Where is Super Rugby Going

When discussions on this site take place - our NZ members always blame the SARU for the expansion to 18 teams this year.   However, is that really so?  The following from news24 paints a rather different picture:-

Further expansion of Super Rugby is inevitable, according to New Zealand rugby boss Steve Tew, despite the current model being criticised as unwieldy and difficult to follow.

The southern hemisphere championship has grown from 12 sides from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in 1996 to 18 teams this year when it spread to Japan and Argentina.

But Tew, the New Zealand Rugby chief executive, said the competition will have to grow more if it is to survive.

"If we want to play professional rugby, we can't just play ourselves -- we will go out of business very quickly," he told Radio Sport on Thursday from London, where he is attending a meeting of World Rugby.

"When we go to the next set of broadcasting deals we've got to be sure we've got a footprint in South America, that we've got a footprint in Asia, and possibly other markets or we will go bust, because we continue to compete against the clubs up here."

But from 2011 there has been a conference system which this year has grown to four conferences, with the winners guaranteed the top four places in an eight-team play-off.

Although four New Zealand teams top the overall points tally, because of the conference system they are currently ranked first, fifth, sixth and seventh.

One of the harshest critics of expansion has been former Australia coach Eddie Jones, who is now at the helm of England.

"I watch most of the (Super Rugby) games but some of the games put me to sleep," he said recently.

"I don't think the standard's great this year. Having 18 teams in the competition, it's really dropped the standards."

Prominent New Zealand rugby columnist Phil Gifford said Super Rugby "has now been diluted and complicated".

"New Zealand players smash each other to bits while the two South African-dominated conference teams, for example, can enjoy the luxury of cruising ahead of mediocre teams," he said.

The new teams this year - Sunwolves (Japan), Jaguares (Argentina) and Southern Kings (South Africa) - have been placed in the two Africa conferences and between them have won just four of 27 games, with the Kings conceding on average 46 points per game. 

However, Tew said while the conference structure was complex and not perfect, it did lay a foundation for the future.

"We've set this conference structure up so that future expansion will be possible and more sensible in terms of travel and workload, but we've got to break into new markets," he said."

The issue that is pertinent as well - as not quoted by Tew is that rugby - especially in New Zealand will financially go bust if the Super rugby income (most of which coming from SA) is not maintained and expanded.  

What is clear from the above comments are that the drivers of the new system is not only SARU - but also the NZ rugby authorities.   

   

 Where is it going?
Just like the excellent men who organize it: where the resources are.

Simple as that. As the resources are getting busted locally, it must extend the range, reaching out further and further.

The matter of the play level is actually a non matter.

What matters the most for the excellent men is they keep destroying.

One direction could be  stopping professional rugby as it is like anything started by the excellent men, a drain on resources.

This direction wont be taken as it works against the excellent men's goal, that is destruction.

The matter is not playing brilliant rugby, the matter is about keeping to play rugby so that the destruction attached to the activity of rugby keeps going on.

That is why SH rugby will extend the range of resource gathering.
If they do not, the activity of rugby will be destroyed sooner than later. As a consequence of the excellent men's efforts.

Less and less resources to be destroyed, less and less teams required to destroy the depleting resources until the point the activity of rugby collapses on itself.

As usual, the hope for excellent men come from all the people who do not practise rugby, especially if they sit on resources. The excellent men will work their way to seize those resources, allocate them to rugby and burn them in the process.

The bad news is cultural contamination as some others 've joined the party and want to burn resources by playing professional rugby.

As some point, the Japanese, the Argentineans might have a claim to get more of their own teams. Then the Chinese etc

Who could have thought that people who want to find partners to play rugby would have to bear as long as a travel than SA to Japan?

Resources are so lacking now that people have to endure that kind of travel.

One achievement by the excellent men.

 I read your comments and what you write is totally incomprehensible.  You bleat about diminishing resources as a result of the "excellent men".  That kind of thinking is seriously unscientific and sounds deeply controversial.  

 Unscientific? Controversial?

If that was controversial, the excellent men would make TV shows off that topic. They dont. Must be living in a different world not to have noticed that the excellent men favour controversy because it sells and foster consumption.
It is everything but controversial.

As to being unscientific, that summons science for nothing. Simple arithmetics (minuses and minuses)