As if being axed from Super Rugby wasn’t cruel enough, the Sunwolves will be forced to play one more season in the competition before being consigned to the scrapheap.
In a statement released this afternoon (Australian time), SANZAAR confirmed the Sunwolves will compete in the 2020 Super Rugby season before reverting to a 14-team competition in 2021 under a new broadcast agreement, a move which had been expected following the news on Wednesday that the club would be cut from the competition.
It’s questionable that the Japanese club will be able to attract many high-quality players for next season given it’s now known 2020 will be their last season in Super Rugby, however SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos said his organisation will support the Sunwolves for the next 18 months.
Speaking on why the franchise will be removed from Super Rugby, Marinos pointed to the Sunwolves’ financial situation:
“SANZAAR was advised by the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) in early March that they would no longer be in a position to financially underwrite the Sunwolves future participation post-2020,” he said.
“The future of the Sunwolves will now be determined by the JRFU which has determined that Super Rugby no longer remains the best pathway for the development of players for the national team.
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“However, Japan and the Asia Pacific region remain strategically important to SANZAAR. We will continue to work with the JRFU, Japan Super Rugby Association (JSRA) and other stakeholders, as we have done throughout this review process, to establish a truly professional league structure in Japan in which current and potentially new teams could participate.”
The decision to cut the Sunwolves has been met with widespread condemnation from many rugby fans, who have slammed the decision as short-sighted and detrimental to the growth of rugby.
The fact it has been made just months before Japan host their first ever World Cup is particularly questionable, and has raised doubts as to whether hosting rugby’s premier tournament will now have as much of an effect in the country.
ARU CEO Raelene Castle said the financial realities of what it would mean to support the Sunwolves had lead to the decision being made.
“It has been a long process of work to look at competition models, to look at the financial sustainability of each of those models, to look at the integrity of those models, to look at what we think is going to be good for high performance outcomes but most importantly is to look at the financial sustainability for our Super franchises,” Castle said.
“The reality is as much as we see Japan being an incredibly important part of the future of rugby, when the JRFU withdrew their underwrite support for the Sunwolves and they couldn’t find another to guarantee that underwrite it left the SANZAAR partners in an exposed position financially and we didn’t think that was in the best interests of the Super Rugby partnership.”
Castle said the SANZAAR nations remain committed to supporting the development of the sport in Japan, even if they are no longer represented in Super Rugby.
“That’s certainly a significant driver but I think the announcement today that has been in the press release is also about recognising that whilst we don’t see them taking part in the Super Rugby competition directly, SANZAAR is very keen to work closely with Japanese rugby to make sure we work with them to help them develop the second tier professional or their own professional competition.
“That’s where certainly New Zealand, Australia are going to be working very closely with the Japanese rugby union to bring our expertise, be that high-performance experiences or competition development experience, to be part of that competition.
“I think the closeness of the two competitions and the relationships between the national bodies is very important as we look at perhaps the Cherry Blossoms coming into either the Rugby Championship or World Nations Cup competition to ensure that they’re sustainable over that longer time.”
New Super Rugby format confirmed
If there’s one silver lining for rugby fans, it’s that 2021 will mark the end of the controversial conference system, which will be replaced by a more straightforward round-robin format and top-six finals system.
Under the 14-team competition, franchises will play every other side once in the regular season before a three-week finals series which will see the top two teams given a first-week bye. Those top two seeds will play the winners of playoffs between teams ranked third to sixth, and a grand final to follow the next week.
Teams will play 13 matches per season under the new structure, either six or seven of which would be at home. There would also be two byes per season.
However, this gives every side three fewer total games, and one or two fewer home matches, per season. Under the current format, teams have 16 home-and-away fixtures per year and two byes.
The new format will also see fewer derbies, with teams no longer playing their local rivals twice each year.
SANZAAR’s statement today stated there will be a new Rugby Championship structure announced at a later date – which is likely to include Japan and Fiji as part of the proposed World League.
Danny McGowan
Roar Rookie
Yep for the comp to be reasonably fair I think it does have to be round robin, although there is merit to home and away fixtures, it too heavily favours weak conferences.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
It is a great Idea if you can make it commercially viable. It has worked for ARL and NRL, but they have a huge fanbase. Rugby has atrophied to the point that this option it is no longer commercially viable. My 2 cents is that an elite comp (SR or GRR) should be run in parallel with NRC, perhaps on a fortnightly basis. There is a burden on the local clubs which should be acknowledged and managed accordingly. It could only strengthen the pathways, with emerging players being exposed to tougher competition. Some Holistic thinking needs to be made.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
RA may not be being asked to underwrite the competition.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
Is the round-robin comp so important? There is merit in the home and away local derbies. They get better crowds and more viewers. If competition fairness was actually an issue, Player "RA Topups" and salary caps should be reviewed first.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
There were already 2 teams slated for GRR before it was scuttled this year
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
A smart squirrel would turn the Sunwolves into a shell. Option to void all player contracts allowing them to transfer to whatever JRU sees as the pathway for their future. Quotes in this article give some clarity and indicate that it is likely that JRU are pulling out of SR, not the other way around. It could be argued that they were "Pushed" out with aggressive, unfair contracts. With Castle saying the numbers are in the order of 10's of millions of dollars required by SANZAAR to underwrite it, and a GRR option on the Horizon, it is no wonder that negotiations broke down In short, they are shredding documents at their embassy in preparation for war. With a strong local competition and talk of 2 teams for GRR, in hindsight, the writing was probably on the wall some time ago.
