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Super Bowl strategy could shake up Super Rugby Pacific final

Whitelock running out for his beloved Crusaders but he is unsure what the future holds in 2024 (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

In the current system, each year’s Super Rugby Pacific final is played at the higher-seeded team’s home ground. However, that is not the case in Europe’s Champions Cup, the NFL’s Super Bowl, or even Super Rugby Aupiki.

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While the status quo is familiar to Super Rugby Pacific fans, former Leinster and Fijian international player Isa Nacewa has experienced the excitement of travelling to a neutral venue for grand finals and is optimistic the benefits would translate in Super Rugby Pacific.

A revised system could see the final venue determined prior to the season’s start and reserve a portion of seats for each team’s travelling fans.

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“It’s a pretty cool thought,” Nacewa told SENZ The Run Home.

“Even when Spain in Bilbao hosted the last final, that was outside of the main centres (and it was) absolutely amazing.

“They did the Amlin Challenge Cup on the Friday night which is the first rugby game ever in that football stadium followed by the Heineken Cup on the following night.

“You had a packed stadium on the Friday night, packed stadium on the Saturday night and it’s just phenomenal for the whole industry and tourism industry and everything to do with that.

“It’s an exciting thing as a fan travelling to those days.”

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Feedback around the success of Super Rugby Aupiki’s playoffs being played at predetermined venues was mixed. The semi-finals were played as a doubleheader in Auckland while the final and bronze medal match were also a doubleheader played in Hamilton.

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For the system to be applied successfully in Super Rugby Pacific, Nacewa says the venue would have to work geographically for fans, proposing the idea of a final played in the Pacific Islands.

“Do the geographics work? I’d love to see a Blues-Chiefs final, but you wouldn’t want that to be in Australia or you wouldn’t want that in a neutral venue in South Africa because it just doesn’t work for the geographics,” he said.

“Maybe a final in Fiji, who knows … but I’m sure if you had the final in the Pacific, it would get sold out straight away, no matter who you’re supporting.

“So maybe things like that need to happen in the future just to actually shake things up and give it some vibe back.”

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1 Comment
R
Ryan 752 days ago

Nah mate as soon as chiefs get a chance of a home final people try to change it should've done it Years ago when there were more countries involved

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TokoRFC 11 minutes ago
Super Rugby Pacific's greatest season stained by one playoff game

Mate, what TK and Ben Smith are forgetting is that a comp needs more games that matter, and its a balancing act getting that right.

They haven’t understood that having so many teams fighting over the 6th spot is what fueled the back end of the regular season. Not to mention the games to decide the top end of the finals seeding. It would have been a bit flat if the 4 bottom teams were out of the running with a few rounds still to go.


The current finals format is a bit funny to get used to, I agree. But if they sort out the scheduling guff where the BRU vs HUR match could have been a non knockout game, as well as giving more punishment for the lucky looser (dropping them to 4th seed in the semis). The current format creates more meaningful matches than the alternatives.


Some examples of finals formats:


Top 6 14 matches that matter

With the improvements above, the current system creates 6 competitive finals, plus say 8 matches in the regular season that are effectively knockout games. 14 games that definitely matter. Plus some games to decide the finals seeding in there too.


Top 4 10 matches that matter

3 finals matches and say 6 games to fight over the top 4. At a best case you may get 12 crucial games


If offered the choice, the sponsors, the broadcasters, the fans, the players and the all blacks selectors would all take more meaningful games over any alternative format.

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