Saturday Dispatch Rethinking Super Rugby

THE sporting world has changed over the decades including in ways which do not always support professional sportsmen or women.

In a recent announcement, Sanzaar’s Andy Marinos stated that further expansion of the global competition which is Super Rugby had for the time being, been ruled out.

Sanzaar was conducting a “strategic review” of the competition’s current format amid complaints of punishing travel schedules that had affected team performances.

In yesterday’s Herald, rugby writer George Byron noted that next month the Southern Kings would be buckling up for the start of a travel marathon.

In the new season the Kings will make long-haul visits to three continents during an arduous campaign, clocking up the kilometres en route to Singapore, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Buenos Aires.

It will be an epic journey, even longer than the staggering 43 982km they travelled to play Super Rugby last year.

Remarkably, newcomers the Sunwolves from Japan travelled more than double that distance because of their geographical location.

They covered a whopping 90 605km to play their games.

This year, says Byron, it is estimated that the Sunwolves will cover 110 000km on their travels.

The Bulls were the most travelled South Africa team last year and ate up 61 518km on their travels to Singapore, Argentina and Australia.

Since its expansion last year, the competition takes place over 16 time zones and four continents, resulting not only in complaints of taxing travel times, but lopsided contests and a fragmented four-conference system which is seen as too complex.

Sanzaar introduced conferences in 2016 to allow Super Rugby’s expansion to 18 teams, including the Sunwolves, Argentina’s Jaguares and South Africa’s Kings.

But England coach Eddie Jones and former Bok legend and TV analyst Joel Stransky have both made it abundantly clear that they want the league slashed in size.

The human body can only tolerate so much, which gives a distinct advantage of those teams playing at home.

Time will tell whether Sanzaar can come up with the right answers, but change is certainly necessary if the pressure on players and management caused by excessive travel and a congested fixture list is to be eased.

While many players may see it as exciting and an honour to travel to various parts of the world to play their sport of choice, the reality is that Super Rugby’s current configuration is far from ideal, demanding more dedication and sacrifice than is humanly healthy.