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A brand new 24-team British & Irish Cup will take place next year.
Twelve teams from the English Championship, six from the Welsh Principality Premiership, Irish provinces Munster, Leinster and Ulster and three Scottish sides will compete for the inaugural trophy.
The teams will be divided into four pools of six, playing over five weekends during the Autumn International and RBS 6 Nations windows, with semi-finals and finals on April 24 and May 15 next year respectively.
This effectively rules out any possible notion that SA Rugby’s brain(s) trust had of playing with the Northern Hemisphere as an alternative to the Sanzar expansion plans for the Super 14 from 2011-2015. That door is now firmly slammed shut, tighter than a church mouse’s … oh you know what I mean.
On Wednesday, Australian Rugby Union’s O’Neill said it was time South Africa’s rugby bosses realised Australia and New Zealand had already given all they could at the negotiating table.
But he predicted that SA would “look in the mirror” one day and “we will all be one big happy family again”.
Sanzar rugby chiefs from the three countries have twice previously agreed on plans for an expanded Super 15 to be played over 22 weeks with a six-team finals format and more local derbies but O’Neill said South Africa had backflipped.
The ARU and NZRU have called for a meeting with South African officials in Dublin on May 14 to sort out their differences and move ahead with Super 15 plans.
Launching the new British & Irish Cup competition in London, Terry Burwell, the Rugby Football Union’s tournaments and competitions director, said: “This is an exciting new tournament that will provide quality cross-border competition and will be a winner with players, coaches and fans alike. There is a real appetite for this competition and, from an English point of view, it will give Championship clubs an additional meaningful competition alongside their league structure.”
Welsh Rugby Union head of rugby performance and development Joe Lydon said: “We are delighted to be fully involved in this exciting new competition. It will engage all our teams in the type of cross-border sporting rivalry which will generate support and help improve the standard of play in all the teams involved. Here in Wales we know the appetite for this level of competition exists and it will deliver measurable benefits to the development and sustainability of the professional and semi-professional sport here. The names of the Welsh clubs involved will be familiar to rugby followers from around the world as they formed the tradition and history of the national sport of Wales. We have already received the backing in principle of our Premiership Division clubs and we look forward to welcoming to Wales some of the best young players from around the UK and Ireland.”
Scottish Rugby’s National Academy manager, Stephen Gemmell, added: “Scottish Rugby welcomes the launch of the British & Irish Cup. This competition will give some of our best players, including those from our top two clubs in Premiership Division 1, an opportunity to test themselves in an intense environment against quality, battle-hardened opposition from throughout the British Isles. We all believe such a competition will serve as a real boost to our game.”
Irish Rugby Football Union director of rugby Eddie Wigglesworth said: “From an Irish perspective we welcome the introduction of the British & Irish Cup which will provide a very competitive professional game structure to meet the needs of our emerging contracted players. The teams involved are well-known rugby entities in their own right and, in conjunction with our existing internal structures, will ensure that this group of contracted professionals have the necessary professional game exposure to meet the increasingly competitive demands at Magners League and Heineken Cup levels. It also provides a unique cross-border game opportunity for Irish coaches and referees.”
Background
24 teams
* Twelve English Championship clubs. (Bedford, Birmingham & Solihull, Bristol Rugby, Cornish Pirates, Coventry, Doncaster, Exeter Chiefs, London Welsh, Moseley, Nottingham, Plymouth Albion and Rotherham Titans.)
* Top six Welsh Principality Premiership clubs. (Aberavon, Cardiff, Llanelli, Neath, Newport and Pontypridd.)
* Three Irish provinces — Munster, Leinster and Ulster.
* Three Scottish teams — top two finishers in Scottish Hydro-Electric Premiership Division 1 (Champions Ayr and the runners-up, either Boroughmuir or Heriot’s) and a team drawn from Edinburgh and Glasgow and members of Scottish Rugby’s National Academy.)
Pool stages
* Four pools of 6 playing once (5 matches).
