Super Rugby News
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I'm hoping to hear them announce that Aus will lose 1 team and SA to lose 2.
I'm expecting to hear that no teams will be dropped and it will go to a 3 conference model with Jaguars joining our conference and the Sunwolves joining Aus. Which will be fucking horrendous.
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“SANZAAR has announced that the Super Rugby tournament has been restructured and will kick-off in 2018 with a three conference, 15-team format: five teams from New Zealand, four from Australia, four from South Africa, one from Japan; and one from Argentina.
This restructuring by SANZAAR represents a crucial step in its strategic planning process that has included a comprehensive assessment of the economic and sporting environment under which its tournaments (Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship) are currently operating.
This assessment highlighted a need to adjust and strengthen Super Rugby in the short-term to ensure a robust and sustainable tournament meets the requirements of all stakeholders in terms of high performance pathways, game development, commercial revenue and fan engagement.
The change sees an overall reduction of three teams from the current 18-team format, two from South Africa and one from Australia. The Sunwolves will move into the Australian Conference. The teams from Australia and South Africa that will compete in Super Rugby will be confirmed in due course by the respective National Unions.
New Zealand Conference
Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders, HurricanesAustralian Conference
Four Australian teams (TBC), SunwolvesSouth Africa Conference
Four South Africa teams (TBC), JaguaresSANZAAR Chairman, Brent Impey stated, “The decision to revert to a 15-team format reflects a consensus view of the mandated SANZAAR Executive Committee that met in London recently. It was not the determination of any one Union or stakeholder and follows a thorough assessment and review of the tournament over the last nine months.”
“SANZAAR is delighted that its major broadcast partners have after due consideration agreed to the restructured format within the existing broadcast agreements. Our broadcast partners are an important stakeholder and their vision for Super Rugby moving forward is the same as ours.”
“This decision has not been an easy one and we recognise the difficulty associated with reducing the number of teams in Australia and South Africa. Naturally we understand that there will be some very disappointed franchises but the tournament’s long-term future and the economic reality of the business at present is something that had to be addressed.”
“The decision to retain the Sunwolves is linked directly to SANZAAR’s strategic plan for the future. The potential for growth of the sport in Asia off the back of the establishment of the Sunwolves and the impending RWC in 2019 is significant. It remains an obvious focus for the organisation and a Japanese Super Rugby franchise is key to that strategy.”
SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos stated, “This has been a long and complex piece of work and we make no apology for that. Super Rugby is unique in world rugby in that it is played in six countries across 15 time zones and has numerous stakeholders.”
“SANZAAR cannot continue to ignore the extensive feedback that it has received from fans, stakeholders and commercial partners around the integrity of the competition format and performances of the teams. We want to see an engaging, vibrant and competitive competition that delivers a strong high performance pathway in all markets that will have a positive flow into the international game.”
“It became clear during our strategic assessment that there are two facets to the future of our tournaments. The first is a requirement to react to existing market forces within the sporting business environment and to implement short-term change to Super Rugby. This is what we have done.”
“The second is the longer term vision, through a strategic plan, to build the brand that in the future can maximize further development of the game, commercial revenues and the ongoing sustainability of the tournaments. This work is presently ongoing and details will be released in the coming months.”
Tournament Details
120 match regular season plus seven match finals series
15 teams
Three conferences (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)
18 rounds [16 matches per team, two bye weeks]
Each team will play eight matches within its conference (four home and four away)
Each team will play eight cross-conference matches – against four of the five teams from each of the other two conferences (four at home and four away)
Each team will play 12 of the other teams within the season (85% of opposition teams which is up from 70% in 2016).
Eight team Finals Series: Three Conference winners and; five wild card places – the next best performing teams based on competition points after the Conference winners regardless of Conference. Conference winners and fourth-placed team on competition points will host quarter-finals.“
The ARU have decided to cut a team and now the the process drags on as an evaluation phase begins to determine who will be cut. Super Rugby foundation teams – the Reds, Brumbies and Waratahs – are apparently safe with the decision to come down to the two newest teams, the Force or the Rebels. -
It's now even harder for a NZ team to win it. The number of high intensity local derbies stays the same, but we won't get as many easy games against the foreign teams as we do now. I don't see how this has benefited NZ one bit. Should have gone back to the s12 format of each team playing each other once.
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The lesson out all of this is that a competition needs integrity. The 18-team blowout was a complete disaster, with the poster boy being the Kings.
In the long-run, there is definitely room to expand outside of the traditional big 3, with a 2nd team from Argentina an obvious starting place (add to SA conf), a 2nd team from Asia (add to Aust), and maybe a Pacific team (add to NZ).
But not before the Jaguares and Sunwolves are regularly competitive (ie at least mid-table contenders, winning most home games).
I dunno why the Aussies and Saffas are complaining - same money with fewer players = more competitive salaries to keep players out of Europe. Extremely bad news for NPC journeymen though...
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@akan004 said in Super Rugby News:
It's now even harder for an NZ team to win it. The number high intensity local derbies stays the same, but we won't get as many easy games against the foreign teams as we do now. I don't see how this has benefited NZ one bit. Should have gone back to the s12 format of each team playing each other once.
12 teams is a financial no-brainer. Wish people would stop going on about it. It is the best competitive option, but not financially attractive enough. It will never happen.
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@Billy-Tell said in Super Rugby News:
@akan004 said in Super Rugby News:
It's now even harder for an NZ team to win it. The number high intensity local derbies stays the same, but we won't get as many easy games against the foreign teams as we do now. I don't see how this has benefited NZ one bit. Should have gone back to the s12 format of each team playing each other once.
12 teams is a financial no-brainer. Wish people would stop going on about it. It is the best competitive option, but not financially attractive enough. It will never happen.
