Decision to cull off two SA Super Rugby participants was needed, says Roux

The identity of the two South African teams and one Australian team to be cut from Super Rugby remains unclear after South Africa‚ New Zealand Australia and Argentina Rugby (SANZAAR) made the announcement on Sunday.

Sources indicated to Times Media Group last month that the Cheetahs and Southern Kings would be cast off from the South African Conference while the Melbourne Rebels are set to go from Australia.

But SANZAAR would not confirm the identities of the axed franchises‚ only where they could come from.

SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux confirmed that the decision to reduce SA’s Super Rugby participants from six to four was a decision that had been unanimously agreed at executive level.

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“The 18-team Super Rugby competition has not worked and we had to face up to that hard fact‚” Roux said.

“The integrity of the format and the lack of competitiveness in too many matches were major issues that needed addressing.

“From a South African rugby high performance perspective we’ve had to acknowledge that the dilution of talent and resources across six franchises – at a time when rand weakness has led to more departures to Europe and Japan – has seriously affected our ability to compete across the board.

“As a rugby nation we need several strong franchises all of whom are in with a serious chance of challenging for the title and we could no longer say that.

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"A reduction in the number of South African franchises was the unavoidable conclusion‚ especially when put in the context of SANZAAR’s long-term strategy of adding to our tournaments’ appeal and commercial success which‚ in time‚ will mean greater returns for SA Rugby.”

The tournament will now be split into three conferences of five teams each – New Zealand‚ Australia (including Japan’s Sunwolves) and South Africa (including Argentina’s Jaguares).

Teams will play against the other teams in their conference on a home and away basis (eight matches) and against four teams each from the remaining two conferences (eight matches). It means that not all teams face each other each year.

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Roux admitted a reduction in teams was a bitter pill for South Africa to swallow but his organisation had faced up to the fact that retaining six teams would have put South African rugby at an even greater risk.

“We have six strategic imperatives for 2017 – two of the most critical of which are Springbok performance and financial sustainability‚” he said.

“Retaining a number of under-performing teams in Vodacom Super Rugby makes no sense from a high performance or financial point of view. We no longer have the resources to support them to the required level.”

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Roux said the large number of South Africans now playing overseas had hastened the decision: “There are about five or six Vodacom Super Rugby squads’ worth of South Africans playing overseas.

“In 2015‚ 257 South Africans appeared for leading teams overseas; last year it was 313 – including 65 Springboks. There were eight Van der Merwes‚ seven Du Preez’s and six Du Plessis’s alone! That has got to have had an impact on our competitiveness.”

Tournament Details from 2018:

120 match regular season plus seven match finals series

15 teams

Three conferences (Australia‚ New Zealand‚ South Africa)

18 rounds [16 matches per team‚ two bye weeks]

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Each team will play eight matches within its conference (four home and four away)

Each team will play eight cross-conference matches – against four of the five teams from each of the other two conferences (four at home and four away)

Each team will play 12 of the other teams within the season (85% of opposition teams which is up from 70% in 2016).

Eight team Finals Series: Three Conference winners and; five wild card places – the next best performing teams based on competition points after the Conference winners regardless of Conference.

Conference winners and fourth-placed team on competition points will host quarterfinals.

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport