Derby deluge in new Super draw

The draw for next year’s revamped Super Rugby was released last night and with the reduction in the amount of teams, the format has been changed again.

This time the 18-team four-conference competition has been reduced to a 15-team, three-conference format.

Gone are South African sides the Southern Kings and Cheetahs, who have joined the European Pro14 competition, and Australian team the Western Force.

Next year each team will play 16 conference matches, with eight matches within their own conference home and away, then four matches against teams from each of the other two conferences. There are two byes each.

That means the five Kiwi sides the Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes - will play each other home and away in New Zealand derbies.

Japanese franchise the Sunwolves have joined the Australian conference and will play alongside the Brumbies, Rebels, Reds and Waratahs.

The South African conference will start the season on February 17 and is made up of the Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Stormers and Argentinian side the Jaguares.

The other two conferences start a week later. In the opening week the Highlanders host the Blues, the defending champion Crusaders host the Chiefs, and the Hurricanes are in Pretoria against the Bulls.

The Kiwi sides are yet to confirm venues for many of their games.

South African team and last year’s losing finalists the Lions, who didn’t play any New Zealand team during the regular season this year, will play all the Kiwi sides except the Chiefs next season.

The Lions and Crusaders will play a rematch of this year’s final in Johannesburg on April 1.

There will be 120 regular-season matches, then eight teams will qualify for the finals. The final is on August 4.