We’re not the villains says Tew

New Zealand Rugby are adamant they’re not the bad guys in the Super Rugby revamp that will see three teams from South Africa and Australia cut loose for the 2018 season and beyond.

Some media outlets in both Australia and South Africa have portrayed New Zealand as the driver for change in Super Rugby’s first major retrenchment that will see the competition reduced from its current four-conference, 18-team format to 15 teams spread over three conferences from 2018.

That will see one team from Australia (either the Force or Rebels) and two from South Africa (the Kings and Cheetahs are considered leading contenders) shed to make way for a reduced competition that officials are confident will increase the level of play, general competitiveness and overall fan engagement.

NZ Rugby chief executive Steve Tew had a sharp response yesterday when asked if his organisation was the villain in a process that will see a large number of players, coaches and management lose out on professional opportunities in both Australia and South Africa.

‘‘That’s crap,’’ Tew told Fairfax Media yesterday in the wake of Sunday night’s blood-on-the-floor announcement.

‘‘This has been a Sanzaar decision.

‘‘We’ve made a very considered, long-thought-through and basedon-fact decision as a joint venture. It’s not a decision driven by New Zealand at all, and if you look at the information coming out of South Africa from their union I’m sure they’ll attest to that.

‘‘We’re all in this together. We’ve been going for 20 years. There’s no way one country is going to dominate a decision like this. That’s pretty flawed thinking.’’

Tew said it had been a difficult decision for all countries involved in the joint venture to make, but ‘‘ultimately the numbers were speaking for themselves.

‘‘We’ve got a decline in Australia and in South Africa and we needed to make some changes. So going back to the three-conference, 15-team setup we think is the best thing, and we’ve tweaked the finals series to make it a little bit fairer in terms of the best teams having the best chance to get through to the final.’’

The NZR boss said there was no significant downside in the new format from a New Zealand perspective, but stressed the axing of teams had not been taken lightly.

‘‘The reality here is this has not been easy for anyone.

‘‘We’re incredibly sympathetic and grateful to our colleagues in Australia and South Africa who are going to go through a very difficult decision {on which teams are culled].’’

Tew said that fans across all countries had sent a clear message on the product as it currently stood.

‘‘We needed to make a change. Both South Africa and Australia recognised they’re probably struggling for the depth of player to sustain the number of teams they had and made a big call. That’s very courageous, and good luck to them.’’