PRO14 CHIEF SURE EXPANSION WILL PAY OFF

EXPANDING the Guinness Pro14 to take in two South African sides is a risk worth taking, according to the tournament’s chief executive. Martin Anayi said he had learned the lessons of Super Rugby — the southern hemisphere competition which has downsized after acknowledging problems with its expanded format — and was confident the upsized Pro14 would not suffer the same issues. The two South African casualties of Super Rugby’s rationalisation — the Bloemfontein-based Cheetahs and Port Elizabeth’s Southern Kings — are now joining Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian sides in a new-look Pro14. As well as the additional teams, the competition will now be divided into a conference format, rather than a more familiar single league structure. At an official launch event to mark the new season, Mr Anayi said the time zone issue that had presented problems for Super Rugby would not be a factor for the Pro14. ‘I watched Super Rugby from the start, that is the thing that got me into rugby personally, so it’s great tournament,’ he said. ‘Some of the areas that we looked at in our due diligence was to say: “Well, what hasn’t maybe worked so well and why are they going from 18 back to 15 (teams)”. ‘One of those is travel, actually, and time zones. Broadcasters and fans cannot get up to watch the games because they are across 18 different time zones, that’s one thing we have been very aware of when we have tried to expand, looked to expansion. ‘South Africa is one or two hours from a time-zone point of view — it’s an overnight flight — so we have looked at all of those things. ‘In my position, you have to look at risk first actually and then you have to build a case why risk is something you should take on. ‘And we absolutely looked at that and said across the board that an expansion has to work from a player welfare point of view, it has to work from a conference or a format point of view, it has to work so that the teams coming in are going to more competitive than the teams we have got, and has to work commercially — and South Africa does that for us.’ Rory Duncan, director of rugby at the Toyota Cheetahs, said his players were excited by the challenge. ‘It is something that the South African support base has been asking for for years,’ he said. ‘Something the players have been asking for quite some time as well. ‘Everyone wants to know how we compare to the teams up north — now they have got an opportunity to see what they can do. ‘It’s not just a case of playing games away, we have obviously got half our games at home and we are really looking forward to seeing the teams come and play in Bloemfontein at altitude in the summer.’