RugbyRebels

Any predictions on what the format will be? NB: The poll is a prediction. Include your opinions & preferences in the chat section of the thread. Mine (as stated previously elsewhere), is for conference realignment & reduction with Japan joining Australia, Argentina joining NZ and SA back to a single conference. Play-offs as per last year.

Cape Town - An EXCO meeting and a 2016 Super Rugby season review took place in Sydney over the last two days with SANZAAR hosting over 80 stakeholder representatives.

SANZAAR will announce the 2017 Super Rugby match schedule for the regular 17-round season on Tuesday, September 20.

http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/SuperRug ... t-20160913

They will tinker with the playoff system, to avoid the farce of higher ranked teams having to travel to play worse teams.

They will think about reducing Aussie to 4 teams but it won't happen unless the ARU suddenly works out that this would actually help it.

Agree with your first comment, and probably that's all they'll do at this stage, notwithstanding my earlier comments - which would be the maximum change likely.

Regarding the second, I'd have thought South Africa were in greater danger of losing the Kings, whose provincial team has slipped into the 2nd division, I understand. But the Review has already been done and we are only now waiting for the official announcement. I'm sure if anyone had been axed during the review process there would have been a huge ruckus that we would have heard about by now. Personally I'd been sad to see Australia lose any of its franchises. Melbourne is the second biggest city on the continent, of course, and actually the 5th biggest overall (behind Tokyo, BA, Joburg & Sydney) in Super Rugby, so everything possible should be done to promote the game there, while Western Australia does actually have quite a large player basis and thriving club scene. It's simply suffered historically due to its isolation, being more than twice as far from Sydney and Brisbane as the East Coast is from NZ. NB: Apparently it was spurred along in the late 90s by a major influx of white South Africans following the end of Apartheid.

The way I'd rig it is as follows:

SA Conference: Lions, Bulls, Stormers, Sharks, Cheetahs, Kings.

Oz Conference: NSW, Reds, ACT, Force, Rebels, Sunwolves.

NZ: Blues, Chiefs, Canes, Saders, Landers, Jaguares.

However, there would be a stipulation that all 6 SA teams visit either Japan or Argentina during the regular season, thereby balancing the travel requirements.

The playoffs would revert to the Super 15 format, with the top two sides in the overall rankings hosting the winners of two wildcard games featuring the remaining conference winner and the three next best teams.



NB: In the next decade I think the organizers should look at creating two entirely separate competitions:

Pacific: Extant Australasian teams plus the Sunwolves and a South Pacific Islands team in a 12 team league without conferences.

Atlantic: Extant SA teams plus 2 or 3 each from Argentina & North America, and perhaps Namibia.

The winners could meet in a sort of 'Super Final,' but they both produce their own league champions first, which would be the priority.

Any plans for carbon offsetting?

No, but I think it's inevitable Argentina will seek new teams in the coming decade. The Jaguares had a fairly decent debut season by general standards - and ultimately played a major role in determining the outcome of the competition by depriving the Lions of home-advange in the final with that upset win in BA. I think they'll go from strength to strength, just like the Pumas.

Mr Mwenda wrote:Any plans for carbon offsetting?

As it cools again, the Super Rugby franchises will get credits for burning carbon at high altitude ...

Looks like consensus favors a return to league format (without conferences) as the votes flood in here. Fair enough, but personally I think conferences were just the tonic for an inter-continental championship in order to reduce travel requirements and facilitate expansion. I don't think we can have it both ways. & personally I think expanding the professional game has priority over meeting all other opponents annually. I'd be the first to agree, however, that this year's format as a bit of a mess.

So , absolutely no change in the format then.

The only tweak I see is that there are only two rounds after the international/Lions break, as opposed to three last year. This is even worse than last year ( unless its close ) e.g the Rebels play the Force away and the Jaguares at home in the last two rounds.

Yes, a little disappointing but not surprising. I think they were stuck with this format for two years from the outset, as the renewed TV deals etc were for the 2016/2017 seasons, if I'm not mistaken. They may be in a position to make more significant changes next season, for 2018 onward.