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The time has come once again where SANZAR are sitting behind closed doors to decide the future of the Super Rugby competition and the Rugby Championship.
As a whole I am completely happy with the new format of the Rugby Championship which allows South Africa to play Australia, New Zealand and Argentina on a home and away basis every year. So I doubt any tweaking is necessary in that regard.
Some may be of the opinion that some of the issues prevelant during these negotiations are because of SARU throwing their toys out of the cot, but bear with me for the moment.
South Africa has their own unique challenges to face, and the elephant in the room is the political climate which is not going to go away.
The Kings rightfully or wrongfully have demanded and have been included into Super Rugby for 2013, yet after the first promotion and relegation round against the Lions, find themselves on the back foot as they will have to beat the Lions by eight or more to stay in the Super rugby tournament.
It is necessary to have a rethink as far as the current Super Rugby tournament is concerned.
I am not going to discuss the current format, as I have done so numerous times in the past, and suffice to say I am not convinced it’s the best way to go.
There are certain limiting factors and negatives in regards to the current system.
1. Travel time and expenses.
2. The length of the tournament
3. It impacts on the importance of the Currie Cup.
4. I limits the individual development of each country.
For me the one and only way forward is for a closed conference system. In other words each country has their teams compete in a system where you qualify by playing against playing teams from your conference. This will alleviate travel, expenses and reduce the time necessary for the preliminary rounds.
There is, however, a big advantage to a closed conference system which has been completely ignored previously, and that is the individual development of each nation’s rugby structure.
For me the ideology of having South Africa, New Zealand and Australia combine together to ensure the financial sustainability of professional rugby is a noble idea.
But by looking at the picture from only a collective aspect it has caused the countries to ignore their domestic needs for development. They instead keep on looking at how to fit a square, a round peg and a triangle into the same hole.
The necessity to look at the priorities of each nation and what their individual goals are should take precedent over what the collective goals are.
South Africa and New Zealand have domestic competitions that have proud traditions and history. Australia need to develop and sustain a domestic competition which can stand without SANZAR.
The reality is we have all been losing a plethora of talented rugby players for two main reasons: we do not have enough professional teams to accommodate them and therefore they run off overseas where there are more opportunities.
Second comes the money, it is a fact that we cannot compete financially against French clubs who have salary caps of 10 million Euros per club, and often tycoons manage to find ways to circumvent that system with ease.
Imagine a system where each country within the scope of Super Rugby has their domestic competition as their preliminary round robin. Part and parcel of the same competition, but separate in its development.
In other words, each nation can now use their premier domestic competition as the basis of not only qualifying to the next round, but also as the basis of how their premier teams are financed and developed.
Imagine that each nation can decide on how many teams there will be in their conference, in other words they notify at each negotiation of new broadcasting deals how many teams will be in their conference for the next 4-5 year period.
Broadcasting revenue is then calculated on that basis.
For every team one nation has more than the others, they start two weeks earlier to get the extra two weeks (home and away) in.
This will not affect any other nation in any way whatsoever. Based on this, depending on finances and development criteria of each nation, this allows the flexibility for each to grow their professional system in any way they deem is beneficial.
Ultimately, if one country decides they want to build twelve professional teams, nothing prevents them from doing so.
At the end of the day, the next round (after the closed conference pool rounds) will have the same number of teams qualify from each conference.
Now from here the format can take different options.
You could have a top nines, top sixes, and have a round robin with these teams, or go straight into a playoff situation.
If you go straight into a playoff situation the seeding might be a little iffy, but a round robin can easily provide enough interest for broadcasters as you will have only the top teams competing.
There is, of course, the financial impact of such a system to consider.
Each nation will earn their revenue from their conference. Gate money, merchandising and sponsorships depends on each individual Union.
The revenue from the next phase will be split three ways, and should fetch a handsome dollar on pure quality alone.
The biggest reason why I believe this is the most workable idea of the lot is simply because in effect SARU will be able to run and develop our domestic system without having any restraints imposed on them by their partners.
This way we can grow our number of professional teams to the maximum that will be financially sustainable and provide many more opportunity for players to play professional rugby within the country.
Australia will be able to grow their domestic rugby and finally be able to compete with the NRL and AFL.
New Zealand will be able to give the ITM its rightful place and develop it in line with their individual needs.
Overseas markets aren’t ready to receive us. Japan’s club rugby is financed by big corporate companies with little revenue and gate money. America is a long way off from being a viable market.
It is up to SANZAR to develop the sport, not only as a collective, but also ensure the development of each individual nation without putting restraints on each other.
I believe the above format accommodates both priorities.
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.