Wallabies great Michael Lynagh slams SANZAAR for Super Rugby mess
CHRISTY DORAN@christypdoran
Source: FOX SPORTS
FORMER Wallabies captain and respected rugby pundit Michael Lynagh has taken aim at Super Rugby’s governing body SANZAAR for announcing structural changes to the competition mid-season.
It’s now been a month since SANZAAR announced that Super Rugby would be cutting three of its franchises — two South African and one Australian — for 2018 and returning to a 15-team competition.
But the changes have proved more complicated than anticipated with the Rebels and Force — the two Australian franchises on the chopping block — digging their heels in and threatening legal action against the ARU.
SANZAAR officials will meet in Tokyo on Friday and the ARU will be asked to report on their culling progress.
The messy state of affairs has harmed the credibility of both Super Rugby and the ARU while the domination of New Zealand teams has exacerbated the competition’s problems.
In an interview with foxsports.com.au, London-based Lynagh — who with former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick analyses Super Rugby for Sky Sports each week — slammed SANZAAR for its lack of foresight and leadership in expanding to 18 teams in 2016.
“It was just wrong from the start,” said Lynagh, a 1991 Rugby World Cup winner and Australia’s all-time leading Test pointscorer.
“We’re all for expansion, but it just wasn’t ready and it was ill-thought out from the start.
“I get asked continually in the streets: ‘which team is going to be cut?’
“Nobody’s talking about how the competition is going except: ‘aren’t the New Zealand games great?’
“What we used to have with the Super 12 and Super 15 was a great competition.
“You’d play a home and away on a yearly basis.
“You’d play all the games very quick, a very good standard, you’d have a playoff and then a final and it was done in one go.
“Now you have a break for the international tour, and who knows what happens when you come back, and you’ve got this convoluted points scoring system — that nobody understands — where you don’t get the best teams in the finals.
“It’s just craziness.
“Then you have Japan, who couldn’t decide whether to give it to Tokyo or Singapore, so they (Sunwolves) play in both so their home games are spread across the two countries.
“It’s just ludicrous.
“How are they supposed to get home support going when they’re travelling every week?
“Then you have one South African conference that doesn’t play a New Zealand team and you have the Blues, who are last in the New Zealand conference, that play half their matches against New Zealand teams.
“I just find it bizarre that they’ve got to this stage.
“And now mid-season they’re deciding: ‘let’s change it.’
“They’ve sort of procrastinated over this decision when they could have made a decision in the off-season and done it then.
“I don’t understand it at all — it’s just such a mess that it’s been allowed to get to this.”
While Super Rugby is struggling — particularly in Australia and South Africa — the English Premiership is going from strength to strength.
Attendance numbers have increased by 10 per cent and TV audiences by 13 per cent, according to statistics revealed by Premiership Rugby this year.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wa...67d268745602dd