Urgent SANZAR meeting called
Tuesday, 26 June 2007 @ 5:31 PM
http://ninemsn.sportal.com.au/defaul...splay&id=29687
SANZAR, the official body controlling the Super 14 and Tri Nations competitions, is holding a special meeting on Tuesday evening (Australian Time) to discuss the South African decision to send a below-strength team to Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Jock Hobbs was uncertain of the exact timing of the phone conference but said the chief executives of the respective South African, New Zealand and Australian Unions would be taking part along with the SANZAR administration.
The meeting follows Australia's concern at South Africa's surprise move to send a reduced strength team and those concerns would be aired. As would the fact that both Australia and New Zealand sent full strength teams to South Africa, who played to full houses in Cape Town and Durban, while both would have less of a draw to market for themselves.
Hobbs said the South African decision came as a surprise and a disappointment to him.
As late as just before the New Zealand Test with South Africa on Saturday in Durban, Hobbs said the chairman of the South African Union and he assured him that the speculation and rumour surrounding the selection of a less than full strength team was not right.
"He knew nothing of it," Hobbs said.
Hobbs added that both Australia and New Zealand had received earlier assurances from the South Africans that they would send their strongest team.
Hobbs was mindful that New Zealand's response to the South African decision was not as strong as Australia's.
That was due to the fact that New Zealand wanted to be careful of being accused of hypocrisy over the issue after it took 22 players out of the Super 14 competition for the first eight rounds.
However, Hobbs said the circumstances were different, and at a different time of the year. And New Zealand had given notice and advice well ahead of the competition to SANZAR.
That move was less disruptive to the competition, Hobbs said.
News Limited, the television provider for the series had expressed its concern about the situation.
Hobbs said New Zealand was also very aware of player welfare issues and there was a genuine move to try and improve the season structure but there was still a lot of work to be done.
