It’s about time Super Rugby was radically changed, as has been suggested come 2016, with Australia and New Zealand splitting away from South Africa.
How can you expect rugby to win the hearts and minds of the sporting public when a third of the matches in such a long tournament are played in the middle of the night?
I am all for the idea of having two separate leagues – one between Australian and New Zealand teams and an expanded Currie Cup in South Africa, which would hopefully include a couple of Argentinian sides.
These should be stand alone, separate leagues with different names and separate finals. Fans would be able to watch their teams every week in a reasonable time zone.
Surely having more matches at ideal times would also increase the value to broadcasters.
To supplement these leagues, I would like to see a short Super Rugby tournament played in a cup format.
And instead of making it a champions league style cup between the top few teams from each league, why not have all the teams enter?
The problem with a champions league style tournament is that most of the sides in each country would finish their season several weeks before the Super Rugby entrants.
From an Australian perspective you could have Wallabies playing club rugby for five or six weeks in a row before they played Test matches. It’s not ideal.
My idea would be to involve all teams in this new version of Super Rugby. Have pools of four (two from each league in every pool) with a seeding system to ensure the top ranked sides would not meet until the finals.
The total number of teams would need to be divisible by four so, if necessary, Pacific Island and/or Japanese teams could be included. Longer term you could also include professional American sides.
This format would give each team at least three matches with the finalists playing six (pool matches followed by quarter finals).
Because of the scarcity and importance of the matches the huge range in time zones wouldn’t be as big a deal. You may even get more fans willing to travel when their team plays overseas.
By making Super Rugby a separate cup competition for all teams, you would give the league champions an opportunity to win a coveted double, the teams that got close a second chance at a title and lower ranked teams the possibility to cause the kind of huge shock that would make a dent in rugby history.
The added bonus is that such a format would give our players more exposure to knockout rugby and thus better preparation for World Cups.
AndyS
Guest
I quite agree and think it is bizarre that a city the size of J'burg wouldn't be represented in a rugby country like SA. But my previous was me projecting the conclusion my management would be as likely to come to, if the other was less than flattering for them...
steveh
Guest
What it is eluding to is that there is more than enough support in Joburg for a 6th team and people are interested. They see the promotion/relegation match as confirmation that they belong in super rugby rather than it being a popular contest. If you read the comments and the various articles everyone thinks it is a sham and this is the chance for the public to expose the whole kings debacle for what it really is/was - political gain. Not one of the other countries super rugby teams could hope to pull that crowd, which illustrates the viewership potential South Africa has. Furthermore if you were to look at the viewership increase for the Currie Cup it would further give weight to the argument. And after all that rhetoric, yes a few more examples would have been better:)
rae1
Guest
That's what I do when I can't be bothered, or just can't stay up. I can often do the 1am, but I'm finding by the end of the 3am the television is watching me. Thank goodness for replays next morning.,
AndyS
Guest
Not saying you are wrong, but that is a poor example to use. What that is saying is that promotion/relegation is what the people want and will show out for. On that evidence, they should instead maybe go to a whole promotion/relegation play-off series for the bottom three... ;)
steve.h
Guest
This is why South Africa want to go at it alone: http://www.rugby365.com/article/55437-ellis-park-s-new-super-record We are stunting ourselves with only 5 teams
hog
Guest
Well Said Rob9
Tane Mahuta
Guest
Its a tricky one. Im just glad that super rugby is doing well and there is no problem to be solved. Keep working on it though. If Super rugby ever does face destruction we are going to need some ideas.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Who is this Japanese team that gets bundled into these proposals? It's very easy to chuck in a "Jap" team, but the reality is that the companies aren't interested in Super Rugby. They're not even interested in making revenue from the Top League. The entire reason company rugby exists in Japan is because of a post-war government initiative to create team bonding amongst the Japanese labour force and the fact that the company CEOs went to private schools were rugby is played and were part of the 1980s rugby boom. They're not interested in expanding the game. Pay TV penetration in Japan is extremely small. There's no TV money in Japan for rugby. The only terrestrial channel that will touch it is NHK and that's only for university rugby. It ain't happening.
Mark
Guest
So you'll be expecting to either 1. pay much more for the rights to view these games. or 2. pay the players a lot less... Because without the Jappies the $ go south pretty quickly!
