The New Rugby Format

So Sanzaar announced that they will be cutting some teams to the detriment of SA. I always believe that at present in our current rugby climate that we are not strong enough to have 6 teams and that our weaker teams were just giving points away.
However, they have gone back to the old format and stuck with the dumb conference system and kept both Argetina and Japan in the competition. Both teams are pretty much playing their national team. 
Then you have the travel too. SA teams will have play more games on the the road then ever before. With only 4 teams in SA it means our teams will never be able to perform at the best level. 
It is an 11 hour flight from auckland to Argentina with another 7 hour flight to Joburg. We got completely screwed. 
If they had a proper relegation system in place before the new expansion at least 2 Kiwi teams would have gotten the chop. 
Don't get me wrong, I love the old super 12 and even super 14 but it looks like SA rugby is fighting a losing battle and we need to go north. 

I am not sure that the North would take us. 
They have short flights like 1-3 hours in duration between euro stadiums- and suddenly all the North teams would need to play in SA which is 13 hours. 
It is interesting that Sanzaar has not decided which teams will be terminated- but instead left this to the national unions. 
ARU is potentially going to get sued. I think they will keep the force- and Bin the Rebels without a cause. 
In South Africa- we will have the usual political shenanigans. Some will want the Kings- others will want all SA teams to be terminated ( like the traditionalist).

 The NH competition last through the SA summer and the players will never ever get enough time off.   It is just impossible and will entail even more travelling than at present.   If you refer to the European Champions Cup, each team play 4 games spread over three months followed by the quarters, semis and final.   It will have no real coverage and Supersport will not show them as they would have to by the games from the NH television services.
In between the teams played local rugby competitions.   You cant have SA teams playing that little rugby over a year and hope to retain interest by the public. 
Really a hopeless suggestion I am afraid. 




    

 others will want all SA teams to be terminated ( like the traditionalist).

Who achieved this conclusion in SA?

People in SA, especially the ANC, are busy with trying to get as many SA rugby teams in SR.

Once again, a simple solution:

Axe no AU team
Axe three SA teams (those with the most non white people)
Send the money allocated previously to these three teams to support AU teams (as conform to the SA record of funnelling away resources to sustain welfare elsewhere)

Everyone is happy.

 On Q. Gaan (insert profanity here)

 Agree with Mike that the format of the North play their games might not suite and that the travelling might be a factor. 
However, they are talking about introducing a global calendar in 2020 which means that their may be a window. 
I also see your point and being exposed to the culture of club rugby over here. It means that teams play cup competitions in between internationals but still have their main leagues interwoven. The pretty much play 3 competitions within one season. 
That said, I know for a fact that something like the Anglo Welsh cup is more valuable to the clubs then their normal league and champions cup games as it bring additional revenue. The question is, would we not be better playing 10 games against norther hemisphere teams and promote our currie cup and get that stronger again. 

 My point is that South African interest is no longer looked after and we have become extremely week in terms of a bargaining position. 
We shot ourselves sin the foot with the queen dabble, but maybe we should just do a promotion and relegation of our teams. 
The lions managed to survive a season in the wilderness and look how good it forced them to become. 
Right now our worst teams are the the bulls and kings, but imagine the bulls being dropped, they still have the currie cup and will have to find matches, like the lions did to keep them going through the year, but that means the can join smaller european comps but then have another play-off game against the worst SA team to gain promotion. 
It seem to work and I don't see why not. In theory we would have 3 way play-off of which of the 3 franchises should get the fourth spot. 

I don't see why we have to nominate 4 permanent franchises . . . just have a promotion/relegation system based on Currie Cup performan ce. The Currie Cup semi-finalists become next season's Super Rugby representatives. Finish and klaar.

 Rooi, that would be ideal, but unfortunately it will get too complicated to work out sponsorships and budget. A second division of Super rugby might fix that.

Why would it be so difficult? 
Just as a comparitive example, the European football clubs don't know for sure if they will be playing in the Champions League or not every season and they don't seem to have a big problem with budgets or sponsorships?

