It's sad that it's come to this but it is a direct result of SANZAAR abandoning a great concept that was Super Rugby between 1996-2010 in the pursuit of more money. More teams equals more games plus more money to be earned, so on they went adding too many weak teams and a team from Japan who should never have been added since Japan aren't a part of SANZAAR and it's not SANZAAR's responsibility to grow the game globally. If things hadn't gotten out of control we would've seen teams from as far away as North America added, such was SANZAAR's foolishness.
On top of all of this was the introduction of the conference formats and insistence that conference winners were allowed to host playoff games. All of this has seen the competition nose dive in quality and the reduction of teams is not enough to save it. The conference formats also have to go as they are destroying the integrity of a once great competition that used to be about finding the best province but is now all about keeping everyone involved into the playoffs. A proper round robin format needs to be introduced and teams have to make the playoffs on merit again, otherwise Super Rugby will continue its dangerous downward spiral and will no longer be the pinnacle club/franchise competition in the world.
Noel Burland Says:
11/08/2017 9:18:47 PM
It's sad that it's come to this but it is a direct result of SANZAAR abandoning a great concept that was Super Rugby between 1996-2010 in the pursuit of more money. More teams equals more games plus more money to be earned, so on they went adding too many weak teams and a team from Japan who should never have been added since Japan aren't a part of SANZAAR and it's not SANZAAR's responsibility to grow the game globally. If things hadn't gotten out of control we would've seen teams from as far away as North America added, such was SANZAAR's foolishness.
On top of all of this was the introduction of the conference formats and insistence that conference winners were allowed to host playoff games. All of this has seen the competition nose dive in quality and the reduction of teams is not enough to save it. The conference formats also have to go as they are destroying the integrity of a once great competition that used to be about finding the best province but is now all about keeping everyone involved into the playoffs. A proper round robin format needs to be introduced and teams have to make the playoffs on merit again, otherwise Super Rugby will continue its dangerous downward spiral and will no longer be the pinnacle club/franchise competition in the world.