* Pools based on travel/geography with the aim of maximising local interest and minimising cost to teams and supporters.
* Four points for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 bonus point for either a) scoring 4 or more tries or b) losing by 7 points or less.
* Pool matches scheduled for November 7 and 28, February 13, February 27, March 13 (all dates to be confirmed).
* Pool winners progress to knockout stage.
Semi-finals and final
* Four pool winners progress to semi-finals and final.
* Semi-finals scheduled for April 24, final for May 15 next year.
This announcement coming out of the UK on May 6, in advance of SA Rugby’s presentation of their 2015 Rugby World Cup Bid next week, followed by the Sanzar meeting on the May 14 in Dublin, pulls the rug from under SA Rugby and eliminates any options they thought they might have in playing any Northern Hemisphere rugby. There is now nil to zero chance of this happening.
This monumental oversight and lapse in perspective by SA Rugby, demonstrates to the international rugby community, especially the four British and Irish Unions, the NZRU, ARU, and not least the IRB, glaring shortcomings in the leadership of SA Rugby and their inability to plan strategically. Their modus operandi is more stumble and fall with both eyes to the keyhole.
Key in all of this, is money, the lifeblood of the Sanzar unions and with SA Rugby having no substitute sponsor of the scale of R1.4 billion, post-2010, they are almost all out of options, unless they promote a conflict-free solution to Sanzar on May 14 and run with either a 6-team apiece for a Sanzar Super 18, or a Super 15 with a promotion-relegation system to keep the competition hot and fired up for the broadcasters and spectators.
If that Super 15 with relegation and promotion happens, there have to be tri-game playoffs with each of the three Sanzar countries, right after the Super 15, or even during the Super 15, as the last-placed teams will be out of contention and then a smaller lower-level competition, a Super Rugby Lite if you will, during the Super 15, for those three Sanzar franchises outside of the Super 15.
This would mean that each of the Sanzar countries would have 5+1 franchises, with the extra, plus one, or sixth franchise, which would likely include an extra franchise from Australia out of the Gold Coast, one from New Zealand from Northland or Hawkes Bay and the ever-present Eastern Cape franchise, now known as the Southern Kings, that has had promises upon promises made to it.
The next six weeks will be fun.
- None
Hi Tony
Have not posted since you accused all the big unions of being part of some sinister plot. Don’t worry I still love you and like the fact you bother to run a blog, even if I don’t agree with you all the time. lol
Was interested to see what you had to say on all this.
I think you’ve got some of the bits and pieces here but not all of it (reading all your articles not just this one). You like others, are getting sucked into this ‘any replacement of Super rugby, will involve ‘. No it wont. It will be the Currie Cup, expanded and played where Super rugby currently is. You then need a smaller 2nd tier tournament, to be played over September/October, as replacement for Currie Cup. Tri-Nations staying where it is.
They have R700m over 5 years from SuperSport, for CC and June tests. As I expect you know. They would then need money from a Tri-Nations and whatever money they could get from a small, probably Cup comp over September/October. You mention something about NewsCorp and SuperSport having invested X amount into Super rugby over so many years. This doesn’t help SuperSport though, they need ownership of the material, not some licence just for Africa.
Now let assume they play expanded Currie Cup Feb to May. June tests/Lions tour. Tri-Nations. That’s going to be close in money terms to the current SANZAR deal. The possibilities for a 2nd tier, which may or may not be required, then rest on NH.
You mention this Anglo/Welsh/Scots/Irish mess, which is why I replied to this thread.
That actually facilitates the chances of a NH linkup, it doesn’t hinder it. That is replacing the EDF Cup, which drum roll is played during September/October/March/April. This thing that may not even happen, will be played during test windows, not in the current EDF Cup time slot. Welsh regions and GP clubs, are also pushing for an alternative to the current Anglo-Welsh EDF Cup, again during test windows and with B-teams or worse. The issue here is, the national unions of England and Wales, make a fair bit from the TV money BBC throws at EDF Cup, they want to continue that so have gone ahead with this comp you mention (notice the side involved, no GP teams/Welsh regions/Scottish regions/the Irish teams will be All Ireland League teams).
