[…]Sports Leader » Tony McKeever » SA Rugby ’snookered’ by British & Irish Cup launch[…]…

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[…]Sports Leader » Tony McKeever » SA Rugby ’snookered’ by British & Irish Cup launch[…]…

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[…]Sports Leader » Tony McKeever » SA Rugby ’snookered’ by British & Irish Cup launch[…]…

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[…]Sports Leader » Tony McKeever » SA Rugby ’snookered’ by British & Irish Cup launch[…]…

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[…]Sports Leader » Tony McKeever » SA Rugby ’snookered’ by British & Irish Cup launch[…]…

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However, what the SANZAR chaps are doing is only thinking in a linear fashion or sequentially. That is a problem.

Who says that one can only play one tournament at a time? SANZAR apply this rule, to their detriment as we have seen with this brinkmanship and posturing that came to naught, yet the Northern Hemisphere play a Magners League, Heineken Cup and Guinness Premiership at the same time.

There has to be another B-stream Super Rugby tournament played at the same time as the Super 15 (Feb-May), to include additional teams from NZ, Australia, South Africa and perhaps some Northern Hemisphere teams.

This provides the broadcasters with additional rugby inventory, exclusivity and introduces a relegation and promotion series for the last placed SANZAR teams so that performance is rewarded.

A door has to be left open for aspirant franchises to qualify and get promoted. This also proves to the broadcasters that they get the finest TV product and then some.

The introduction of a “B” stream Super Rugby Challengers series at the same time as S15 eases the crushing calendar and introduces a tournament to bring in NH sides.

You are no doubt aware that there is a school of thought amongst certain SANZAR members that 2011 is 18 months away offering adequate time to sort out the minutae of the tournament. Bad idea this.

The minutae of the Super 15 has to be crafted now pre June 30 and even if NZRU & ARU do not want to entertain additional teams or a relegation & promotion series, SARU have half way obligated themselves to a relegation & promotion in South Africa only, by launching the Southern Kings on the 16th June. Ironically this was suggested in November 2005 and accepted in a Franchise Participation Agreement, but that story you know.

I can hear the shrill noises now from the Cheetahs and Lions.

The conundrum remains but the solution to unravel this, is as per above.

Explain to me how a rugby union can assemble guarantees for R3bn and submit detailed and thorough plans to host a Rugby World Cup, 6 years or even 10 years from now, in 2015 or 2019 and submit this last week Wednesday and are still unable to accomplish the same for a local itsy-bitsy southern hemisphere tournament for this year?

It surely says one of two things:

1. The Rugby World Cup bid is fatally flawed because they have been unable to craft a tournament for all their unions in Super Rugby a mere 12 months away.

2. There is no inherent desire or commitment to see a 6th franchise from South Africa in Super Rugby. The launch of the franchise on the 16th June remains an expensive launch for 80 minutes. There are no fixtures, no games, no tournaments planned after the 16th June.

In fact this little oversight could cost South Africa the Rugby World Cup Bid as these questions are being asked by the RFU, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy and Japan as the IRB does its rounds in advance of the 28th July RWC bid awards announcement.

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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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