A Super 14 expansion side of Australians, Argentinians and Pacific Islanders playing out of Melbourne could be key to getting the Pumas into the southern hemisphere’s elite competitions, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said on Friday.
ARU deputy chief executive Matt Carroll said Sanzar partners Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are looking at ways of ”refreshing” the Super 14 and Tri-Nations competitions ahead of a new Sanzar broadcast deal in 2010.
Carroll said he met officials from World Cup semifinalists Argentina, who sit on the sidelines of both the Six Nations and Tri-Nations, at the International Rugby Board conference in England earlier this month.
”Their initial solution was to play in Europe, but they’ve been rebuffed,” he told reporters. ”Does the Tri-Nations need freshening up? Yes, it does. Could Argentina provide that freshness? Quite possibly, yes. What have we got to do? Make sure that the Argentinians have their best players, so we’ve got to find a solution for that.
”You want Argentina to come into the Tri-Nations, you’ve got to get Argentinian players somehow, whether it’s with additional teams which could be the key, into the Super 14,” Carroll said. ”Then they’re playing at the same time as us and their players can be released to play for Argentina when we’re playing the Tri-Nations.
”I don’t think Australian rugby at the moment could tolerate an extra [Super 14] team out of our resources. Four teams seems to be where we’re at at the moment. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have other teams come into the competition.”
Carroll said that could mean some Australians, Argentinians and Pacific Islanders representing a new Melbourne franchise.
”There’s all sorts of opportunities there, so that’s where we’ve really got to start to open our minds to a few possibilities,” he said. ”Australians could be marquee players in other Super 14 teams, so you start to look at it competition wide as distinct from narrowly in your own backyard.”
A move to 16 teams, pool matches to reduce travel and a top five or six finals system will also be considered, Carroll said. — Sapa-AFP