I meant 15 teams with the old s12 format of every team playing each other.
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@akan004 said in Super Rugby News:
@Billy-Tell said in Super Rugby News:
@akan004 said in Super Rugby News:
It's now even harder for an NZ team to win it. The number high intensity local derbies stays the same, but we won't get as many easy games against the foreign teams as we do now. I don't see how this has benefited NZ one bit. Should have gone back to the s12 format of each team playing each other once.
12 teams is a financial no-brainer. Wish people would stop going on about it. It is the best competitive option, but not financially attractive enough. It will never happen.
I meant 15 teams with the old s12 format of every team playing each other.
Ah sorry, my bad.
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@akan004 said in Super Rugby News:
It's now even harder for a NZ team to win it. The number of high intensity local derbies stays the same, but we won't get as many easy games against the foreign teams as we do now. I don't see how this has benefited NZ one bit. Should have gone back to the s12 format of each team playing each other once.
With SA dropping 2 teams I would expect the quality of their teams to go up markedly. I also expect the Jaguares to be very good most years, once they get used to the travel and rigour of the competition.
Australia dropping a team should result in a slight improvement in their teams. Unfortunately I don't hold out too much hope for the Sunwolves, but perhaps they'll get better.
The NZ conference might not necessarily be the toughest one each year now. Good.
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As an aside, they haven't actually named which sides will be dropped.
Kings will no doubt be the first side retained. Sigh.
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@Damo although our conference being the toughest is better for our rugby long term though
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@KiwiMurph said in Super Rugby News:
@akan004 Actually the nz derbies are increasing. Currently each nz team plays 6 derbies, from next year it will be 8.
Didn't realise that. Makes it even worse. I thought the main gripe of the NZ players was that there were too many high intensity local derbies as it is. So the NZRU decides to bend over and add another couple.
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there are gonna be plenty of nervy fellas in a few teams in Aus & SA, a few NH teams be looking on expecting to get some bargains as well.
Although...
SANZAAR Drop Nuts – Expands To Super Rugby 64 Teams In 2018
Posted on April 9, 2017 by thaicastle1 in Uncategorized // 0 CommentsAfter weeks of deliberation about who to cut from Super Rugby SANZAAR has dropped its nuts. Instead of cutting three teams from Super Rugby they have decided to add 46 new franchises in 2018.
SANZAAR president Jaco MakeMoMoney has told Thai Castle that the decision was relatively easy – “We thought long and hard and didn’t think that cutting teams would solve Super Rugby’s problems, so we were like why don’t we expand further and see if that makes the on-field product stronger.
From a New Zealand stand point four new franchises have been added which include the Marist Under-12s, Liston College 3rd XV, Wellington Phoenix and an All Blacks Over 75 year old squad.
NZ Rugby President Steve Tew said he was delighted to add the four new franchises saying that he thought they would add some real depth to New Zealand Rugby for generations to come.
Wellington Phoenix coach Chris Greenacre told Thai Castle “When we heard the news we were added to Super Rugby we were pretty flattered. It will be hard playing in two professional sports leagues at once but the boys think there soccer skills will come in handy on the rugby field. I mean all they do is kick the ball.”
The 64 team field has been split into 8 groups of 8 teams with each team playing 128 games in a 17 week span. The top first seeds from each group go to the best of 27 final series. With the remaining teams going into a survivor series were the team that loses the most games will tragically lose a limb at the discretion of SANZAAR officials.
The new teams added are:
Marist Under-12s
Liston College 3rd XV
Wellingtoin Phoenix
All Blacks Over 75s
Antarctica Frozen Peas
Dargaville Dental Assistants
Tottenham Hotspur
Bermuda Triangle Titans
Wedge Island Warriors
Compton Stealers
Donald Trump Wall Builders
Norwegian No-Shows
Kolkata Dayriders
The Beatles
Cleveland Cavaliers
London Bridge Free Ballers
French Frogleg Surprise
The Paris Croissants
The Glasgow Facepunches
The Alice Springs Drymouths
Queensland Bogans
Tokyo Toyotas
China Investor Squad
Killa Bees
Canada Chocalate Brownies
Mexican Eses
Zimbabwe Inflation
North Korea Naughty Boys
Pyongang Punishment
Pacific Ocean Oceans
Taj Mahal Revonators
The Brexits
The Barcelonas Ballsacks
The Scunthorpe Scotos
Canterbury Cum Stains
Georgia Goochs
North Pole Pole dancers
Santas Little Helpers
Colombia Narcos
American Idol Winners Selection
Ryan Seacrest Squad
The Carb-dashians
The Andrew Schultz’s
The Kelekefus
The Football Kings
Auckland Blues 2
Auckland Pooze
Dubai Oillers
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@KiwiMurph said in Super Rugby News:
@akan004 Actually the nz derbies are increasing. Currently each nz team plays 6 derbies, from next year it will be 8.
I like the NZ derbies. Also means less travel for our players.
I get the appeal of round robin, but from a selfish point of view I'll take more NZ derbies. It also means the games against the other conferences have some novelty appeal, like the Chiefs vs Stormers yesterday.
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@taniwharugby said in Super Rugby News:
@Damo although our conference being the toughest is better for our rugby long term though
Possibly in the medium term, but what is best for our long term future is the continued viability of Super Rugby. Having so many dud teams from SA and Aus was slowly killing Super Rugby.
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@Damo Agree in the main - although (I as a dyed in the wool rugby supporter/diehard) - will watch all the SR games I can, I understand not everyone is the same, and admittedly some of the lop-sided results are not to everyone's palate and I can see why people might lose interest.
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I used to try and watch all games involving NZ teams ,
and now from an entertainment angle , its slowly evolved into trying to watch all NZ derbies
