Better scheduling can save Super Rugby

What a ridiculous notion that a country that has a big TV and ground audience must put that at risk by playing rugby in the heat of the day when its not convenient for fans to watch for the benefit of a handful of people in Australia that watch rugby. Build the grass roots of rugby then come up with these bright ideas.

That's a good point & I never thought about that but can that not be changed as well? It's simple, don't schedule SA teams in Australasia on Friday nights & don't schedule Australasian teams in SA at an inconvenient times for Australasia viewers. I'm pretty sure both problems could be solved in some way, just a pity SANZAR have never been a forward thinking board. And you never here SA fans complaining? Right'o... Well a work day it may be, but at least you can still follow the game whether it be on the radio, internet, a sneaky broadcast, a late start to work or a 'sick' day etc at a reasonable hour. I'm pretty sure there would be some Saffa fans complaining if you had to get up at 3am to support your teams on tour.

Pay Tv wants program and rugby needs the increased revenue but and it's a big but, rugby needs to speak it's own mind and it needs free tv access, particularly in Australia. Derby's regularly prove to be the most popular games. It all points to a conference set up that may or may not ultimately morph into a domestic offering but with as many cross conference games, similar to the Heineken cup as ultimately the authority's are comfortable with. The current format is unsustainable, stale and frankly not very Super.Europe will continue to pinch the best players. Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere must come to terms with that. They must get costs in order and embrace the local and regional character of teams.A good start would be to ditch those ridiculously childish team names and bring back something reflective of the region and not some advertising exec's whim. Child friendly playing times would be a smart move unless we are comfortable to leave cold Canberra or Wellington evenings to male piss pots in the 20-40 age bracket. Please no more pie in the sky nonsense of playing in Japan, the USA or Europe. The problem's lie closer to home. Meanwhile I will continue to embrace the club rugby instead, it's not dominated by penalties, stonewall defence that none can penetrate or overtly cynical play. It's authentic and for me, well It connects with me but then I'm only at the grass roots not in an ivory tower like so many of our Rugby exec's.

Most rounds this season have had a 6.30 or 7.30 kick off on a Sunday night regardless of public holiday Monday.

P.Tah, I believe that the Boks have an unofficial quota. I am not a lawyer or South African perhaps some one else on the Roar can shed some light.

That's how a Super Rugby equivalent could work too. For example you could have 3 pools of 4 made up of the top 6 CC teams and top 6 Aus/NZ teams. Each pool would have 2 South African teams and 2 Aus/NZ teams. Top of each pool plus the best 2nd place would make semi finals. And over time you could easily include a team or two from the likes of Japan and Argentina, even invitational teams from the Islands. Every team would play a minimum of 3 and a max of 5 games (6 if you later went to 4 pools of 4 and had quarter finals). A tournament like this could potentially be played concurrently with the CC and trans tasman league (i.e. there would be 3 'Super Rugby weekends' in the season...just like how it works in Europe. The super rugby finals would be played after the finals of domestic competitions.

The Heineken cup has teams from over the six nation countries being spread over six pools represented by various countries. You don't have Italy in one group, Ireland in another group etc.

I don't understand why you think it would be such a farce. It would be a champions cup style tournament between the top domestic teams outside of Europe. It would mean teams play for 2 trophy's every year. Exactly the same as the Heineken Cup in Europe. You don't hear the English or the French saying that's a farce of a tournament because the Welsh, Irish and Scottish teams play in the same league together. I think you underestimate how quickly talented players would improve in a fully professional environment. The Kenyan 7's team has shown that they have the athletic ability and talent. It's good that Kenya is in the Vodacom Cup now but it must be very expensive for them. They're a team of amateurs that have had to put work or study on hold to play in it. And they're up against semi-pro and pro players. I'd think having say their top 10 players training (and if good enough, playing) in professional South African squads would do more for the development of their national team.

Eddard, the African players do trickle through, but they are few and far between, we also have to contend with Government to increase the representation of our african population in domestic rugby, it isn't practical to develop both as you would suggest. My point about an expanded Currie Cup to become part of a Super Rugby tournament where you essentially have Australian and New Zealand rugby teams play each other and we are on the sidelines for the most part of the season would be a Farce of a tournament. Coming back to the African players, the Vodacom Cup is tailor-made for development, we currently have Kenya competing and they won one game thus far, things have been tough for them. To get those players up to Currie Cup standard will take a good number of years, they simply don't have the talent yet to provide a significant number of players on that level.