GP clubs meanwhile, see little value in Anglo-Welsh rugby and will fill the vacated weekends with more GP.
This then leaves the four Welsh regions with some spare time. In September/October and perhaps March/April also. That fits perfectly with an SA season minus Super rugby. Now they may fill that hole with Italian Magners League matches. But that is not confirmed yet. There is also Sky, that have become interested in Welsh rugby, they want to buy the broadcast rights for Welsh November tests, it has the highest density of subscribers in the UK.
So you can begin to see how a Cup comp over October/September and maybe climaxing at the end of March/start of April. Would actually be feasible. With guaranteed November test appearances against the Welsh. It can also be very valuable. Anywhere between £3m and £6m at the Welsh end alone.
Now I’m not going to go into the relationship between SARU and WRU and how long it’s been going on for. You can work that out. Lets just say when Marinos mentioned possible partners, he mentioned everyone but the Welsh (USA/Arg/Irish/Scottish/Italy).
I’m not sure what’s going on now and solution the high ups in SARU have decided on. I however agree with you, that the unions, have by and large been excluded or listened to and then ignored. Compromising Currie Cup, is not really on. Especially starting it while Super 15 is still in progress, meaning our top 160 odd players are not involved. Nevermind no Springbok representation, through Tri-nations starting later.
I can’t see how any stake holders in SA rugby, will benefit from this expanded Super competition. From the average fan, to the minnow union, or a big union.
The fan, will possibly never see the Springboks play any international side, other than the Wallabies/All Blacks/Pumas. And have to be content with ‘Super’ rugby.
Minnow unions are effectively removed from meaningful competition, with the Currie Cup being cut down and castrated.
Whilst the big unions, will actually get less provincial matches that are marketable, than they did with a stronger Currie Cup. Less tests once the June window is made smaller, or even removed. The amount of decent money earning games they will get, will go from 16-ish, down to 8-ish. Staging games and everything that comes with it, is what makes the big unions money. tv money directly given to them by SARU, makes a small segment of their revenue. But about half of SARU’s revenue is derived from tv deals. It’s the unions that contract the players though. SARU just has the 7s team and top up contracts for the 24 Boks.
I do think much of this is coming from O’Neill. SARU (or rather elements of it) seem to be trying to keep the partnership alive, through compromising. Maybe they didn’t realise the extent of previous plans, or the impact they could have. Or what stake holders would want. I do think that perhaps our unions were not consulted on the latest Dublin terms and what would have to be sacrificed and that’s what this silence and SARU meeting is about.
Whatever to situation, we stand not to ‘win’ anything.
We’re cutting back our Currie Cup, which is viable and brings in a huge amount of revenue. To allow for more games in the Australasian market, at our expense, quite literally. It’s a bit much to expect turkeys to vote for Christmas though. Maybe it’ll come off the rails soon, maybe in 5 years.
With regards to the Kings - I see them being done over badly here. But at least not as badly as the other smaller unions, which will go extinct. A 6 team (Big 5 + Kings) heavily compromised Currie Cup, will barely worth being part of. The olive branch of promotion/relegation for the Kings, barely being worth the paper it is written on. A team with just Currie Cup (or rather THAT Currie Cup) rugby, will not be able to build enough to challenge the last placed Super 15 side.
Don’t see much value in expanding Super rugby. I don’t think it’s a product most fans actually want more of (and probably lower quality as a result). It’s morphed from it’s original 69 games, into 94 and what could be 125+. This isn’t what we signed up for. A compact high intensity high value tournament is one thing. A prolonged semi-Australasian domestic tournament, that heavily damages large chucks of our domestic game, is an entirely different proposition. I think most of the value was in Tri-Nations and Super rugby was the thing that didn’t work out quite as well as originally expected anyway.
You can do your own research based on that and come to your own conclusions.
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