Downsize just right for Super fans
Earlier this year a New Zealand rugby fan received an email from a representative from Sanzaar, which he duly forwarded to Stuff.
It wasn’t a love letter. The fan had criticised the Super Rugby format, stating the competition’s conference structure and points system were difficult to interpret and clumsy. Essentially, he felt Sanzaar was doing the game’s supporters a disservice.
The reply from Sanzaar came from a generic email address, and was unsigned. While the identity of the feisty author remains a mystery, the message he or she delivered was less ambiguous.
Criticism of the Super Rugby format was unfair, was the response. The unions who are the partners of Sanzaar dictate how the tournament works, they have chosen 15 teams, and it’s the only way to fit a professional tournament into a limited window of 21 weeks.
There was plenty more. Super Rugby exists to provide a stepping stone into test rugby, with each of the unions having a different view and therefore making different demands, and Sanzaar was working hard with the unions to understand what the future looks like and how the format could be tailored to everyone’s needs.
The email ended with this statement: ‘‘To date attendance numbers and TV audience are up this year, so fans are not unanimous with their dislike of the tournament as you state.’’
It would be disingenuous to doubt the sincerity of those statements from a Sanzaar employee who clearly believes his company is doing the best job possible in terms of moulding teams from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Japan into a single format.
Yet it still isn’t good enough. That’s why All Blacks captain Kieran Read, speaking to media during the Super Rugby season, said he preferred a pure roundrobin format. It’s why Chiefs coach Colin Cooper said the administrators need to review the structure and remove the number of derby games to prevent players getting hammered and ending up on the injury list.
Now for the good news. Sanzaar is now reportedly considering several new models, including a return to a 14-team competition and the eradication of the unpopular conference system, from 2021.
A ‘pure’ round-robin format seems unlikely; given the competition has to sit inside a 22-week window, a modified structure will be required. But erasing the conference system will at least remove a lot of the confusion, and also mean the New Zealand teams won’t have to rip each other apart in so many derby games.
The news for the Tokyo-based Sunwolves might not be bright. It seems they are likely to be at the top of the endangered list if the 14-team competition is ratified.
The Japan Rugby Union is expected to argue against chopping the Sunwolves, with the removal of the team doing nothing to assist in the development of local talent.
If Sanzaar has tabled the concept of Super Rugby returning to a 14-team competition for the first time since 2010, it should be welcomed. The idea might still be at the embryo stage. Fine. Let it grow. Customer satisfaction might not be guaranteed but it could be a step in the right direction.