Relegation rejuvenated the Lions. It works. Gets rid of the dead wood, punishes losers and rewards winners as it should be. Get rid of the entitlement and the apathy will disappear.

 As  far as I can make out from the SARU drivel there are a number of factors here that would influence the decision.   Those are inter alia -
*    The financial viability of the franchises bearing in mind that they actually want to sell 74,5% of those to he private sector - the Bulls actually want to sell 100% -but that has not been approved yet.   The set-up is complicated -  we know that a Remgro subsidiary is buying into the Stormers/WP set-up and that Emirates airline has an interest in the Lions.   That leaves two other franchises to find "Buyers".   The Bulls apparently has a buyer - but the buyer is only interested in a 100% share.   That leaves another franchise - hopefully the Sharks - but nothing has yet reached the public domain.   Remember that it is only about money - nothing else.
*    The second is attendance of games - ie ticket sales
*    the third issue is what will Supersport prefer - remember they are the chief  financial contributor to the whole tournament.   They are owned in the main by Naspers - which in terms have huge financial links with Remgro.
*    The fourth issue is that there will be some replica of the NZ system introduced - namely to identify circa 245 player that will the be allocated to get stronger teams - where  teams have a deficiency it will be filled up by players from this list.  This may be complicated as  the privately owned franchises may be very reluctant to take part in such a complicated system.    They may want their own players and may be reluctant to take on leftovers.
That is perhaps the reason why the decision will be so complicated.    There are to be consultations with "outsiders" as well.   These consultations are likely to be completed in the next 14 days after which the next meeting on the issue is to be held.   So we will have to wit another three weeks or so before the final decision will be made known.
I think the teams falling by the wayside are the Kings and the Cheetahs.   However, the Bulls clearly have financial problems as well - but that may not directly impacted if they can sell shares in the franchise. 
I am afraid that a play-off system will not be considered - it will run counter to the private sector interests.         

 As  far as I can make out from the SARU drivel there are a number of factors here that would influence the decision.   Those are inter alia -
*    The financial viability of the franchises bearing in mind that they actually want to sell 74,5% of those to he private sector - the Bulls actually want to sell 100% -but that has not been approved yet.   The set-up is complicated -  we know that a Remgro subsidiary is buying into the Stormers/WP set-up and that Emirates airline has an interest in the Lions.   That leaves two other franchises to find "Buyers".   The Bulls apparently has a buyer - but the buyer is only interested in a 100% share.   That leaves another franchise - hopefully the Sharks - but nothing has yet reached the public domain.   Remember that it is only about money - nothing else.
*    The second is attendance of games - ie ticket sales
*    the third issue is what will Supersport prefer - remember they are the chief  financial contributor to the whole tournament.   They are owned in the main by Naspers - which in terms have huge financial links with Remgro.
*    The fourth issue is that there will be some replica of the NZ system introduced - namely to identify circa 245 player that will the be allocated to get stronger teams - where  teams have a deficiency it will be filled up by players from this list.  This may be complicated as  the privately owned franchises may be very reluctant to take part in such a complicated system.    They may want their own players and may be reluctant to take on leftovers.
That is perhaps the reason why the decision will be so complicated.    There are to be consultations with "outsiders" as well.   These consultations are likely to be completed in the next 14 days after which the next meeting on the issue is to be held.   So we will have to wit another three weeks or so before the final decision will be made known.
I think the teams falling by the wayside are the Kings and the Cheetahs.   However, the Bulls clearly have financial problems as well - but that may not directly impacted if they can sell shares in the franchise. 
I am afraid that a play-off system will not be considered - it will run counter to the private sector interests.         

 Rooi. For a proper SR squad, you need a squad bigger by at least 25% than CC. Players are contracted with 2 to 3 year contracts. If you lose the extra revenue from SR, you won't be able to pay your players. It takes at least 3 years to get a proper SR squad together. There are ways to do it though, but that won't be up to the franchises alone, the whole structure of our rugby needs to change and the imbeciles running the game locally won't be able to do it.