SANZAR CEO Greg Peters has assured SARU boss Jurie Roux that South Africa will have six Super Rugby teams from 2016.
Peters was speaking in Sydney where talks are underway about the expansion of the competition when the current contract runs out in 2015.
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“We are very keen on making sure that we retain Super Rugby as the Southern Hemisphere’s pre-eminent international provincial rugby competition.
“By doing that it has to be one competition. We have yet to determine the structure beneath that and the number of conferences involved but what I can assure you of though is that there will be six teams from South Africa,” he said.
Roux said that it is something of a relief to have the assurance from SANZAR that all six South African teams will play in the new structure no matter what form it eventually takes.
“We have got the six teams entrenched now, that is a given. All models will be built around six teams so we are very happy about getting that out of the way as it has always been a bone of contention.
“That causes a number of other logistical issues and those are the things that we have to go through. We have to work a model that will work not only for us but also for our partners in this relationship,” he said.
All three SANZAR countries are interested in expanding the competition when the current broadcast agreement expires, but differ on how exactly that will be done.
Peters is intent on finalising a blueprint for how the competition could be expanded by the end of the year so that it can be pitched to broadcasters, and is busy canvassing opinion from the three respective rugby unions.
The addition of teams from Argentina, Japan and the Pacific Islands have been suggested, and Peters said that all options would be carefully considered.
“Argentina have expressed their aspirations to be part of it and they have played in the Rugby Championship so it would be logical for them to be included.
“There are certainly some elements in New Zealand that would like to see a sixth franchise in New Zealand. We should also explore moving into Asia.
“At the moment all of those things are sort of in the melting pot and we haven’t come to a final resolution on it yet,” said Peters.
Hello GBS wonder what the ‘guarantee’ for 6 franchises will mean in terms of where SA will have to compromise when around the negotiating table?
Just because Argentina play in t he Rugby Championship does not mean to me that it is logical that they should be included in Super rugby. For the international games they are able to get many of their players back who are playing outside of Argentina, these players will have to be lured back to Argentina if they are to compete in Super rugby…and for me that is going to take far too big a cash injection – where will this come from? Maybe gradually in time they could build Argentinian clubs up but certainly for at least the next 5 years following end of current Super rugby maybe they can increase Argetinian clubs participation in South Africa to 2 or 3 clubs in the Vodacom Cup and maybe the best of those 3 in the Currie Cup and then see how they progress. Remembering all along the South African administrators primary job is looking after South African Rugby, not subsidizing the development of rugby in other parts of the world – that should be IRB’s job.
Shit idea. More boring meaningless rugby.
Well, at least that will settle the Kings/Lions debate. Next thing, EP Kings must make sure they end in the top 2 of ABSA premier, and then SARU MUST make it a 8 team Premier Currie Cup for next year, to prep all teams that will be involved in 2016. No more freebies though. EP Kings must get into the top two themselves.
Bulls will benefit as the Pumas fall under them.
2016, 2 conference comp.
West conf, 3 SA, 3 Aus and 2 Kiwi teams
East conf, 3 SA, 2 Aus and 3 Kiwi teams. Or something like that.
Including Japanese teams is a great and k8k idea.
Great, cause it will expand the game, bring in bigger money (good for competing with the Euro and Pound), and all the SA/NZ/Aus players to play there will not be lost.
K8K idea cause even if you include the top 2 Jap teams, and even if they have lots of foreign players, they will still not be up to scratch and travel from SA to Jap is a TEEF!
Greenpoint-Gunner wrote:
Not so.
Pumas fall under the Lions franchise. Valke fall under the Bulls.
Lions are (to the best of my knowledge) still in a financial dispute with their “franchise” partners the Pumas and Leopards. Also, both partners voted against the Lions in the “kings” Super Rugby vote in 2012.
Add to that the fact that the Lions played in the promotion / relegation series with the Kings as the Golden Lions and it makes for an interesting debate as to how they intend to compete in SR in 2014.
The Kings involvement in CC premiership needs to be accomodated before this can happen, and of course it’s been mooted that the Pumas and EP Kings will be “automatically” included from next season.
HOWEVER, what of the Leopards
@ Scrumdown:
Pumaitis……
HOWEVER, what of the Leopards who NEVER LOST A PROMOTION / RELEGATION series to lose their CCPremier division place. What of Boland who convincingly won the CC 1st division in 2011?
I just can’t see it being a smooth transition if SARU just stick the Kings and Pumas in the Premier division, “just because”.
Got to have a better plan than that.
@ Scrumdown:
You always have an eloquent way of telling us what you think of SARU, so all of your previous thoughts apply to the situation SARU find themselves in.
8 @ Lion4ever:
I just abhor poor management at any level in any organisation.
Unfortunately, the likes of SARU (and the GLRU for that matter) have yet to convince me that what they do, they do correctly and at a professional level.
Too many questions.
I’m not as eloquent in the flesh. If I think someone’s doing something stupid, or that they are a d@@s, I say so. Call a spade a spade.
In a public forum such as RT though I think it’s important to keep a level of decorum.
And of course GBS will ban me if I stoop to name calling.
I have to agree with most of the comments here, I also think that SARU is too involved in the game, in the sense that they decide who plays where and who gets promoted and not. I think that the only solution is for clubs to become privately owned.
This way SARU will have no say in who gets picked and not, and it would also not be as easy as promoting who you think fit as your private owners will take things a whole lot further and not just give up.
We know one thing for sure, that most of SARU supports EP, because EP is getting pushed in everywhere. They would probably send the Kings to the next WC if they could. And have them play in the TOP14 if it was possible.
Next they will want to change the Bok logo again to the Kings logo. And have the Boks only play in PE.
This is past the point of being sad and has become more funny than anything else.
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