SARU and their SANZAR partners.

Still in the amateur era, In 1993, the Super 10 started. With South Africa being readmitted into international sport following the dismantling of apartheid, there was an opportunity to launch a competition which would feature South Africa's, Australia’s and New Zealands’ top provincial teams.

Following the success of the RWC in 1995 Australia, New Zealand and South Africa rugby boards formed SANZAR to administer an annual 12-team provincial/franchise based competition pitting regional teams from the three nations against each other. A significant reason for the development of the Super 12 was the threat to Rugby Union from Rugby League which really had little to do with South Africa.

Part of the business model for the Foxtel pay TV network in Australia was to attract subscribers by offering an exclusive product which could not be seen on free-to-air broadcast television. By setting up the Super 12, the Unions had a product that was in demand from viewers, enabling them to sell a 10 year contract for exclusive television rights to News Corp for $555 million, giving them both coverage and financial support to kick start the new competition.

This meant New Zealand would have 5 teams, South Africa 4 teams and Australia 3 teams entered into the Super 12.

In September 2004, SANZAR began negotiations for a new television deal to take effect in 2006. SANZAR announced that a new TV deal had been signed, with Newscorp winning the rights for the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and Supersport winning rights for South Africa.

The Tri Nations was seen as the "cash cow" for the SANZAR partners as it would provide nearly 60 per cent of the money from News Ltd. The Super 14 made up about 30 per cent of the deal. Australia and South Africa each got one extra team in the competition.

Meanwhile back in 2005, Australia and New Zealand were kept in the dark about the Rainbow Cup negotiations an expanded Celtic league which would include the 5 Franchises from South Africa. The Rainbow Cup though, never happened because of financial difficulties in Europe at the time.

The Rainbow/Magners league deal would involve overnight flights to Britain but it would still be in the same time zone and crucially it would mean that South Africa would get larger television audiences back in South Africa and that converts to more money. Their bottom line would be a lot healthier and in today’s time that counts for a lot. As South Africa’s home matches would be played in the same or similar time zone as Europe they would bring more to the table in broadcasting terms than their partners so a new tournament without South Africa would take a big financial hit.

On May 19, 2009, following prolonged negotiations, SANZAR unveiled its model for an expanded season to start in 2011. This model was due to be presented to current broadcast rights holder News Corporation for approval before the end of June 2009.

The new structure was based around the original ARU proposal for three national conferences, whereby each side would have played the other four teams from their own country twice and all of the other teams once, before a six team finals series. However, there were two major compromises were designed to accommodate the wishes of all three countries. Firstly, each team would only play four of the five teams in each of the other two national conferences, meaning sixteen regular season games for each team. This 'trimming' of the model would allow for a late February start and an early August finish so as not to overlap new streamlined versions of New Zealand and South Africa's domestic competitions.

What it also meant for SARU was that their share of the Broadcasting deal reduced from 38% to 33% even though they had and still have the biggest television audiences.

At the start of the Super XV with the new conference system in place I voiced my misgivings about a number of things. Firstly it seemed to me that the whole model was driven by the Australian Media Mogul, Murdoch and the ARU, which now upon doing some research into the processes and expansions that have been taking place over the period, seems to not be entirely unfounded.

What also made very little sense was the fact, that a team in one conference would not play all the teams in the competition, and would there for have alternate opposition every year. Now in my view this immediately breaks down the credibility of a team’s success if they reach a play off spot when they have had an easier route in the pool rounds than another team who may have had more challenging opponents. The other problem was the fact that six team would qualify from three conferences of uneven strength. This could surely then benefit some countries more than others.

I have slowly but surely become disillusioned about the super rugby competition, the fact that it keeps on expanding and has now just become a global tournament with as many teams as the “contract” would demand for more revenue. This is no longer a Super competition.

It has basically taken over the Southern Hemisphere rugby calendar, and a Curry Cup competition that has been the breeding ground for Springboks since 1889 has become a filler in between the super rugby competition and international matches.

Most of the pool rounds of the Currie Cup do not feature any Springboks as they are either injured or in tour. The new dispensation under the Super rugby tournament means less money go to the other 9 provinces and the super Franchises are becoming overblown financial enterprises with little regard to the collective that is Springbok rugby.

South African rugby in my opinion has gained little through this whole debacle. Sure there is a revenue stream, but there have also been revenue losses. Spectator numbers are down because of too much rugby, less importance and public importance of the Currie Cup and the competitiveness lies within 5 teams only. Players now play an average of 30+ matches, have very little time for injury recovery and recuperation, shorter periods of pre season preparation and the travel factor and adjustment to time zones must be utterly exhausting.

