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Super Rugby’s conference system unfair as Dan Carter and Richie McCaw’s Crusaders denied by inferior Stormers
JAMIE PANDARAM
The Daily Telegraph
June 15, 2015 8:05PM
SUPER Rugby’s discriminatory conference system has cost the competition’s two most iconic players, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, the chance to bow out in the finals, while Waratahs coach Michael Cheika conceded the Highlanders can feel rightly aggrieved for not getting a home semi-final.
Under the rules, each conference must get a guaranteed finalist to make up the top three, and this year the Stormers have qualified third despite finishing with less points than the Crusaders, who farewelled McCaw and Carter with a stirring victory in Canberra last Saturday.
The conference system was pushed by South Africa to ensure they could host a lucrative finals match each year, and it will only get worse from next season, when the competition is expanded to 18 teams and they’ll have two guaranteed finalists from two separate conferences.
If the table had worked the usual way, based purely on competition points, no South African team would have made the finals, while four New Zealand teams would have qualified, and NSW would have hosted the Crusaders this weekend in an elimination playoff.
The Tahs finished with less points than the Highlanders, but under the conference system finished second and earned a week off and then host a semi-final, while the Highlanders play an elimination final this Saturday against the Chiefs.
“You never know how form works, no matter what the system is,” Cheika said.
“You could have a team in the NRL that runs eighth but is running into form and could come home well according to the seedings.
‘Obviously the New Zealand conference has done very well with three teams, the Highlanders finished with a point more than us so they’re probably thinking ‘We should be in second’ in fairness to them.
“But that is the way the conference system is set up.
"We’ll just work with what there is there, and hope we can get our preparation right to do well in our semi-final.”
South Africa will have two conferences next year, which will include teams from Argentina and Japan, and the winners of those conferences will qualify for the finals, along with those from Australia and New Zealand, regardless of how many points they finish the season with.
The conference system allowed the Stormers to rest 14 of their regular starters in the final round match against the Sharks, who pumped the reserve team 34-12. Knowing they could not finish below third, Stormers coach Allister Coetzee gave his best players a rest, and they’ll now be rejuvenated for their elimination final against the Brumbies in Cape Town.
“I think that’s the strategy of the coach, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, there is certainly nothing wrong with giving your players a game,” Cheika said.
“There is no right or wrong way of doing anything, it’s doing what you think is right, and then backing it to the hilt.
“Their management has run a good campaign so far, they’ve won their conference, and I think they’re entitled to their respect that says whatever they decide to do is in the right interests of their team.”
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