- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
On the 21st of September in 2017, SANZAAR announced the match schedule for the restructured 2018 Super Rugby season that is now made up of three conferences and 15 teams.
I have identified three of the major changes and talking points from the release of the draw for the 2018 Super Rugby season.
Reduction of teams and conferences
The first big change seen in the return of the competition is the 15-team format. After a couple of seasons, SANZAAR recognised that the 18-team competition wasn’t working.
They found it was confusing for the fans and had weakened the standard of rugby.
So, in April 2017 they announced that the 2018 tournament would be restructured and revert back to the 15-team competition that had been used between 2011 and 2015.
This came at the expense of three teams: the Western Force (Australia), Kings and Cheetahs (South Africa). The Japanese Sunwolves now join the Australian Conference with the Jaguares joining the now sole South African Conference.
Australian Conference: Brumbies, Rebels, Reds, Sunwolves, Waratahs
New Zealand Conference: Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders, Hurricanes
South African Conference: Bulls, Jaguares, Lions, Sharks, Stormers
12 of 14 teams
Over the past two seasons, Super Rugby has been criticised. 18 teams played 15 matches, but due to the four conference system, you didn’t play every team.
For example, take the Lions and the rest of the ‘Africa 2′ conference in 2017 managed to avoid playing any of the New Zealand teams in the regular season, making a much easier path to the quarter-finals.
The Lions did make another grand final appearance but didn’t secure a victory.
Now with just 15 sides and three conferences, each team will play 16 regular season matches (eight home and eight away). This includes eight games against franchises in their own conference in both home and away matches and another eights games against teams from other conferences, but these matches will be either home or away.
With this new system each team will play 12 of the other 14 teams, these teams will be from outside of their own conference.
The Lions this season have a much harder draw, facing everyone except for the Melbourne Rebels and the Chiefs.
[latest_videos_strip category=”rugby” name=”Rugby”]
Qualifying for the playoffs
Since the start of the 18-team competition, the biggest problem has been the system of qualifying for the playoffs.
In previous years to qualify for the playoffs you were either one of four conference winners who would host a quarter-final or one of four wildcard spots.
These wildcard places are awarded to the best-placed runner-up team from either of the Africa 1 or 2 conferences. The other three teams are the next best position teams from either the Australian or New Zealand conferences.
This way of qualifying had some serious loopholes.
Last year the Brumbies, who finished with 34 competition points, were given a home quarter-final because they won the Australian Conference. However, the Blues didn’t even qualify for the quarter-finals despite finishing on 37 competition points.
This year some changes have been put in place to fix these loopholes. The four quarter-final hosts will be made up of the three conference winners and a wildcard which is based on competition points regardless of their conference.
Based on competition points regardless of the conference, the four other spots are also wild cards.
This season, the changes to Super Rugby have looked good so far even though we only have just finished Round 6.
However, the real test for the new schedule and format of the competition will come in July as the regular season finishes and playoffs loom.
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.