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While SANZAAR um and ah over the future of Super Rugby, Jamie Wall offers some alternatives to the current unpopular conference system.
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Thanks to someone from the Cheetahs letting slip that a couple of teams are likely to be culled next year, the age-old debate around the way Super Rugby works has popped up again. Everyone has always had their own take on what should be done about the Southern Hemisphere’s showpiece tournament – never forget there were some very serious calls to get rid of the Highlanders not that long ago.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of time for the conference system and the mayhem it can cause at the end of the regular season. But, if there have to be some changes, here’s a few to consider:
Think small: Right now, the best games are the national derbies. So make every conference its own internal competition, then have the four winners playoff to decide the title holder in a straight semis/final format. You’ll reduce travel (except for the Sunwolves and Jags, although they only ever have to make one trip) and give fans more games that they want to see. The only issue is then filling in the time that Super Rugby won’t be taking up – but that can be done by domestic competitions.
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Think big: Like, really big. Split the competition in two and institute two Super Conferences. NZ, Australia, Asian expansion teams as well as a franchise on the west coast of America or Vancouver form the Pacific Conference. The South African sides, more South American teams, an East Coast US side and maybe even some from Europe make the Atlantic Conference. Both play their own separate competitions and the winners play off in the Super Bowl of Super Rugby. Yes, I realise this will take a few years to actually achieve.
Introduce a Pacific team out of Auckland: A quick win here. The problem of involving a Pacific Island team has always been put down to its hypothetical inability to be profitable, and given the realities of rugby administration in the area, that’s most likely true. Instead, base the team in Auckland, home to the largest Pacific Island community in the world and have them play on the weeks when the Blues are away.
Throwback year: Everything was better in the good old days, right? Retro rounds are fashionable in the NRL and American sports, but Super Rugby could go one better and revert the whole competition back to the way it was in 1996 for a year. The original 12 teams with their original names (Wellington Hurricanes, Natal Sharks etc.), cotton jerseys and, most importantly, a straight round robin format that even the dumbest fan can understand. It may be the only way to inspire the Blues to be good again.
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Introduce a draft: In the early days of Super Rugby, it was thought that the talent in the competition would eventually filter around and each team would have a decent number of Kiwis, Aussies and South Africans in them. With a few tiny exceptions over the years, that never eventuated. Perhaps by making players come off contract every few years or so and enter a draft pool, a bit of balance can be made up by giving the worst teams the first picks.
Fund development into some sort of teleportation device: It’d solve the travel issue, right?
