Super rugby faces big shake-up

[woosaah]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4502401a1823.html

New Zealand's five Super rugby teams may change when a revamped competition is presented to broadcaster News Ltd as early as September.

Video: Offside - the Carter clause, and Hurricanes face a cliche-fest



An overhaul of the tired Tri Nations is also on the cards as Sanzar - the South Africa, Australia and New Zealand unions - looks to reverse the dive in interest in its two key competitions.

The New Zealand Rugby Union's general manager of professional rugby, Neil Sorensen, said yesterday the five New Zealand franchises could be redrawn in the revamp.

"We would be loathe to give up one of the franchises because it would be very hard to get one back, but that's not to say they will look the same as they do now.

"The New Zealand franchises could change."

It has happened before with North Harbour shifting from the Chiefs to the Blues while Thames Valley went the other way, but a more radical and wider revision of the boundaries was now possible.

It might mean the end of the Highlanders with another team produced in Auckland, as Sorensen admitted anything was possible.

"There are plenty of options and we are very open-minded on this," he said.

However, he says the NZRU has a participation agreement with its five franchises for the duration of the existing broadcasting deal, which ends after the 2010 Super 14.

Sanzar wants a new competition in place that year, and as the NZRU employs the players and coaches, it also calls the shots.

Sorensen said the Tri Nations was also likely to change, with more teams a possibility provided it could be worked into the IRB test schedule.

The extra round added to the competition in 2006 has failed to excite Kiwi fans, with the tests against South Africa not always selling out.

This year the Bledisloe Cup will also test appetites as it will be played over four tests with the final match in Hong Kong - four months after the first one.

Sorensen conceded the extra Tri Nations games had not won favour in New Zealand.

However, he said the competition provided nearly 60 per cent of the money from News Ltd. The Super 14 made up about 30 per cent of the deal, with the Air New Zealand Cup about 12 per cent.

"What the broadcasters pay for is the Tri Nations," Sorensen said.

"It's our most lucrative product. It's struggling a bit in New Zealand, but it's still a very valuable product for us.

"(However), people are looking for a change and we have the OK from the broadcasters to approach them with a different product."

That was not scheduled to happen until June next year, but Sorensen said Sanzar officials, who are meeting in Dublin this week while there for an IRB meeting, could have something decided by September.

The new competitions could be in place by 2010 - a year earlier than scheduled.

"If you had time and the buy-in by all three parties you would do it sooner but I don't think, logistically, it's do-able," Sorensen said.

"We certainly have the buy-in from the broadcasters, who are as keen as anyone to refresh the product (and) the general mood from all commentators on the game is that it needs to change.

"Contractually, we need to have something on the table for News Ltd by June of next year, but we would be looking to have something earlier than that.

We will have to have a pretty good feel by September of how Super rugby will look - and there are no real boundaries on how it might look."[/b]

what kind of changed do you guys think the NZRU can put in? maybe have a new draft altogether where all the players are put into a pool and teams bid for them? give all the franchises the same amount of money to bid for players? that was what came up in my head but i dont know if that would work.



Will be interesting whatever they come up with anyway.

 

[BLR]

How about they bloody support the player drain out of the Highlanders camp every season instead of scrapping the team....if they scrap the Highlanders I swear to god I am going to get one of those 'WMD's' everyone talks about....is Auckland like NSW or something? Everything is for the benefit of themselves and the more power to them the better....absolutely rubbish.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

get rid of otago..... replace it with the Northland Pohutukawas

LOL

How about they bloody support the player drain out of the Highlanders camp every season instead of scrapping the team....if they scrap the Highlanders I swear to god I am going to get one of those 'WMD's' everyone talks about....is Auckland like NSW or something? Everything is for the benefit of themselves and the more power to them the better....absolutely rubbish. [/b]

i've known for years now that nothing exists south of the bombay

 

[Ripper]

How about they bloody support the player drain out of the Highlanders camp every season instead of scrapping the team....if they scrap the Highlanders I swear to god I am going to get one of those 'WMD's' everyone talks about....is Auckland like NSW or something? Everything is for the benefit of themselves and the more power to them the better....absolutely rubbish. [/b]

Otago don't deserve anything - they have spent the last 10 years raiding other provinces (mostly the Hawkes Bay, and in particular Napier Boys High) for players rather than actually growing the players themselves - maybe if they had actually attempted to produce there own they wouldn't be in the shitter now that all the players they bought in at the expense of their homegrown talent have gone back home/overseas.

Anton Oliver, Taine Randell, Danny Lee, Craig Newby, Simon Maling, Carl Hoeft, James Ryan and Nick Evans are all recently departed or departing Otago All Blacks who were from elsewhere.

Then there's the likes of Glenn Horton, Matthew Berquist, Chris Smylie who were all starters at NPC and/or Super 14 level.

 

[BLR]

Welcome to proffesional rugby...and why is it not forseeable that a province with a fairly low population such as Otago should try to get more players from outside, where they have a far larger amount of population and players....why let multiple potential top level players rot just outside of the fringes when they can move to another province and get game time?

 

[ChiefsFan]

What the real problem is that the Highlanders gets players from the draft who stay with their old provence. As soon as the player gets good their home union grabs them and thus the Highlanders can't build anything becasue the bricks keep getting taken back

 

[sambãd5]

that is the problem with otago. its a university stronghold, but simply cant retain players to get them experianced. and with emergance of other universitys, theres less reason to go to otago. they have done it to themselves by really relying on guys like oliver, hayman, and evans. but go back even futher. they needed to put some development into their own players after brown left, after wilson left, after randle left. after kelleher left. main point being, there was more than rugby to come down to in otago. now there isnt as much.

 

[Ripper]

Welcome to proffesional rugby...and why is it not forseeable that a province with a fairly low population such as Otago should try to get more players from outside, where they have a far larger amount of population and players....why let multiple potential top level players rot just outside of the fringes when they can move to another province and get game time? [/b]

They aren't that small population wise - and despite getting raped left, right and centre for the past decade of players, Hawkes Bay still put out a mostly homegrown team last year and finished 3rd in the NPC - Including the scalps of Wellington, Otago and Waikato (Twice). It's not like this is a recent thing, Otago has alway's only been as good as they were because they couldn't produce their own and relied on the University to bring them down. Now they are just getting exposed for the frauds they always were. If smaller and less rich regions can produce their own talent, while Otago can't, tough ****.

 

[esoj]

otago really have themselves to blame. they knew their talent was leaving but instead of developing new talent they relied on the draft more heavily than any other nz team and bought talent from elsewhere. that talent all leaves at once and basically the team is crippled. many of us predicted this would happen to the highlanders this year and so how true it is

 

[Hamster]

ISNT MCCAW from Otago?

Anyone my proposed idea is.

Keep the super comp, but get rid of the SA teams and just have Aus-NZ teams. Maybe 5 from each country then possibly had a Japanese team which would be good (same timezone). Having 10-12 teams, play each twice, having 20-24 weeks for the comp. All teams allowing foreigners.

THen the Saffers and Argies make there own comp.

Then NZ, Aus, SA, Pumas in a 4 nations comp.

 

[Crowness]

I look forward to a shake up of some sort... as long as the finals remain hard to crack (keeping the prestige of getting there high) I'll be a happy man!

 

[paretrooper]

so why give auckland 2 teams?? they can't make the finals with 1 team. so are two going to
make them twice as ****?!!! leave otago and the draft players where they are. they could
build to be a good team.