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Thread: Kiwi 'derbies' under gun in Super Rugby revamp

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    Immortal Contributor The InnFORCEr's Avatar
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    Kiwi 'derbies' under gun in Super Rugby revamp

    MARC HINTON

    Last updated 05:00 12/02/2014


    As Super Rugby inches towards another radical makeover, New Zealand's senior players are leading a push to eliminate the popular double round of "derby" games.

    It's become abundantly clear to New Zealand's top players that their franchises are disadvantaged by having to play each other twice in matches that inevitably carry a high degree of commitment, physicality and intensity.

    Despite the fine record by New Zealand teams in the competition - they have won 12 of the 18 championships so far - the theory is that playing each other twice in effective All Black trials makes their road to finals football even harder.

    Counter-acting the players' less-is-best theory on meeting their mates on the field is the fact that the Kiwi 'derbies' are popular with the fans and inevitably produce a pretty high standard of rugby.

    Hurricanes and All Blacks utility back Cory Jane said at yesterday's Super Rugby season launch he isn't a fan of the format that sees the New Zealand teams all meet each other twice through the regular season.

    "I hate playing New Zealand teams twice - everyone knows each other, and everyone's out there to beat each other and get those bragging rights. That's hard," he said.

    New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew confirmed that message had come through from the players and was just one of a number of views being considered as Super Rugby works towards its next format post the end of the broadcasting deal in 2015.

    The Sanzar nations have to come up with a unified vision for the new competition by the end of June when they are due to present their new product to their existing broadcasting partners. Some key meetings take place over the next few weeks.

    "We're closer but not close enough to give you a definitive position," Tew said. "Will it look like the current competition? It's still too early to say. Our view is there's room for change and improvement and we're just working our way through that."

    But Tew did confirm the attrition of the New Zealand conference "derbies" had been flagged.

    "We've had a pretty consistent message from the players," he said. "Not surprisingly the fans love them. Some analysis the teams have done show we've probably migrated some of the fans away from other games and into those. We haven't actually increased the number of people watching - just moved their chairs. That's a bit of an issue."

    Tew said it was problematic enough to get agreement across the five franchises about what the new competition should look like, let alone the three countries.

    The South Africans are demanding a sixth team, the Australians want more games and New Zealand is looking to ease the demands on players. There may or may not be additional teams from Argentina, Japan and possibly even the Pacific Islands, and there are suggestions New Zealand and Australian could combine for an enlarged conference.

    It remains very much a work in progress.

    "In the end there will have to be compromise," Tew said. "We would like the new competition to be better than the current one, otherwise there's no point in doing it. We're really conscious of not asking our players to do more than we're already asking, and preferably a bit less. There are pressure points and the home 'derbies' is one of them."

    New Zealand was also not as rigidly opposed to having a sixth team as many believed.

    "There are people who think we could have another franchise. We haven't ruled anything out because we're going into negotiations and you don't want to rule anything out till that's complete.

    "The competition structure is just one part of it too. How the money is split up is really critical. You've got three parties wanting something out of a structure and if one does better than the others then there's going to have to be a conversation somewhere."

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/s...r-Rugby-revamp

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    Senior Player Herbasimplex's Avatar
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    Typical crybaby stuff from NZ rugby. It's not fair because we are so much harder and have to play each other more and the other franchises just play easybeat teams like the force and the lions. Boohoo.

    Why don't the kiwis pay for an enlarged playing roster to compensate for the 'harder' conference? Is it because they can hardly afford to pay for the players that they have?

    Love the comments at the end of the article stating that the split of the money is critical. Moneytalks. What the NZ's don't say is that the NZ conference generates the least amount of income. They should just shut-up and do as they are told.

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    Champion MI5_Dog's Avatar
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    Have south african threatened to leave super rugby and go it alone or play in europe yet?
    It's not a SANZAR meeting until the south africans threaten to quit, the new zealanders imply that super rugby wouldn't exist without them and since the all blacks are the best team to ever exist in any sport ever, that NZ should get 90% of the money
    and the australians demand more game.... Oh! that's happened already

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    Veteran Sheikh's Avatar
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    Well, if the kiwis want to play fewer games, and we want to play more, let that happen but tell the Kiwi teams they still only get 4 points for a win. We've a better chance of getting into the finals if we play double the number of games!

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    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    That whole article was just a thinly-veiled brag. NEXT!

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    Everyone should play each other once and top 6 teams play finals irrespective of which country they come from

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    Wests Scarborough 1st Grade juggernaut has played finals rugby each and every year since its inception and continues this remarkable feat yet again this season and unbelievably it's still rolling on and as an added little circle jerk for the masses Wests actually hold the record for the current longest unbroken finals record.

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    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    I think Pulver should appoint Rampaging Roy Slaven and H G Nelson to negotiate the new deal.

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    Immortal jargan83's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by westies man View Post
    Everyone should play each other once and top 6 teams play finals irrespective of which country they come from
    ^ this

    Also get rid of the conference system. Doesn't matter if the Saffers or Kiws get an extra side

    Throw in a bye or two and a top 6 finals set up with spots 1 and 2 with a week off and you have a comp that will run for 22ish weeks.

    Of course they won't go with that....

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    Last edited by jargan83; 12-02-14 at 21:15.

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    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by westies man View Post
    Everyone should play each other once and top 6 teams play finals irrespective of which country they come from
    I wish I could "thumbs up" this post more than just once.

    It's such a simple idea and allows for Argentina and an Asia-Pacific team into the comp. And let's bring back some place-names and geographic identity to the teams involved people!

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    Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!

    Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?

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