Force or Rebels will be culled from Super Rugby

THE Western Force or Melbourne Rebels will be axed from Super Rugby for next season after the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announced yesterday that the twice former champion ACT Brumbies had been removed from the process.

The decision over which team will be culled would be announced over the next three days, ARU chairman Cameron Clyne told a news conference in Sydney.

The New South Wales Waratahs and Queensland Reds represent the heartland states of Australian rugby union and their continued participation was never in doubt.

“The board made the decision to eliminate the Brumbies from the process and identified that consultation is required with both the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels to further understand their financial position,” he said. “We don’t anticipate this final consultation period being a drawn-out process and expect to be able to deliver an outcome in the very near future.”

Governing body Sanzaar on Sunday said three teams, one from Australia and two from South Africa, would be axed from Super Rugby as the mainly southern hemisphere competition reverts to 15 teams for next season.

The cuts come against the backdrop of falling revenues and fan interest after the expansion to 18 teams last year following the addition of Argentina’s Jaguares and Japan’s Sunwolves as well as the return of the Kings in South Africa.

Clyne opened the news conference by clarifying that it was the ARU not Sanzaar who had decided that one of Australia’s five teams should be cut. “Super Rugby has placed an increasingly heavy burden on the ARU business in recent years and the acceleration of revenue declines in our Super Rugby businesses has placed the game under extreme financial pressure,” he said.

“The additional funding provided by the ARU to offset Super Rugby losses has severely limited our capacity to invest further in our grassroots and high performance areas such as player and coach development.”

While the Brumbies, Super Rugby champions in 2001 and 2004, welcomed the decision to remove them from the elimination process, the path ahead for the ARU is far from smooth.

They must either cut the privately-owned Rebels or abandon the 12-year-old project to develop the game in Western Australia by culling the Force.

Force chief Mark Sinderberry told a news conference in Perth he thought the ARU’s timeframe was unrealistic and hoped the criteria for the decision would not be purely financial.

“What the ARU have got to do is make the decision for the right reasons, and that’s a combination of financial and what we’re doing in the community,” he said.

“We will always believe that rugby is national and it’s got to be represented that way.”

The Rebels said it was business as usual at the club, even if they were disappointed by the prolonged decision-making process. – Reuters