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Would a move north be better for South African domestic rugby?
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<blockquote data-quote="smartcooky" data-source="post: 731102" data-attributes="member: 20605"><p>If you think the last two seasons were disappointing, then I can assure you that the NH is not the promised land. </p><p></p><p>1. The broadcast time zones might appear attractive, but people place far too much importance on them. The reality is that hardly anyone gets up in the wee small hours to watch, they record the match using MySky (or TiVo or whatever you have in your country) and watch it later at a more reasonable hour. I only watch the 7:30pm games of Super Rugby LIVE, and sometime the 10pm game from Australia if a NZ team is involved. All other games I want to watch, whether it is earlier in the day or in the small hours, get MySkyd for later viewing. I might get up at 6am on Sunday if the Crusaders are playing the last game on Saturday evening in South Africa. </p><p></p><p>2. In Super Rugby, your players only have to play, at most, 19 matches, and best 16. That's half a season in the NH. You can expect your players to be playing for 30-35 matches in a season</p><p></p><p>3. I wonder how many NH teams want to come down to play Rugby in South Africa on cnrete hard rugby ouithced in 35° heat. Not may I'll bet.</p><p></p><p>4. The travel factor is mostly a big myth. For starters, Jo'burg to Auckland is a 14 hour flight, while Jo'burg to London is 11 hours, not that much shorter in the grand scheme of things. Even if the time difference is a factor, teams managers are used to it now and can prepare for it with little or no ill effects on the players. Most teams leave the day after their last match, so five days is plenty of time to adjust. If the travel and jet lag was such a big factor, and South African teams really were so badly disadvantaged by it, we would expect to see this in the results... well, we don't. Following are some stats for the Super 15 competition since 2011 when the conference system first came in. Earlier stats are not much use because countries had different numbers of teams involved.</p><p></p><p>Win % away in foreign countries</p><p>NZL 39%</p><p>SAF 35%</p><p>AUS 24%</p><p></p><p>Win % away in own country</p><p>NZL 41%</p><p>SAF 37%</p><p>AUS 44%</p><p></p><p>I would argue that if any country is disadvantaged by travel, its the Aussies. They win 44% of away matches in their own country, but only 24% in foreign countries.</p><p>For New Zealand teams it makes little difference - 41% v 39%</p><p>For South African teams its about the same -37% v 35%</p><p></p><p>In other words for South African teams, their win ratio <u>away</u> in NZ and Australia is hardly any different to their win ratio for away matches in South Africa... not the result you would expect if travel was the big factor it is claimed to be.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="smartcooky, post: 731102, member: 20605"] If you think the last two seasons were disappointing, then I can assure you that the NH is not the promised land. 1. The broadcast time zones might appear attractive, but people place far too much importance on them. The reality is that hardly anyone gets up in the wee small hours to watch, they record the match using MySky (or TiVo or whatever you have in your country) and watch it later at a more reasonable hour. I only watch the 7:30pm games of Super Rugby LIVE, and sometime the 10pm game from Australia if a NZ team is involved. All other games I want to watch, whether it is earlier in the day or in the small hours, get MySkyd for later viewing. I might get up at 6am on Sunday if the Crusaders are playing the last game on Saturday evening in South Africa. 2. In Super Rugby, your players only have to play, at most, 19 matches, and best 16. That's half a season in the NH. You can expect your players to be playing for 30-35 matches in a season 3. I wonder how many NH teams want to come down to play Rugby in South Africa on cnrete hard rugby ouithced in 35° heat. Not may I'll bet. 4. The travel factor is mostly a big myth. For starters, Jo'burg to Auckland is a 14 hour flight, while Jo'burg to London is 11 hours, not that much shorter in the grand scheme of things. Even if the time difference is a factor, teams managers are used to it now and can prepare for it with little or no ill effects on the players. Most teams leave the day after their last match, so five days is plenty of time to adjust. If the travel and jet lag was such a big factor, and South African teams really were so badly disadvantaged by it, we would expect to see this in the results... well, we don't. Following are some stats for the Super 15 competition since 2011 when the conference system first came in. Earlier stats are not much use because countries had different numbers of teams involved. Win % away in foreign countries NZL 39% SAF 35% AUS 24% Win % away in own country NZL 41% SAF 37% AUS 44% I would argue that if any country is disadvantaged by travel, its the Aussies. They win 44% of away matches in their own country, but only 24% in foreign countries. For New Zealand teams it makes little difference - 41% v 39% For South African teams its about the same -37% v 35% In other words for South African teams, their win ratio [U]away[/U] in NZ and Australia is hardly any different to their win ratio for away matches in South Africa... not the result you would expect if travel was the big factor it is claimed to be. [/QUOTE]
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