TELL US: Is the new Super Rugby format a change for the better?

Yeah valid point Taylorman. I never thought of it like that. Funny I did state here in another thread that perhaps the easy games Australia got was now coming to haunt. So you make good sense. So perhaps it is good for NZ. Three conferences and super 15 or 16. Easy, and Force can stay if it's 16. Why not?

I feel a second division would only be suitable way down the track. And only as an idea to put forward and to see if it had any appeal. Right now, no way. It would be expanding too fast. It may not work in the future. I was just thinking with a later expansion it would be good if they stopped messing around with the super and experimented one level down.

I understand it's a delicate issue. But the super expanded too quickly. If Australia care so much about the force then one extra team at a super 16 ain't too bad. I think two divisions could have appeal if it was affordable but unlikely to happen. A top super 12 and then a second sivision that has the remainder and new teams enter into the second division. Promotion/relegation. If so, it would have to be round robin. Whilst the relegation could be hard financially the public interest could help, much like England football where it apparently takes a lot of interest with who's going down, and who's going up. But that all said a super 16 could be the go. No issues with that. And the force stay. Three conferences with a strong look at going back to round robin.

The doubling up of the derbys resulted in much tougher AB sides despite the format not suiting NZ sides. Those four years gave us the side that won the World Cup going away.

Yep understand. But five was perfect which they got straight away. Three or four seems just right for Australia. Four from SA. I'm talking more from a fan prospective with creating a perfect tournament. Too much fiddling with the tournament starts to take away the integrity and history. If you were to look at RWC's that was only invented in the late '80's but they've always stayed true to the formula. Imagine if the powers who have the super got their hands on that? More games, different conference, teams playing each other twice in pool play. It would mess with the rugby purist. What bugs me with the super is the change of format is to try and create more money but market it as better than before. So it feels like a sell out. Personally I liked the rivalry of playing against overseas teams. Now with local derbies NZ smashes up their own players biting into each other's table points and the boss's of the competition don't really care. And that's where it losses it's fans. As wins are diluted. It's hard to know who's where on the table. It's become manafactured to some degree, and this is a rugby game not a reality TV series. The results should be produced on the field.

They won't ever tell the exact criteria. That would just be inviting trouble - you misapplied the criteria, you used the wrong criteria. The issue is that facts/numbers/truth don't help you decide which team to cut when all teams have reasonable reasons to stay. It will come down to what is legally (and so financially) simplest.

Except for when the likes of Taranaki and Hawkes Bay were looking to form a 6th NZ side in the Central Vikings

Yeats That criteria will be more guarded & more secret than the nuclear missile launch codes - because - I have a feeling if the facts/numbers/truth ever comes out the explosion will be bigger than all the nuclear bombs going off at the same time

Kevin H SHOWCASE!!!?? Should not be pre-season for the National teams

In this race, I have Sheek's 8 team Heineken's model as ideal. The problem is it requires the other kids to play along. And it seems that they won't. They already have eightish national comps. So Australia have to do something unilaterally. Joe King and Griffo have worthy thoughts on this also. It is time for us to build something real below? ....no - alongside Super level. Super rugby in this country must remain important - just less so. For one passionate provincial area the name of Super rugby is about to become dirt. This rugby market must be given hope and a place to play against real opposition. We need a genuine national comp. if there was some way that we could pull out of Super Rugby without losing players to overseas or other codes, then it should be pursued. But assuming we stay in the Super competition it is imperative now that we have a national competition that makes Super Rugby less important. I sincerely hope that the ARU have been feverishly working away at a new model in the lead up to the Cull.

One thing for absolute certain, the Waratahs aside it would be a very brave franchise that signed an Alliance agreement with the ARU now.

Listen up guys...NZ were never looking to increase - why would they? Unlike AUS and SA who have shown no benefit whatsoever. NZ are happy with 5 and that is all that I need say?

You don't understand the backlash from a team and its supporters against a fundamentally flawed and corrupt process where two of the three teams under question were said they were not under the threat, whilst the third had to endure months of Media statements saying that they were the team to go..all of whom quoted 'sources within the ARU'. And still the ARU has not released what criteria it used to assess these teams. You don't understand the backlash from a state union that a little over 12 months ago had the ARU look them in the eye and say 'We're here to support you and the growth in rugby in WA', then turn around and not only fail to support them, but stab them in the back? You may say that the ARU could not have known how the later SANZAAR meetings would pan out, but the fact that they were willing to give up a team so readily, suggests they were already toying with such a situation when they rescued the Force. What is making Force fans mad as hell is the lies, deceit and corruption from the ARU. FUARU

Rebels fans do not go around saying burn the Force to save our own skins, and that is why they are not passionate? Give it a rest wanker.

BTW Piru, I'm on your side.....

That's right. As soon as people started treating sport as a business, we started to have all this trouble. Yes, sure, every sport, every club, needs to be accountable about its balance sheet, but let's remember first & foremost, we're talking sport. Some latitude is required. Sport requires a different mindset. If people don't understand or accept that, then we're in trouble. Like now..........

Well, the NSW Country Cockatoos apparently won't have anything to do with the NSW Country Eagles. They wouldn't let them use the nickname Cockatoos, suggesting some division there.

"People can use facts to prove anything". So true. Which is precisely why God sent Adam Voges to Australian test cricket. To prove that you can't always rely on the facts even if they appear to be true!!!

Jokerman, is it best for Australian Rugby that the ARU allow an Australian Team where they source some Wallabies and seek to grow the game in the west of the country, to be replaced by a Japanese Team from a 2nd Tier Rugby nation?

Surprisingly, I agree with Alan 'the parrot' Jones that the ARU board must resign. After that Australia should be bold and run its own competition buying in the best South African and New Zealanders to build the best competition in the world.