Super 14 : Road to the play-offs

[Burgs]

Regardless of the personal teams, it is pretty amazing that the comp is still so wide open with only three to go.
Without researching, it would surely be the closest Super Rugby season to date.

[Egan]

Got my accomodation and ticket sorted if the Canes play the Force in either the Semi or Final in Wellington. The annual Glory away trip to Nuxland has come in handy...

Hope the boys can push us over the line. I don't care if we lose 200-0 as long as we get our day in the sun. Would be brilliant if the Force play a finals game at home as well.

[laura]

As game looks to minimise losses
Wayne Smith, Rugby union editor | April 25, 2009
Article from: The Australian

OK, let me know if I'm missing anything here.

Chances are Australia won't have a single team in the Super 14 playoffs for the second time in three years. True, three teams are still in the race and all the local derbies are done with, save for the Brumbies-Reds clash next weekend, so mathematically as long as the Waratahs, Brumbies and Force keep winning, all three could feature in the finals. But any dispassionate weighing of the odds would suggest that merely getting one team into the top four would be a good result.

Crowds are down across the board, so too TV ratings and profits. In fact, forget profits. These days in Australian rugby, it's all about minimising the losses. The Reds, Waratahs and Western Force are all running on red ink while the best the Brumbies are hoping for is a break-even season.

The Force, in particular, is struggling to maintain its foothold in Perth and if it has registered a $2.8million loss in a season in which Matt Giteau has generalled the side so brilliantly, then Rugby WA surely has cause to be afraid of what next year might bring.

The move to the rectangular ground at Members Equity should help, even more so if the WA Government finally delivers on its promise to dramatically upgrade the ground, but the Force has itself partly to blame for its predicament. In the club's earliest years, there was a degree of readiness from the state Government to pour $25m into Members Equity, but those were the days when the Force could command crowds of 30,000-plus at Subiaco Oval and Force officials, thinking it would never end, chose not to take up the offer.

Talk that the Australian Rugby Union will strip Rugby WA of its Super rugby licence is bordering on the hysterical, but here's a scenario that's not. If the Super rugby expansion does not go ahead, or if it does and the South Africans bully their way to getting the Southern Kings admitted at the expense of Australia's candidate, then the Victorian Government will turn very aggressive in its quest to find a rugby tenant for its new rectangular stadium in Melbourne.

the rest here...http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-16957,00.html

[Burgs]

One gets the sense that Wayne has been sitting on that article waiting for the trigger of a) the Force passing the Waratahs (woe is us) or b) the Brumbies get an anticipated late season thrashing (two teams just had their biggest wins Wayne...).

There are certainly areas of Rugby in Australia that need a great deal of attention but this smacks of a premeditated strike to me.

[blueandblack]

.... If the Super rugby expansion does not go ahead, or if it does and the South Africans bully their way to getting the Southern Kings admitted at the expense of Australia's candidate, then the Victorian Government will turn very aggressive in its quest to find a rugby tenant for its new rectangular stadium in Melbourne.

the rest here...http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-16957,00.html

Fine. Melbourne can host an annual APC series at the ground. They love holding all sorts of events, particularly sporting events. Why not this? Seems reasonably "central" for all the Super 14 teams too.

[travelling_gerry]

[AndyS]

Hmmm, so we would be depending on the Bulls denying the Sharks any bonus point.....