SANZAR has effectively sold South African rugby down a hole, fast becoming a crater and it doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. There are only so many weeks in a year, at some point even the number crunchers must realise this and the fact that their most important asset, the players are rarely considered in this agreement with their SANZAR partners.

Australia has since 1993 still not been able to put any sustainable domestic system together without their SANZAR partners and is the country who on the whole have benefitted most out of this agreement.

In my opinion it is time that SARU comes to the realisation that their domestic system is slowly degrading and falling apart, and if they don’t come to their senses, development in other regions of the country will slowly grind to a halt.

Before the renewal of this agreement happens again, SARU needs to come up with either a solution that reduces the impact that the Super rugby tournament has the development and sustainability of all their provinces or need to withdraw from the Super Rugby tournament.

The future of South African rugby is at stake.

Hi,Biltong interesting post,I was not aware of the Rainbow league deal,it would certainly have advangtages for SA.
Probably more cash,and the fact they would probably the dominant force in Europe then as well.
As pointed out a Super series i n which ALL teams do not play each other is flawed.
Murdoch`s New s empire is slowly unravelling,with the deathof the News of the World.Phone tapping/Hacking allegations he may even be forced to dispose of his assets.
Super Rugby has become unwieldy and 15 teams are certainly to many,as Eddie Jones rightly says.
Australia cannot sustain 5 teams maybe 3 at best,SA and NZ could easily lose one.
The rise of the number of games concerned in the domestic season of around 30 games per player.
Means Injuries take longer to heal,etc.in a RWC year Super Rugby,then 3Ns,then RWC.
All running into each other with only 14 days gap between 3Ns ending and RWC starting must have had some effect.
A Universal Season is the obvious answer,and having less fixtures per season would be sensible.
League has I think about a 12-14 week rest period overall for players.
In an era where more young players are making test squads early,and playing on longer that surely is the way to go.
Today a player at Prop maybe 22 or 23 first capped and finished at about 38.the position by tradition is that with max longevity.
But some players of another era still function as backs in the lower league levels.Merthens,TonyBrown,Umaga to name 3.
The bedrock of NZ/SA Rugby Currie Cup/ITM is now a 2 tier comp with only about 8 or 9 at the top level.
The Arrival of Argentina and the 4Ns means more travel,games,and a support system which does not as yet exist for them.
A sensible solution would maybe add a couple of Argentina franchises and reduce a little the other 3 nations sides competing in Super Rugby.

I don't think the rainbow league idea would ever really have worked.I can't imagine how teams would cope with going from the height of S.A. summer to the depths of winter in the NH.It would be insane!

Something makes me believe you had something on your mind BB!

Yeah, SR has never really benefited SA Rugby. Its given more decent opposition to SA but there have been many negatives, mainly on the boks and the opportunity cost lost on other potential ventures.

SR isn’t going away now though… its too big and everything else is too established.

The only thing which could probably prise them away now from SR would be a new competition with ENG & FRA. That would be a massive market for all 3 nations as all have large fan bases, huge potential for revenue generation & marketing and are of similar levels in terms of competition.

SA could be quite ruthless though as they hold the key to the financial state of both NZ & AUS. SA is the major contributor financially to SR & the 3N. They get less back then they put in, which isn’t the case for either NZ or AUS.
If they left they would cause financial meltdown on those unions whilst bolstering their own…. This will trickle down to the players too and both may not be able to fund as many professional sides & players.

It will probably never happen though... not in the next 10 years at least.

Personally I don’t think it’s a bad thing staying on with AUS… they have a large market which in rugby terms is pretty much untapped. They have a very competitive sports calendar and union is far down on the list when it comes to other sports… yet if AUS can get a domestic league and start taking a chunk out of the kids playing league et al then their will be a lot of opportunity for the SANZAR nations.

Its in all 3’s interest for AUS to get stronger domestically.

Also wanted to add that the weakness of the Currie Cup has nothing to do with the lack of depth in SA rugby… its about the financial state of the clubs below the SR sides and the way SARU have set them up.

SA contributes more foreign players to the HC from outside participating nations then any other country… this year they have over 50 players in HC teams…. and this does not inc. SA players such as Fioure, Botha, Stevens etc who have switched their allegiance to their adopted country or those in non HC playing GP or Top14 sides such as Toulon.

These players are superior to those seen in Griquas, the Pumas etc yet instead of moving to lesser sides in SA, they move to Europe to seek their fortune.

It seems rather that there are 3 tiers in SA rugby… SR, Europe and then finally CC. The vacuum left by these players moving to Europe does have its impacts.

