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yep,they qualify
If you were to base the teams around the rumours in that article you would assume the following teams in next years WSR tournament:
Force
Panasonic Wild Knights
Unknown Japanese side
Hong Kong
Singapore
Crusaders
Possibly Fiji/ Tonga/ or Samoa
Australian side aka. Western Sydney
That makes 8, it starting to become alot clearer with the various articles touching on the rumored teams. I guess we will see how close to the mark the above teams ends up being in next years World Series Rugby
Crusaders would have to break out of Super Rugby which their union is tied to till 2020.
With the depth the CRFU has access too they could quite easily field two teams simultaneously. They could even use their Canterbury ITM cup team coach or any one of the other provinces that fall inside the Crusaders catchment. Or even anyone from NZL as there isnt usually any rugby running in NZL that time of year. I think it is quite plausible that the Crusaders could quite easily field two sides and potentially still win both comps with the depth they have access too in their region so I wouldnt rule it out too quickly.
The only way they can do it is through the Canterbury ITM Cup side. With the Crusaders Canterbury and Tasman have an agreement to field a team in Super Rugby.
It doesn't appear that WSR would be highly prescriptive about how teams are run, so IMO the most likely NZ involvement would be for the team to comprise all of the common player pool from which SR teams take injury cover. It could easily be run by the Crusaders, either directly or indirectly, condoned by the NZRU to keep the players under the same development umbrella, and still supplying players up to SR when required. Given the alternative might well be all those players all shooting through to WSR anyway, surely better to keep them under their control and still underpinning SR than losing their one big advantage over the other countries.
Certainly wouldn't have thought there would be any reason "The Crusaders" couldn't be playing in both competitions. I doubt there is anything that ties them uniquely to SR, any more than Top14 teams have to change names for different competitions.
With the Pro 14 the Toyota Cheetahs are a separate entity to the Free State Cheetahs Currie Cup side even though the Cheetahs aren't aligned with Griquas (they are now tied to the Bulls) or any other union. Same with the Kings the Southern Kings and the EP Kings are separate.
And the Force is apparently going to be the Force in both WSR and the NRC. The Cheetahs and Kings were different when they were in SR and CC, then just moved to Pro14. Probably no reason they had to be, just the way it happened.
That said, I hope they wouldn't be the Crusaders in WSR, or North Harbour or Taranaki for that matter. It all comes with baggage WSR doesn't need.
The Cheetahs and Kings Super Rugby now Pro 14 teams are run by separate organisations in comparison to the Currie Cup teams.
So by extension, if two teams in different competitions were run by exactly the same organisation (even if that entity happened to be a JV).....?
There is nothing that says a WSR team would have to be run at an ITMC level. It could be run by anyone, including an existing rugby franchise if they were interested and got the nod from the NZRU. As I say, I hope they go a different way, but if there was one team with the organisation and culture you'd be confident could manage it...
Great at the Breakfast this morning with Honey Badger & some other guys! Hilarious boy! Interesting comment by Robbie Deans re the Bled game when asked what he thought Wallabies chances...” well when you put a player like Damien Mckenzie on the bench, what does that say?” I thought that remark says it all. BTW he accepted all of our roses!
Game on!