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Roarer Biltongbek recently wrote an article asking whether SANZAR will find a solution to Super Rugby.
As a follower of the competition since its inception as the Super 10 in 1993, when Transvaal (now the Lions, with Francois Pienaar as Captain Fantastic) won that tournament, I feel as though I could offer some lateral thinking and an idea for the format.
The interesting thing about anything in life, sport or business is that you need to get the balance of supply and demand right.
Let’s go back to Economics 101 here. If you increase the supply too much then the demand tends to wane. But if the demand is increasing, then you want to make sure that you have enough supply to maximise the earning potential and satisfy the public’s interest.
The trick is to try and get the balance of supply and demand at that perfect level whereby they intersect each other. This is usually the exact point whereby your earning potential and profits will be maximised and the majority of the stakeholders (general public or ‘customers’, players and administrators) are happy and satisfied too.
It’s not an exact science, but many businesses have proven they can get this balance right and have become extremely successful.
We have reached a stage in rugby’s evolution whereby “less is more” – there is too much supply so the demand is starting to wane.
We all want to see sellout crowds, or at least 70 percent full stadiums, for normal games. The only time we are seeing this in Super Rugby’s current format is during the finals, and sadly not even for the playoff games as witnessed this year.
We all want our players healthy, fit and injury free, so again less is more if we want our players to not burn out.
The other day Kieran Read expressed his concerns about player welfare, stating that he feels international rugby players are playing too much these days and it’s not a good thing for the body.
Everyone wants a trophy or title to win and my format allows for this. This is my solution, the way I would run Super Rugby to maximise everyone’s interests, keep rugby at a high standard and help with bigger crowds.
Firstly, I’d create a two conference system of eight teams in each conference – six South Africa teams, and five each from New Zealand and Australia.
Conference A would have three South Africa teams, three New Zealand teams and two from Australia, while Conference B would have three South African, three Australian, and two from New Zealand.
These teams will be placed into a conference on a hierarchical system, per country, based on the previous year’s performance, ensuring that all the good teams are not all placed into one conference.
First Round (weeks one to seven)
A round robin of seven games running for seven weeks. Each team plays each other once in their conference.
Second Round (weeks eight to 12)
Four games over five weeks, including a Bye weekend for each team.
The top four teams from conference A play against the Top four teams from Conference B. Points earned on the log from Round One still count towards the final log. We could call it the Premier Competition.
Similarly, Conference A’s bottom four will play the Conference B bottom four in what could perhaps be called the Plate Competition.
Third Round/Playoffs
Week 13: The Top four “Plate” teams play their semi-finals. Premier teams have a weekend break.
Week 14: The Top four from the Premier Competition play their semi-finals. The Plate play their final. All three games would be sell-outs.
Week 15: Super Rugby Championship Final.
The entire competition would run for 15 weeks, from the last weekend in February to the first Saturday in June.
This is a week or two shorter than the Super 14 tournament we had a few years ago and one week longer than Super 12, which in my mind was the perfect length for the Super rugby competition.
This format will not create the tedious ‘over supply’ of having to play your own country’s teams twice in the same season, or have a round robin of 16 games as is the current format.
It will allow the season to finish before the mid-year Tests and allow a couple weeks for the international teams to prepare for these games. It will also allow New Zealand and South Africa to pour more energy into the Currie Cup and ITM Cup from the end of July/ August through to October.
Please tell me that Australia will create their own domestic competition so their non-test players can be playing rugby too. A mini version of your NRL, perhaps the same five Super Rugby teams running for two months from mid-July to mid-September.
You may be asking yourself whether each team’s travel over the Indian Ocean would increase with this structure, and therefore sap some of the profits of SANZAR.
No, not really. If you structure the games and tours correctly and ensure that 50 percent of the teams are on tour in week seven, then those teams on tour will thus extend their tour and play an additional game or two overseas before returning home. This reduces the costs down to one South African or Australasian tour.
There may be some cases where a team or two have to tour twice, but this can be reduced to one or two teams based on how you’ve structured the fixtures and which teams are in your Premiership or Plate conference.
In reality, the Rebels, Force, Lions and Kings are never going to win the tournament or even get near having a shot at a playoff game anytime soon. Since 2006 the Force and the Lions have consistently been at the bottom of the table and the Rebels have not fared better since 2011 – neither did the Kings this year.
New Zealand also have one team lurking near the bottom every year too – this year it was the Highlanders and last year it was Blues. What happens to their players’ morale half way through the season when they’ve lost six out of seven games and they realise they have absolutely no hope of making the playoffs?
Fans of the Waratahs, Cheetahs, Hurricanes and Highlanders always expect so much – some games they play superbly and once in every few years they may even reach a playoff spot, but they are never really real title contenders.
The Chiefs were in this same bracket up until a few years ago.
So let’s give them a competition within a competition. My structure above allows any team to rise to the top, so the Blues this year could’ve could’ve made the Premiership cut after a dismal 2012.
The top teams recently have been the Crusaders (as always), Chiefs, Bulls, Brumbies, Sharks, Reds and Stormers. These team would battle it out to be be crowned the true Champions of Super Rugby.
What are your thoughts fellow Roarers? Should we elevate this proposal to SANZAR?
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.