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Wayne Smith | May 16, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE days of rugby union ceding the stage to AFL and the NRL in the depths of winter are drawing to a close, with ARU boss John O'Neill yesterday revealing Super rugby would have "a significantly bigger footprint" when the competition expands in 2011.
While details of the expansion structure are being withheld until next week to allow delegates from the three SANZAR nations to report back to their boards on the outcome of Thursday's crucial meeting in Dublin, there are indications Australia, New Zealand and South Africa may have reached a compromise akin to the so-called Sandton option negotiated in March.
Under this arrangement, Super 14 would expand to become Super 15, which would be split into three national conferences each of five teams, with the new franchise to be based in the Australian conference - although this does not necessarily mean the additional team would come from Australia.
Each team in the respective Australian, New Zealand and South African conferences would play every other club in their group on a home and away basis, for a total of eight matches.
But instead of all teams from the three countries then playing each other, it may well be that they play only four of the five sides in the other national conferences. For example, the Waratahs might play only the Crusaders, Chiefs, Blues and Hurricanes from the NZ conference but not the Highlanders, and similarly would miss one team from the South African conference.
It is far from an ideal solution because it could mean that the luck of the draw might see one team not having to play strong sides from the other two conferences. It also means the regular season leading up to the six-teams playoff series would be cut back from 18 matches to 16, but Australia indicated at Sandton it was prepared to back this less-than-perfect option to minimise the impact on South Africa's domestic Currie Cup competition.
The way Super 14 is structured at present, all franchises are allocated 13 home games over a two-season period - six one year, seven the next - but the Sandton option would guarantee 16 home games every two years, hopefully enough to allow financially struggling unions to stay afloat.
Depending on when the expanded competition starts - South Africa had argued for a retention of the early February start, Australia and New Zealand for March - the likely 22-week season would push into July and possibly even August, depending on byes and whether or not South Africa got its wish to suspend Super rugby during the June inbound Tests window.
Either way, it represents a significantly longer season than the current Super 14, which this year ends on May 30, providing a meaningful inter-provincial competition through virtually to the start of the Tri-Nations series, which runs from mid-July to mid-September.
Until the national unions and other stakeholders have been notified of what was negotiated in Dublin, O'Neill is refusing to divulge how the new-look rugby calendar will be structured.
"However, it is fair to say Super rugby will have a significantly bigger footprint from 2011 compared to the past 13 years," O'Neill said. "The Super rugby competition will run deeper into the season. We will have a mass entertainment presence that will enable us to compete with other codes from a stronger and more compelling position in the Australian marketplace."
O'Neill's New Zealand counterpart Steve Tew, while under the same secrecy constraints, opened the door a fraction wider on what had transpired at the Dublin meeting. "Everyone had to make some compromises," Tew said. "Fair to say we are all satisfied. There is no one overjoyed and no one bitterly disappointed.
"We have previously outlined the Super 15 option and ... that will be part of the detail, but I'd rather not go further than that at this stage. All three parties are keen to give their shareholders an insight into what has been agreed to before we go public - it was particularly important for the South Africans, and we agreed to that."
That suggests the South African delegates might need to report not just to their national union but to their national government, which has been pushing hard for a black Southern Kings as the new 15th Super rugby team.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html