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Richie McCaw - Source: Photosport -
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The Super rugby season from 2011 will be expanded to 15 teams and stretched over seven months, Sanzar announced on Wednesday.
Australia will provide a 15th team, and the season will now stretch from late February to early August, rugby bosses from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have agreed.
The 24-week Super Rugby competition will guarantee each team a minimum of eight home matches and a 16-match regular season.
Teams will be put into three national conferences of five teams each, where they will play each other home and away, a structure similar to American football, baseball and basketball.
Sides will also play four out of the five teams from the other two conferences. Four of those games will be at home, and four away.
There will be an expanded finals series as part of changes, to be proposed by the Sanzar partners to broadcasters next month.
A six-team finals series will include an extra round, with two "sudden-death" qualifiers before the semi-finals.
All teams will have a three-week bye while the tournament is suspended during June for international test matches, involving tours by northern hemisphere sides.
The Tri-Nations series between the three Sanzar nations has also been given a new time slot in the calendar, at the conclusion of Super Rugby.
The expanded competition has a 2011 launch date, with the current broadcast agreement to expire at the end of 2010.
New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said the agreement was a welcome one for rugby in New Zealand.
"We have said at every juncture that our preference was to maintain the three-country alliance and to build on it," Tew said.
"We are delighted that we have reached an agreement which allows us to move the Super Rugby competition to a new platform which we believe will capture and excite rugby fans in all three countries.
"It will also create benefits for our players and Super Rugby franchises and give us a certain competition structure we can build on in future years and a protected window for our domestic competitions."
Sanzar chief executive Andy Marinos, of South Africa, said the new format would see Super rugby retain its status as rugby's toughest provincial competition.
Key features are:
- a 15th team will be added in Australia, following a tender process open to all territories, with Sanzar making the decision on the new side's location.
- it will kick off in the last week of February and end in the
first week of August, except in 2011 when it will be shifted
earlier to accommodate the World Cup in New Zealand;
- teams will be divided into three national conferences of five
sides. Teams play the other four teams in their conference twice
(home and away);
- Teams play four out of the five teams from the other two
conferences (four home, four away);
- All teams will have a three-week bye during the June test
window;
- The three conference winners and three wildcard teams with the
highest number of competition points from any conference qualify
for the play-offs;
- The wildcard teams and the conference winner with the fewest
competition points will play an elimination round, to win the right
to meet the two conference winners with the greatest number of
competition points in the semi-finals;
- Tri-Nations will always kick-off in South Africa in mid-August
and end with two of the three trans-Tasman matches in early October
to allow for early release of Springboks to Currie Cup.
This would allow for Tri-Nations tests between particular teams in particular countries to become permanent fixtures on the rugby calendar.
The Sanzar partners will present the proposed structure to the rights-holding News Corporation by the end of June.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentstojo01 said on 2009-05-21 @ 01:01 NZDT:
Makes sense for all the SANZAR nations to have the same number of teams whether it is 4 for 12 or 5 for 15. It makes the super competition away tours more of a level playing field. The NPC has been a gold plated rugby with brass crowds and television revenue for quite a while. As a kiwi living in Aussie the end of the super 14 is depressing no NPC nothing but sydney rugby competition and league to chose from. It may seem shortsighted to NZ and SA but a strong Southern Hemisphere is a good thing
puha said on 2009-05-21 @ 00:11 NZDT:
why are we letting the ozzies run the rugby...john o neil has already screwed us before yet we are falling for his rubbish again....he's just looking out for what is best for australian rugby......14 or so weeks of super rugby is enough the season will be to long...lastly bring back the old npc.....
soundsgood said on 2009-05-20 @ 22:45 NZDT:
How do you fix a boring competition? Make it longer! And another Aussie team? Tasmania?! Now the South Africans and Aussies get more experience than they used to. That will sure help us come the World Cup. I'd rather see another team in the NRL. Why is league so much more exciting than Rugby these days? I'm a Hurricanes supporter: I watched three of their games on TV this season, and one of those I fast-forwarded through. I suppose there's less money to be had with including Island teams.
sthisland1 said on 2009-05-20 @ 20:44 NZDT:
Steve Tew is in dreamland if he thinks this competition is the least bit exciting. I once used to be a season pass holder to what is now AMI stadium in Christchurch. I once happily queued for over an hour in sub zero tempratures just to secure an All Black ticket against the springboks. I haven't watched a whole game this season on TV yet and have no intention of seeing any games live. It's the same borning stuff every year. Bring back 2.35pm test match kick offs and bring back the tours.
Cindy C said on 2009-05-20 @ 20:33 NZDT:
Who is Steve Tew kidding? I've followed rugby for decades and am finding it harder and harder to sustain interest throughout the rugby season and what will this do for the already dying NPC competition? Last nail in the coffin really.