major major
Guest
The NRL want to expand - how about the Tokyo Sharks
jeznez
Roar Guru
I live in HK and go to Asian cup games most years. The whole point is that it won't just be the national teams playing. The South China Tigers will have the bulk of their team from the HK National side but also include players from the China National team, Tom Varndell of England, Samison Viriviri of Fiji and more marquee players expected to be announced. A number of the players come from the rugby club I coach at. I reckon I've got a reasonable idea how they are shaping up.
concerned supporter
Roar Rookie
How much has Rugby stuffed up since 2003. Came across a ARU/now RA 2004 announcement, here it is. ARU make huge profit from RWC 7 Apr, 2004 Australian rugby looks set for a huge financial windfall following the record multi-million dollar profits generated from last year's World Cup. The Australian Rugby Union said it had received a tournament surplus of $44.5 million after hosting the event in 2003. The International Rugby Board (IRB) released a review of the tournament on Tuesday with record profits in almost every category. The ARU's acting chief executive officer Matt Carroll said that attendance figures were the standout and said the tournament was a greater success than the ARU could ever have anticipated. "I think the winner out of it all has been the game of rugby in Australia, it was profiled like never before and has therefore created opportunities for clubs, schools playing rugby, individual players, the state unions and of course the ARU," Carroll told AFP. Carroll used the examples of increases in Super 12 crowds and and junior participation numbers as evidence that the ARU's post-Cup initiatives were working. "The NSW Waratahs and ACT Brumbies crowds are up again from last year, the Waratahs had a record crowd for a match against a South African team," he said. "And in the case of Queensland, they are partly going to use the spin-off from the World Cup, Suncorp Stadium, to play the Waratahs match there at the end of Super 12."
concerned supporter
Roar Rookie
Great Decision by SANZAAR and SA influences to get the Sunwolves to play in Singapore versus Tokyo. Did you see the crowd in Singapore? In hundreds against close to a full house in Tokyo last week. What a shambles.
Barney
Roar Rookie
What if the Sunwolves were successful either this year or next? Success defined as finals and beyond? This will look even more farcical. Of course both these possibilities would be considered nothing short of miraculous…
Kick n Clap
Guest
Fortunately they got rid of the “Dead Wood “last time. Trouble is everybody from SA living in Perth ,can’t believe no listens to them? Who does anymore. Just look at the Mother Country for clues..
Kick n Clap
Guest
Watch Channel 9 or GEM . Far more entertaining.
andrewM
Roar Rookie
Actually their Annual Report was due out in Feb 2019, must be a difficult recipe their trying to cook
Josh H
Roar Rookie
What's in it for the Western Force then? Why on earth would they agree to be reincluded purely as a placeholder, only to be scrapped again after one season? It's the same cruel scenario that the Sunwolves are dealing with now
CUW
Roar Rookie
China was in Asian Rugby championship a while back - those days the whole team ( or most ) came from Army. but the better team came from Taiwan ( or Chinese taipei as they love to call it ) in the 1980s it was South Korea and not japan who were the topp dog. I remember them playing in Colombo and hammering Sri Lanka . all koreans no imports but as rugger went professional Japs got hold of foreigners and leap frogged everyone - such that it is now theirs forever. there is no other asain team that can come close to them also HK are now #2 - with their expats. also in old days the tournament was every 2 years - but now they play every year. i just wonder how may peeps who comment here have actually seen asian championships? Asian teams play each other ? the quality is below Japan - but of similar style . fast n furios :D
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
A high quality club competition is surely the only way to grow the sport in Asia. If the sport is grown in Asia then it potentially grows the sport in China, which is almost certainly the most valuable market on earth, with the possible exception of the US (I say possible as the US is already obsessed with its own domestic sports and is a more saturated market than China I feel).
Crash Ball2
Roar Rookie
Club comp also means that team selections don’t have to be confined to only talent eligible for national selection so teams can recruit, much better, international players.
riddler
Roar Rookie
Johnno sorry, no chance of that. 10 nrc teams and then just the wallabies. The game would die.
johnnoo
Roar Pro
No I'm not concerned supporter mixed up.. Im saying scrap super rugby and RA pump it's resources into developing the NRC and we have a 10-team NRC comp... 20 rounds per year..