The Super 14 series kicks off this weekend without some of the sport’s biggest names after they were ordered to save themselves for the 2007 World Cup.
New Zealand have blocked their leading 22 players from appearing in the first seven rounds of the competition to undergo ”conditioning” while Australia and South Africa will almost certainly rest key performers throughout the series.
The move has upset Super 14 coaches as well as fans and television broadcasters, but the chief instigators remain defiant, insisting the absence of top players would not ruin the competition.
”I don’t think it’s going to devalue the competition at all,” All Blacks coach Graham Henry told the New Zealand Press Association.
”I think it’s a marvellous opportunity for 22 players who haven’t played before and I think we will see a lot of new faces emerge this year.”
Although Australia and South Africa stopped short of banning their best players from the Super 14, they have made it perfectly clear to the provincial teams about where their priorities should lie.
”The Wallabies want the players in the best possible condition for the World Cup,” Australia coach John Connolly wrote in a recent newspaper column.
But while the issue may have overshadowed the build-up to the competition, it has also added an element of surprise to the tournament.
New Zealand teams have dominated the Super 14 and old Super 12, winning nine of the 11 seasons played so far, but will be the most effected by player absentees.
The Canterbury Crusaders, champions six times including the past two seasons, will be the hardest hit with seven players unavailable, including All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw and flyhalf Dan Carter.
Still favourites
The Crusaders are still favourites to win because their top players will be back for the second half of the competition, while their New Zealand neighbours Auckland and Wellington and Australia’s ACT Brumbies and New South Wales are looming as their main threats.
Auckland have won the competition three times and the Brumbies twice while New South Wales and Wellington were finalists the past two seasons.
No South African team has ever won the title, although the Bulls were semi-finalists in each of the past two seasons and could be among the main beneficiaries if New Zealand’s teams falter without their stars.
Two new teams were added to the Super 12 format last year, the Central Cheetahs from South Africa and Australia’s Western Force, and there was almost a new team this year.
The South African Rugby Union had planned to relegate their worst-placed team at the end of the season and replace them with the Southern Spears but the plan fell through after a long and bitter process that ended up in the courts.
The tournament kicks off on Friday when Auckland host Canterbury at Eden Park, the Western Force meet Otago in Perth and the Lions, who were formerly known as the Cats, play New South Wales in Johannesburg.
There are two South African derbies on Saturday, with the Sharks playing the Bulls in Durban and the Cheetahs tackling the Stormers in Bloemfontein after Waikato host the ACT Brumbies in Hamilton and Wellington travel to Brisbane to meet Queensland. — Reuters