South Africa's cast-offs set sights on European riches

The broadcasters may prefer the new model. More content and SANZAAR created competiton for itself improving the broadcasters' position.

i have done the Johannesburg London and Johannesburg Perth flights several times. Johannesburg to London is an overnight flight in the same time zone and far less taxing than the shorter flight to Perth.

True! This also provides South African players with choice. If this competition proof to be popular and more forgiving to family life the more established players may elect to play in Europe rather than Superugby. It could be a drain on Superugby not only in player numbers but also broadcasting revenue and spectator numbers. I think this was a dumb move by Sanzaar that swapped the Cheetahs, Force (?) and Kings for the Rebels, Jacquares and Sunwolves!

There is about the same number that was born in South Africa in Perth than there is in Sydney and Brisbane (sensus data). As Perth population is 1/3 smaller the proportion is much higher in Perth.

Having lived in South Africa, England and Australia, I agree with Rhino. The word insular is probably not ideal, Australians in general are only interested in their local team and the team their parent's used to support. Then they watch local competitions like the AFL and NRL - a very isolated view of sport.

They are testing the water to develop an alternative to Superugby. Superugby will struggle to attract the best South African players as the impact of Pro12 will be less on families and players. Good move by South Africa,

That said, Sumo is a pretty specific sport, it's not like kids are playing sumo in the back yard and learning any kind of useful skills transferable to rugby I'd be focussing on the Judo kids personally

You might be surprised

I dont think anyone should underestimate the historical friendships between SA , NZ , Aus and Argentina. Cant see the SA teams being the first to withdraw from Superugby . But a point made earlier by Biltongbek .. Why not both ? Why not indeed.

There are easily more Saffas in Sydney than Perth.

The sad fact is that while Japan grows men with huge hearts, they don't have enough big bodies to compete in this tournament. One of their locks, Kyosuke Kajikawa, is 6ft 2 and 105 kg. He would only qualify as a 7 or a second rate 6 or 8 in SANZAAR countries. They only have two locks who are over 6ft 5, one being Australian Sam Wykes. They can prepare as much as they like but the reality is that while they are relying on Japanese players who are too small and cast offs from the SANZAAR nations, they are being set up to fail. The broadcasters would be better off tying them into an equivalent Asian or American comp, where they can be competitive.

I'm glad for the pro 12 that this is happening. The league was earning less revenue each year than the premiership and the Top 14 and they needed to do something to bring more money in. I really hope that this will work out financially. The added travel costs will have to be covered and if revenue doesn't improve it may be too expensive to continue. But if the addition of these teams help the league to increase revenue then this is an absolute blessing for the four countries already involved in it. I hope that fans will show up for the games too. Who can afford to follow their team through the European cup and the pro 12? Especially with even more travel now added? Will we have the awful spectacle of empty stadiums? Will South African fans show up to support their teams against sides that they've never heard of? The pro 12 has struggled to attract fans as it is. How will this change the qualification for the European cup does anyone know? Does the top 6 qualify rule still apply or is it the top 6 European teams? Lastly, and please excuse my ignorance here, but are these teams good?

I only just read most of the other blogs here and Kashmir Pete and I seem on the same wavelength. Its almost impossible to have a competition across multi timezones and we are seeing SR on its last legs. I forgot about the RC. I am all for keeping it as it stands, in fact over time I would love to include Japan and USA into the Championship. One question regarding SA teams in Europe is how will the South African teams involved in Pro12 or any other European competition go with losing players for the RC?

From an Australian perspective; to be honest as much as I love my South African and Argentine rugby brothers, Mother nature built Earth with a radius of 6371 km (av) radius and I and most Aussie (and I suspect kiwi) rugger buggers just cannot get enthused to stay up till 2-3am to watch another SR match played thousands of km away. The other point is its almost impossible to go to an away match without spending lots of money and taking a couple of days off. So at best you are going to attend 7 odd matches per year. Is it any wonder SR is dying in Australia when there are 8-9 AFL or NRL matches on at a decent time and there are lots of away games you can attend with at worse a 2 hour drive. This situation is not so dire in NZ where all NZ and many matches in Australia are played at reasonable times (before midnight). For South Africa I imagine most games in Aus and NZ are about 8am Friday and Saturday mornings for them. it must a hard sell to get people to watch matches at that time I bet you. But apart from loss of enthusiasm by the fans, look at the toll on the players. For mine I suspect that one of the reasons for the "player drain" to the NH clubs is after 4-5 years of the constant long air travel involved in SR, its a lot easier decision to grab the extra dollars for a paid "working rugby holiday" with minimum travelling about the place. For these two reasons, rotten timezones and constant player travel, Super Rugby is broken and should be shafted as it stands. Over the long term South African and Argentine SR teams would be far better off playing in their own time zone. However I doubt if any of the European clubs would take on the expense of flying players down to SA without some big inducement somewhere. For mine Los Jaguares should look at playing in the USA Pro8 tournament or try to set up a team or two in a Europe competition similar to the South Africans. For Japan, if they want to play in the big league not in Asia, then accept lots of flying either to the USA or in an Aus/NZ/PI new competition. This leaves Australia, NZ and the Pacific Islands to form their own competition or competitions. Far less travel and every game is within decent viewing hours. Perth are the only team with large travel component/expense. Sure there will be less tv money but expenses would be far lower and player burnout much less. At present people keep saying we have no choice but to continue as is but that is just killing rugby a slow death, solely so News Limited has content to sell elsewhere. We should worry about what's good for Rugby and not what's good for the Merde-och organisation.

They presumably have multiple broadcasters across several countries, but my understanding was that value was all of them collectively including Sky.

That won't work BB as teams will be playing year round which is not good for player welfare. Will be interesting to see how the Cheetahs and Kings go with their player depth as they are effectively competing on two fronts from July/August to October with the Currie Cup and Feb/March to May with the Super Sport Rugby Challenge. That really tests players and coaches.

Andy the main reason other than population base why Pro 12 rights are low is due to the fact that majority of the televised games in the UK and Ireland are on terrestrial tv. Sky started broadcasting a couple of seasons back.

There's plenty of interest in South African teams in Perth. Probably because of the large South African community here.

No one watches the Cheetahs regardless of the time of the year. Kings have shown they can get big crowds it was largely the Watsons who drove them away. Well they're gone now and they have turned the results around. Hopefully the fans will see that and come back to the games.

They have played two seasons under prepared and already had a change in coach. The change structure has changed for next year so they will be better prepared next year.