Rugby: Three to go as Super axe falls; NZ Herald

Two South African sides and one from Australia are expected to get the chop when Sanzaar tonight finally drops the axe on three teams for next year's Super Rugby season.

South African newspaper Rapport reported that South Africa's Southern Kings and Cheetahs and the Western Force from Australia are set to be culled in a move that would see the struggling competition return to 15 teams, from 18.

Sanzaar last night said chief executive Andy Marinos would tonight (8pm NZT) announce details on the future of the competition and the tournament format, at the conclusion of round seven matches.

According to Rapport the new format will consist of three groups of five teams, with the Jaguares from Argentina playing in a round robin stage with the four remaining South African teams - the Lions, Bulls, Stormers and Sharks - from 2018's edition.

The Japanese Sunwolves are set to join the four Australian teams - the Waratahs, Brumbies, Reds and Rebels.

Sanzaar is not expected to announce which sides will be stripped of their Super Rugby status tonight, with that decision being left up to South African and Australian rugby bosses.

According to the Afrikaans Sunday paper, the announcement is set to be met with "an outcry" from CEOs of the six South African franchises - including former Springboks Rudolf Straeuli (Lions) and Gary Teichmann (Sharks) - at an emergency meeting in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Declining TV viewership and attendance figures have seen a number of current and former players speak out against the 18-team format, with 1995 World Cup winning Springbok Joel Stranksy last week telling Radio Sport Breakfast that the Kings and Cheetahs need to go.

"I'm hoping we lose two teams. I'm hoping we lose the Kings, and to be fair, the Cheetahs are the other team who need to go," Stransky said.

"Purely because financially they are not sustainable. They have very low supporter bases during Super Rugby. They're in the middle of the country, they churn out great young talents but they are not places that can economically sustain a team."

Rapport's sources claim that the Force, Kings and Cheetahs would be the teams to go.

Though the details of which sides will miss out on Super Rugby from next season was not "officially" discussed at SA rugby's AGM this week, Rapport claims that topic was addressed "informally" on a number of occasions over the past days.

The six South African franchises plan on "uniting in protest" against Sanzaar's decision, in a similar way to what the Australian Players' Association have done in recent weeks. The association recently started a petition warning of "permanent damage" to the Australian game if a team is cut. The petition states axing an Aussie team would further weaken the game Down Under.

 Still not the final word but we will know soon.
How about the wee stormers, one of their most vocal supporters of the past has given up on them & 'taken up" tennis so surely they are on the chopping block

 Force? Rebels deserve to be axed. I understand Kings and Cheetahs offer nothing. 

 The following from News24:-
"SANZAAR has announced that the Super Rugby tournament has been restructured and will kick off in 2018 with a three conference, 15-team format: five teams from New Zealand, four from Australia, four from South Africa, one from Japan; and one from Argentina.

This restructuring by SANZAAR represents a crucial step in its strategic planning process that has included a comprehensive assessment of the economic and sporting environment under which its tournaments (Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship) are currently operating.

This assessment highlighted a need to adjust and strengthen Super Rugby in the short-term to ensure a robust and sustainable tournament meets the requirements of all stakeholders in terms of high performance pathways, game development, commercial revenue and fan engagement.

The change sees an overall reduction of three teams from the current 18-team format, two from South Africa and one from Australia. The Sunwolves will move into the Australian Conference. The teams from Australia and South Africa that will compete in Super Rugby will be confirmed in due course by the respective National Unions.

New Zealand Conference

Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders, Hurricanes

Australian Conference

Four Australian teams (TBC), Sunwolves

South Africa Conference

Four South Africa teams (TBC), Jaguares

SANZAAR Chairman, Brent Impey stated, “The decision to revert to a 15-team format reflects a consensus view of the mandated SANZAAR Executive Committee that met in London recently. It was not the determination of any one Union or stakeholder and follows a thorough assessment and review of the tournament over the last nine months.”

“SANZAAR is delighted that its major broadcast partners have after due consideration agreed to the restructured format within the existing broadcast agreements. Our broadcast partners are an important stakeholder and their vision for Super Rugby moving forward is the same as ours.”

“This decision has not been an easy one and we recognise the difficulty associated with reducing the number of teams in Australia and South Africa. Naturally we understand that there will be some very disappointed franchises but the tournament's long-term future and the economic reality of the business at present is something that had to be addressed.”