Lets look at Juandre Kruger for instance…. A couple of years back he couldn’t get a game at the bulls due to Matfield, Botha & Russouw dominating the team…. So rather than move onto lets say the Lions or another less notable side he moved to Europe.
He still wanted to play for the boks but realised if he didn’t move to probably one of the other top 3 sides in SA (WP & Natal) he would be better served playing in Europe. He went to Northampton and was an instant success.

He goes back 2 years later and is now looking like from next season he will be a starting lock with Andries Bekker for the boks (IMO).

My question is why in a rugby mad nation such as SA is the infrastructure not in place to keep players such as Kruger from developing adequately at home?

In ENG & FRA if you’re one of the best 22 or 30 locks in the country you will get regular game time against top class opposition… in SA only the top 10 locks can say this. This is not acceptable.

There is a couple of issues I see at stopping the development of non SR teams and players.

Firstly I believe the tying of all CC teams under the SR teams is a bad thing. So Boland for instance is connected to the Stormers with WP. Good? Not necessarily…. Any player that comes through Boland is instantly picked up by WP due to the provincial SR umbrella and their development is lost.

Wouldn’t it be better if the stormers were responsible for the strength of all 3 CC sides it can choose players from? This would involve spreading the talent between WP, Boland & the Eagles making the competition more competitive.

If this was the case with the CC being much more competitive, not only would you not see massive drubbings but I believe SA would be able to retain most of the 50 HC players as these players would get much more game time.

You could also merge the 1st & 2nd CC tier together as the strength of the top teams are lowered and then raised in the smaller teams. This would bring the CC back to the times where stadiums sold out in CC league matches as people don’t care about seeing a team full of stars putting 100 points on some amateurs… they’d rather see 7 stars in each side smashing each others heads in and putting on a great match together.

BB what do you think? Look at the example American sport does to spread out the talent... in all of their major sports, the worst performing teams get the first picks of the best young draft players... it spread the talent, stops giants being made, increases competition and therefore interest. Surely this is the sort of aim that SARU and the CC need to put life back into the world's greatest domestic competition. Good idea?

FA, I agree with your sentiments, that is why I say if Super Rugby is standing in the way of Currie Cup being more evenly spread with talent and the resultant effect is that the Currie Cup is now a second tier competition, then perhaps it is time to withdraw from super rugby.

Do you think it's a realistic possibility,would the SARU pull the plug?

Not with the current management, they are sitting too plush in their fancy offices. That is the cause for much of our problems, they aren't there for the good of the game.

Yeah sorry Biltong, I guess us Ozzies aren't pulling our weight. As you say, rugby is really only available on a subscription basis here so whenever the missus and I (read: me) want to see a game we have to hit the pubs and I have to say I'm so sick of having to do a big song and dance to get them to put the rugby on the tele because it's never on when I get there. I remember one of the super 15 games, reds V bulls. I asked the girl behind the bar if she could put the rugby on. She said... 'what, the league?' I said no, rugby union, Queensland V bulls. She said, 'what, the AFL?' I said 'are you sh!tting me?

The problem in Aus, I think, is the subscription. Unless you go to a private school growing up you just don't get exposure to it and you're never going to see it on TV unless you pony up the dough for cable. That exclusive product that Rupert thinks he has is what is preventing it from growing in popularity here. Get the kids involved and it will sort itself out and we'll all be the richer for it.

FC, that just confrims my suspicions that for Murdoch it is not about spreading the game, it is about making money for him, and if ARU can't demand that some of the matches are shown on public broadcasters then it is a shame to them.

Here in South Africa, even though slightly delayed sometimes, public broadcaster SABC shows many games of rugby, they even have the RWC on live.

Bilton

I do think that the Currie cup quality has been slipping in standards over the years... It wasn't that long ago then WD Waal was imense for the cheetas and SA rugby was on a high. It's probably not a case of Super rugby has done nothing for SA, but more likely to do with the number of games that the top players are having to play (and where in the world).


The international window in my opinion has far too many games - why have all of these tours? Why are Wales playing Oz in December? All unions just see rugby fans as cash cows, but I think the udder is drying up as people don't want to pay extortionate prices to watch a game of rugby.

Huwball, I don't know mate. According to some of the articles I found, it is estimated that the Tri Nation tests bring in twice the money the Super rugby competition brings in.

If that is accurate, then I would suggest the super rugby can become much smaller and instead of having so many matches there, add one or two more tests per year against other nations.

Seeing that ARG is now in the Four Nations, the number of tests will remain the same for each nation, but now the TV money is going to be split between 4 nations, bet you there will be more Super rugby matches.