are growing steadily . Each nations offers something to the alliance , South Africa - massive audience and a developing nation, Australia - Developing rugby nation with room to grow and a expanding population, New Zealand - Abundance of talent and critical link with the Polyneisan people. Why would this article lump Australia and New Zealand victories together and then compare them? Australia and South Africa have the same amount of Super Rugby Victories and both trail along way behind New Zealand aka Crusaders. I like Super Rugby can't we all just get along.
Moaman
Guest
Are you licking your lips looking at a type of comp where aussie forward packs can hold their own,Johnno? ;-)
Moaman
Guest
What? Off the bench behind Cruden or?
Johnno
Guest
Im looking ofrwad to the day when Asian rugby gets strong enough and we can ditch Argentina, and South africa. And allign with our natural home and continent the Asia-pacific. Japan,USA,Canada, Sth korea,China,India,Phillipines,Thailand,sri lanka. Like in soccer australia is part of asia.
Photon
Guest
Pretoria to jhb = 60km Pretoria cape town = 1500 Pretoria bloemfontein 500 Pta dbn 500 Bloem to dbn 650 I think the New Zealand teams have been the best as a block for sometime, yes there are some advantages like how when we where super 12 a kiwi team could play something like 8 rounds per tournament in kiwiland alone but I think the primary thing is New Zealand has just been better, but the competition is certainly begining to even out, not really sure why,maybe the system is more fair
Brett McKay
Expert
scratch that, I'm thinking Jo'burg to Bloem...
allblackfan
Guest
and on that note, I predict Quade Cooper next year will play for ... the Chiefs!!:-) Queue the drumroll! You heard it here first!! Thank you thank you!!:-):-)