BB, I just think it would be great if the best players from other African countries had more opportunity to play professionally. My revised thought would be that an expanded South African Currie Cup (that took pride of place in the season instead of Super Rugby) could open up a few spots in each squad for development players from other African nations. I think it would be great for rugby if the next tier African test teams were made up of a majority of professional players and were competitive - at least at the level of the current tier 2 teams. South Africa would surely benefit from that long term as well as it would help increase the popularity of the CC throughout Africa and would in time increase the number of decent teams the Springboks could play against (I'm guessing, if say Kenya was as good as the lower 6 nations teams that playing them would create more local interest than playing Italy?). And if you have an expanded Currie Cup, what would be the negative of having a shorter champions league style tournament between the top few South African teams and the top few Oz/NZ teams? Is it not better than nothing?

Eddard, with all due respect mate, we do A LOT for African rugby, we invite nations to our Craven week, we invite them to our Vodacom Cup, we annually send teams to the Kenyan Sevens tournament, we hold coaching clinics via ex players in Africa all the time. We welcome their promising youngsters to our rugby schools (and few of them remain in SA to represent the Boks) As far as Europe is a go, that is a non starter, for a number of reasons, mainly better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. Whenever a nation gets in bed with another nation they play with the control of their own tournaments and structures. Just look at how we had to marginalise our Currie Cup, it simply won't be to our benefit to join Europe, even if the whole Europe decides to change their season to suit us. Money is important, but it is not everything.

When I said money I was referring to why South Africa might accept being part of a champions league style super rugby tournament. It would be worth more than being part of nothing. South Africa have always threatened to dump Australia and NZ and link up with Europe. If South Africa were to ever do that it would have to be under a similar structure. There's no way the Europeans would be having round robin competitions with South African based teams. Well unless they were from minnow European nations like Spain. You're right that expanding in Africa wouldn't be for money (in the medium term anyway). It would be for the good of the game and for potential long term benefits. Same (and more so) with including Argentinian teams. I don't see why you think there would be no benefits from linking up with Argentina. Argentina is a reasonably big market to tap into and they play a different style. The Cheetahs probably play the fastest style of rugby in super rugby. I don't really buy into this argument that our players need to constantly be playing against each other. If we were to focus more locally, then local teams could always recruit expertise and some players from other places to increase exposure to different styles.

You're welcome, Conor. For everyone to be happy with the times, the matches would have to start at 7:35am in SA. The first match in SA would then start at 12:30pm, 10:30pm in Aus. Any earlier than 7:35am would come with some complaints depending on who plays at that time.

That's nonsense. Firstly I have said this numerous times, THERE IS NO MONEY IN AFRICA Why do people continuously believe that line of expanding into Africa? The only benefit we get out of Super Rugby is having our players play against the teams that speed the game up, if we don't get to play them our players don't learn how fast the game can be. Moving to play Argentina will not be of benefit to us.

For money basically. But it would be the same both ways. And South Africa could look to link up with some other African countries perhaps. Or include Argentina, though I know you're against that (why?). That's how it works in Europe. The French teams only play the English teams and the Irish teams in the Heineken Cup and Amlin Cup. With closed conferences and inter conference playoffs, or separate leagues and a Heineken Cup style super rugby it would make the matches between Aus/NZ teams and South African teams more special. When say the Sharks play the Crusaders or the Bulls play the Reds it would be a big occasion. It would be a knock out game (or at least a very important pool match) and maybe those teams won't have played each other in a couple of years. People would be pumped to see it, rather than it just being another game played at an inconvenient time for one set of fans.

Agree Harry, and getting our fair share of the revenue.

BB, to me, the imperative is getting SA's players back from Japan, France, and the UK--if even half of them return, a sixth team is an easy option. So, the issue is money. And the issue inside that issue is the percentage of revenue that flows to players rather than non-players. And that seems to require a unionised workforce with a collective agreement, and real commitment to player welfare, pensions, safety.

District 9

I always wondered about that, South African teams should never be playing Friday night games in NZ or Aus