KiwiDave
Roar Guru
You will find the 11pm, 1am, 3am games usually air 10am, 12pm, 2pm the next day. They are there to watch the next day if you don't want to stay up late. They wont be live but if you avoid the temptation to check scores on the web for all intensive purposes it can seem live
They don't want to go professional. And even if you get them to do that and they bring a few teams into the SARG championship, how is it going to be held. Who will host, will there be travel, what is the format? NOt interested thank you, if we leave the super Rugby competition just to take second best, why do it at all? I advocate that we focus on developing our rugby with no outside influences or participation.
tubby
Guest
I'm just as likely to miss a prime time game as any other timeslot due to family/work/social commitments. Actually watch more 11pm and 1am games live than any other, get the kids to bed then tv is all mine. More local games would not be much more than reintroducing the ARC. Given time you might generate a following and player base, but i'd probably have long given up by then. I really do not see much wrong with the competition as it stands. There's certainly far less wrong with it now that the issues of contstant change. As soon as we've changed something people immediately ask when can we change to something else
Eddard
Roar Guru
The Pampas are an amateur development side. If any Argentinian teams were to join an expanded Currie Cup they would have to be fully professional and include some of their test players currently in Europe.
Eddard
Roar Guru
Actually I'm happy to watch my team play in the wee hours. What I don't do is watch all the other games played in the middle of the night. And I consider myself a pretty big rugby fan. When a third of the tournament is out of sight, it's out of mind. It's a hard sell, particularly to the more casual fan. The most successful leagues (of any team sport) in the world are those where fans can easily keep track of all the teams and where all teams are easily identifiable to not just the tragics. The current structure holds rugby back.
Agree Felix, why must we put up with Argentina? They're amateur and even their ;os Pampas are only Vodacom Cup standard. If the talks don't help, we MUST go on our own.
I wouldn't want Argentina involved in SA, the same problems and issues will just occur all over again, best we then go on our own.
Rob9
Guest
Try and show a bit of thinking beyond the end of one’s hair follicles, and understand that this is a bit more than someone having a whinge about their beauty sleep being interrupted. It’s about creating a structure that maximises the potential of the game within each of the SANZAR partners. Considering the thought Eddard’s shown in his proposal and the time he’s taken to write about it, I’m guessing that he’s not too dissimilar from me (and probably most of us) in that he’d get up at any hour to watch the game they play in heaven. Heck I love staying up for the November Tests and the 6 Nations and there’s something special about being in a packed pub at 2am in the morning watching a Wallaby pool match at a Northern Hemisphere RWC. But I couldn’t really give a red rat’s about the people like you and me who have paid ridiculous amounts of money to watch Lions tests in the flesh and continue to pay for a Foxtel subscription just to catch a Friday rugby game or 2 with a cold one to kick off my weekend. I care about the millions of people who aren’t yet like us and the kids they’ll have that will grow up kicking a ball at 4 sticks or a net. We need to make our game more accessible to these masses and it needs to be more engaging with a localised competition that’s easier to follow and involves teams that aren’t from some far away land that most people will never go to and know next to nothing about. It’s these people that are going to drive the game of rugby ahead in this little corner of the world. And furthermore, try and show a bit of vision beyond the end of one’s nose and understand that the equation isn’t as simple as carving SA out of the picture and being left with what we’ve always brought to the table. There’s so much potential to more than make up the gap in revenue that would be created by SA going it alone in their domestic season. See just below for a bit of foresight on the issue.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
Gargh! Missed it by *that* much... I think only Luch-Energiya in Vladivostok have been the closest, having recently spent a couple of years in Russia's top flight, but they didn't exactly set the league alight with their performances (thank you wikipedia) so didn't end up troubling the administrators of either of UEFA's comps. I did say that there was the potential for it though...
KiwiDave
Roar Guru
"A long tournament with 33% of matches played in the middle of the night is not ideal." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Why not just stop playing against any of the six nation sides or south africa away ever again. After all you will have to get up in the middle of the night to watch those game. While we are at it lets stop playing in Perth. After all their matches start at 10pm and most people like to get to sleep before midnight. Also increasing the matches in NZ and Australia will not create more prime time games. What it will create is two or three games happening in the same timeslot and the inevitable b1tching by supporters on what game should be shown. Also, who do you think has the biggest market out of Aussie, NZ or South Africa. Its South Africa by a long way so taking the largest audience out of the picture with see revenue fall for NZ and Aus.
pogo
Guest
"Well, it could be argued that the UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues have the potential to include teams from Eastern Russia to Portugal, a greater distance than NZ to SA if I’m not mistaken." Well it seems you're very much mistaken. lisbon to vladivostock: 10127km Cape town to Auckland: 11756km And let's face it does any Russian team east of the Urals actually have a shot?