Super Rugby delays decision
IT IS yet to be determined whether Super Rugby will break new ground in Singapore or Japan as the competition plans to expand from 15 to 18 teams in 2016, to include Southern Kings.
SUPER Rugby’s newest participants will be unveiled only in November.
The competition, which will expand from 15 to 18 teams in 2016, will see the addition of the Southern Kings and a team from Buenos Aires, but it has yet to be determined whether new ground will be broken in Singapore or Japan.
The decision will be announced at a yet undisclosed venue in Europe when the Springboks, All Blacks and Wallabies are on their respective end-of-year tours.
SA, New Zealand and Australia Rugby (Sanzar) bosses will be there, too, and it spares them the considerable inconvenience of converging on a southern hemisphere destination to conclude their deliberations. Sanzar CE Greg Peters was not available to comment on an announcement date yesterday.
The announcement revealing the 18th franchise was supposed to be made next week but, as one rugby boss put it, “some loose ends need tying” and there is information that must be pored over.
Singapore seemed to occupy the inside lane through its relatively favourable location in relation to SA, as well as its backer, Eric Series’s, strong links with New Zealand rugby.
The team from Singapore or Japan will compete in the South African conference and local players who have forever lamented the time they spend away from home will naturally favour a shorter journey. They will face a 10-and-a-half hour direct flight to Singapore, which seems more palatable than a minimum 18-and-a-half-hour journey to Tokyo, which will involve a connecting flight from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Singapore or Hong Kong.
Travel time and time away from home are, however, separate matters.
The Kiwis may also have reason to look favourably upon the Singapore bid. Series has made considerable investment into the Chiefs franchise, while a company of which he is executive chairman has a sponsorship-promotional connection with the All Blacks.
Japan coach Eddie Jones, never shy to share strong convictions, recently urged Sanzar bosses not to yield to peripheral considerations. He said they should “take rugby growth centres and not artificial places”, suggesting the Japanese bid was the only logical choice.
In a newspaper column he said Japan has the world’s third-biggest economy, the fourth-biggest rugby-playing population and will host the 2019 World Cup. Moreover, earlier this year Jones guided Japan to 10 successive wins, moving them into the top 10 in the International Rugby Board world rankings for the first time.
On rugby grounds, Japan can make a compelling argument. But the team will, initially at least, find the going tough in the rough and tumble of Super Rugby. Singapore will pick a team from across the Pacific Islands that, in profile and size, may be a threat to existing franchises.
Jones grudgingly conceded that professional rugby is unfortunately all about making money, a sentiment that was shared yesterday by an official intimate with the bidding process.