In a week in which the Super 14 play-off positions will be decided in the final round of fixtures, southern hemisphere rugby bosses head to Dublin where they will attempt to resolve the competition’s future.
Seven sides remain in contention for the play-offs, with the last round robin match between the Bulls and Sharks in Durban likely to determine the semifinalists.
Off the field, however, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand rugby (Sanzar) administrators have been engaged in a game of brinkmanship that many are hoping will be settled, one way or another, at an International Rugby Board meeting this week.
Sanzar have been attempting to iron out an agreement on the future of an expanded Super rugby competition to begin in 2011 for at least a year and time is fast running out.
They have until June 30 to present broadcasters with a proposal for a new competition and television contract that provides the bulk of the revenue for professional rugby in the three countries and have so far failed to reach an agreement.
As such, Australia and New Zealand said they had developed a contingency plan that would see them go it alone with the intent to eventually expand a trans-Tasman competition into Japan and the Pacific Islands.
While both NZRU chief executive Steve Tew and ARU managing director John O’Neill have said it was their preference to continue a Super rugby format with South Africa, the fact that plans are so advanced indicates their willingness to walk away.
Local media have also begun to jump on the bandwagon, believing the Super rugby format has become stale and that something needs to be done to reinvigorate the tournament.
Timing issue
At issue is the timing of the competition, with South Africa refusing to move from the current early February start in order to protect their domestic Currie Cup competition later in the year.
The Australasians, however, want the competition to begin in March allowing their cricket seasons to end and giving the Test players a longer break from end-of-year tours to Europe. A conference-based system is also preferred, allowing for more local derbies and for the competition to extend to 22 weeks into August, which would clash with the Currie Cup and New Zealand’s domestic provincial tournaments.
Speculation is rife that South Africa are prepared to throw their lot in with European competitions and while flights to and from Europe would still be 12 hours, the similar time zones are more beneficial to players and television audiences.
Where to place the South Africans in a congested European calendar, however, would create a dilemma for northern administrators and O’Neill told a Sydney radio station on Monday he expected talk of any movement north was a ”bluff”.
A potential expansion to a Super 15, which had been mooted if Sanzar remained intact, was also proving a sticking point.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) have begun to flex their muscles on getting a sixth team into a Super 15 with the newly-formed Southern Kings to play the British and Irish Lions in Port Elizabeth on June 16.
O’Neill has said he would prefer a 15th team to be based in Australia, though one of the arguments against that proposal is the lack of depth within Australia’s player pool, where rugby competes with rugby league, Australian rules and soccer.
If the Australasians do go it alone, O’Neill and Tew have said the financial implications would not be as bad as initially envisaged, with the former adding a move into Japan, which he has long advocated, was commercially attractive to broadcasters.
Whatever the outcome of the last ditch meeting on Thursday in Dublin, any future competition is likely to be vastly different from that which fans will watch this weekend. – Reuters