rugby union

SANZAR decides on preferred Super rugby expansion

5 Comments

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5 Comments
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Good news for Australia, bad news for rugby. Why stop at 15 teams and create a bye each week. Would have liked to have seen SANZAR being more proactive. Argentina could have put a reasonably competitive team on the field. Japan would have also been a option in terms of increasing the visibility of rugby in Japan (and bringing in Japanese sponsorship money). The Fijians would have also been reasonably competitive.

On the other hand, keeping a purely Trinations format seems to be a bit xenophobic. Moreover, with the Western Force experiment (the team in Western Australia) having a number of growing pains, I question whether Australia should be expanding to 5 teams.

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Timor the point of having 5 teams in each country was to lesson travel time. Flights to Argentina wouldn't really be feasible, Japan for that matter. The Western Force is now probably the second most attended franchise in Aussie. The are doing alright. A franchise in Melbourne will do pretty well but they will need to get some slavs playing rugby.

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I would rather they had axed 1 team from NZ and SA who can barely field 5 competitive teams and included a Japan team, Pacific Island team and Americas team.

Spudman,

Its easier to fly to Japan than to SA mate, and from South Africa to Argentina or to Los Angeles is the same as Auckland to Perth.

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Bob, me old cobber fly to Japan for 1 game or to SA for multiple games, which is easier or makes more sense? Sure the game needs to expand but the super 14 franchise has got a good thing going and the Aussies can if they have the inclination field a pacific team based in Sydney made up with a large proportion of Islanders Japanese and Americans.

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actually i think that rugby really struggles in perth. I dont see them ever being competitive. remember the perth reds from the nrl? they didnt last long. they should look at bringing in more teams from nz. thats where the fans are.

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