Should be sorted out in the next day or so
Something should be here soon - http://www.pro12rugby.com/
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Should be sorted out in the next day or so
Something should be here soon - http://www.pro12rugby.com/
The sun will rise in the East tomorrow
Should be something here soon - http://www.meteorology.com.au/local-forecast/wa/perth
yeah, got it wrong
http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Super...urday-20170713
And the rumblings are now starting in the Northern Hemisphere with them possibly being forced into a conference type system with not all the teams playing each other home and away.......sound familiar
"Just when you thought it safe to start believing in the future of northern hemisphere rugby, along come the blazers with another hair-brained scheme.
No, we’re not talking about the plans to streamline future British & Irish Lions tour, nor Premiership Rugby’s desire to extend the season “in the interests of player welfare”. This one is even more maniacal.
The latest wheeze is a proposed expansion of the PRO12, with the Southern Kings and the Cheetahs set to accept an invite it join the competition from as early as September.
But don’t worry! Players will not have to spend half the season traversing the Sahara, nor will they expected to play more rugby. The revamp will see the league divided into two conferences of seven teams, with one South African side in each camp.
And it doesn’t end there. An American side could join from the 2018/19 season “as the competition continues to explore expansion options to generate more revenue and tap into new markets”.
Genius, right? Well, of course not. Even a part-time fan of our game could tell you why it is that the Kings and the Cheetahs find themselves at a loose end, and that’s because Super Rugby has decided to shape up by cutting some of the dead wood.
So how could expansion work north of the equator after having failed so miserably in the south?
And how does fewer home games square with the fans and the finances of existing sides?
And how much real benefit will the new South African TV deal bring? Won’t the reported (and pretty paltry) extra £11 million be swallowed by airfares alone?
And why would South Africans tune in to watch the PRO14 after it has been framed, by pure design, as secondary to Super Rugby?
And what’s the logic behind doing away with traditional/ancient home-and-away derbies by separating sides into conferences? (As it stands, Munster, the Scarlets and the Blues will be in one group, Leinster, the Ospreys and the Dragons in the other.)
And what if the South African sides win qualification for European competition? Could the Cheetahs of Bloemfontein really become champions of Europe?
Yes, we’re living in the Age of Stupid, but surely that’s just one step too far."
Planet Rugby
Two conferences might work quite nicely though. If a true conference system is implemented, that would mean that each conference would have a complete finals series and select a winner, who will play the winner of the other conference in a grand final.
More finals matches, more teams, more product to market.
It needn't even cancel the home and away derbies that some teams love so much.....in a genuine conference system, each conference is responsible for whatever the hell they want. One conference could decide to play twice as many games as the other.....no impact, because they only have one grand final spot.
The issue is not that conferences is a bad idea, it's a great idea that has been implemented so badly, that we're not doing conferences at all in Super Rugby, we're doing some half-assed semi round robin with a bit of trickery to make sure that 2 south african teams are guaranteed a place in the finals rather than one.
Announced today
https://www.ofm.co.za/article/rugby/...ined.gbpl.gbpl
So does-
It is believed that one of the conditions is that the two South African teams must commit to continue to strengthen their sides, in order to up hold integrity of the competition and to remain competitive.
-Mean that the South Africans will stack these teams with some better players from the other teams? I am sure this will be watched closely and if so will clearly state the future of where South Africa see themselves.
or does it just mean that we don't want it to appear that we can take teams that have been assessed as not up to the standard of Southern Hemisphere rugby and expect them to do OK in our comp.
I'm sure that the press releases praising the improvement in <insert Kings or Cheetahs name here>'s performance when they make (or win) the finals series, regardless of whether there has been any change in their roster or capability.
Just been chatting with my dad back in the UK and he'd heard a couple of nuggets about the Pro 14:
- Not everything is rosy in Italian rugby. Zebre haven't paid their players for the last couple of weeks* and Italian Rugby are considering stepping in and taking over.
- Scotland has identified that they have a problem with players having to make the step up from amateur rugby to Pro 12 level with Glasgow and Edinburgh (sounds familiar!) so they are intending to install a semi-pro league between club rugby and Pro 12. I don't know if this means that the top level of club rugby (clubs like Hawick, Melrose, Stirling, Heriot's, etc) becomes semi-pro, or there will be a new level created (like the NRC). I have noted that some of the old powerhouses of Scottish rugby like Selkirk and Edinburgh Academicals are now plying their trade in the 3rd tier of Scottish rugby. How the once mighty have fallen!
* Edit: sorry, the last couple of months!
http://www.punditarena.com/rugby/sok...uropean-rugby/
"Two More South African Sides Want To Join European Rugby
The expanded Pro14 league has not even begun yet, and already two more South African sides might be looking to join the party.
The Times are reporting that the Lions from Johannesburg and the Sharks from Durban, two sides currently competing in Super Rugby, have written to the South African Rugby Union to ascertain whether or not they would be able to compete in Europe to follow the example set by the Cheetahs and Southern Kings.
How hard they end up pushing would ultimately depend on the success of the two sides already in Pro14, but regardless of that it would be highly unlikely that the governing body of that competition would vote to expand it even further in the near future."
More at the link
I honestly think that Super Rugby will be dead in the water by the end of 2020. We are starting to see the death throes now.
We saw the death knell when they went to 18 teams and four conferences, TWO in Seth Efrikor to appease the Saffers.
What's the bet that saru makes an official statement indicating that the 4 teams are totally committed to super rugby whilst simultaneously negotiating with the pro rugby (remember, that's what they did when they tried to get super 15 to grow unreasonably) crew to expand and secure all 6 of their teams.
I also suspect they'll try and bully their way in and guarantee themselves at Least one finals spot.
Sh rugby will be better off without them throwing their weight around thoughtlessly
I guess there isn't really anything stopping one of the stronger SA franchises having a team in both?