“The decision to retain the Sunwolves is linked directly to SANZAAR’s strategic plan for the future. The potential for growth of the sport in Asia off the back of the establishment of the Sunwolves and the impending RWC in 2019  is significant. It remains an obvious focus for the organisation and a Japanese Super Rugby franchise is key to that strategy."

SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos stated, “This has been a long and complex piece of work and we make no apology for that. Super Rugby is unique in world rugby in that it is played in six countries across 15 time zones and has numerous stakeholders.”

“SANZAAR cannot continue to ignore the extensive feedback that it has received from fans, stakeholders and commercial partners around the integrity of the competition format and performances of the teams. We want to see an engaging, vibrant and competitive competition that delivers a strong high performance pathway in all markets that will have a positive flow into the international game.”

“It became clear during our strategic assessment that there are two facets to the future of our tournaments. The first is a requirement to react to existing market forces within the sporting business environment and to implement short-term change to Super Rugby. This is what we have done.” 

“The second is the longer term vision, through a strategic plan, to build the brand that in the future can maximize further development of the game, commercial revenues and the ongoing sustainability of the tournaments. This work is presently ongoing and details will be released in the coming months.”

Tournament details:

- 120 match regular season plus seven match finals series

- 15 teams

- Three conferences (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)

- 18 rounds (16 matches per team, two bye weeks)

- Each team will play eight matches within its conference (four home and four away)

- Each team will play eight cross-conference matches - against four of the five teams from each of the other two conferences (four at home and four away)

- Each team will play 12 of the other teams within the season (85% of opposition teams which is up from 70% in 2016).

- Eight team Finals Series: Three Conference winners and; five wild card places - the next best performing teams based on competition points after the Conference winners regardless of Conference.

- Conference winners and fourth-placed team on competition points will host quarter-finals.

 How can we be sure the idea is to scrap the Kings and Cheetahs - especially since the Kings is a political creation in the set-up and the removal of the Kings will be upsetting the ANC.

 So wait, the Kiwis get 5 teams?
Obviously on performance they deserve it but in terms of viewership is that wise?

 Plum
It is factual that NZ Rugby is subsidized massively by Sanzaar and that is why there are question marks on the issue raised by you.  

 NZ has always had 5 teams, since 1996. whats changed? Reports suggest Cheetahs and Kings are gone. 

Luke
Let me be clear - I have no problems with the 5 NZ teams - what are raising a question mark is that NZ rugby is heavily subsidized by SA institutions such as Supersport.  Without that subsidizing NZ Rugby would effectively be bankrupt. 
However, in essence  I support the suggested concept - but have reservations whether the ANC would allow for the scrapping of the Kings.   The problem with the Kings is that the Nelson Mandela Metro was raided by the ANC when they were in charge so as to help the Kings.   That crooked stealing of Metro money came to a stop after the opposition took control of that metro.  
Incidentally Cheeky Watson was charged with his involvement in the looting of Municipal finances.  

 The solution is to drop the Blues, Rebels and Kings. The Force, with its growing South  African population, should do better in years to come.The  Blues have flopped repeatedly in past years and of course the kiwi sides all play the same style of rugby so why watch the same thing 5 times over a weekend?The kiwis have no money so they must drop a team.Enough pandering to the cretins!!
As for ou JW comment  - JW haven't you leaned about TIME MANAGEMENT. Hence I played my tennis AND watched the game free of any fantastical comments by unhinged kbbs! What a pleasure!!

Ha ha Beeno, Cloudy's Blues will rise again & are better than many of the SA "teams". The only reason the Blues have struggled is they play in the NZ conference. If they had the schedule of the wee stormers they would be doing well.
Perhaps you better stick to tennis Beeno I am sure you will do well at that... one must remain optimistic

 Talk is that the "winners of the New Zealand, Australian and South African conferences will automatically qualify, followed by the five next-best teams, regardless of geography. That immediately injects an integrity that the 18-team competition has lacked."
So this will be fairer but the SA conference still looks weaker but while they enjoy playing with themselves & establishing an inflated win/loss record it will mean that some stronger teams in a tougher conference will be out as a consequence. Still it if fairer so good on them.

 Beanhead spluttering and stuttering to divert attention else where - tch tch tch - while at it the woeful sunwolves should be scrapped too. The Sunwolves are doing nothing to advertise rugby.