<p>Also it must be remembered this year, Aus and NZ teams played their own conference in 6 games (play everyone else once, play two of the teams twice), rather than 8 games last year (play everyone twice) and played the opposite conference in 5 games (everyone in other coference once) rather than 4 games last year (4 out of the 5). </p>
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<p>For example Blues played Canes and Crusaders twice, but only Highlanders and Chiefs once, and played all 5 Aussie teams, whereas last year Blues missed out on playing the Reds I think it was. </p>