SUPER RUGBY!

[QWERTY?]

Thoughts on the new format??

Super Rugby Snapshot
- An increase in overall matches from 94 to 125 (an increase of 33%)
- A 50% increase in the length of the season in non-World Cup years - from 16 weeks to 24 weeks
- A 31% increase in the length of the season in World Cup years - from 16 weeks to 21 weeks 40 Super Rugby regular season matches played in each country each season as opposed to 26 in Australia under the Super 14 structure and 32 or 33 in South Africa and New Zealand
- There will be 20 regular season local derbies in each country as opposed to six in Australia, 10 in South Africa and10 in New Zealand under the Super 14 format
- Half of all regular season matches will be local derbies
- Each team will play 12 of its 16 regular-season games within its own country - with only four matches overseas

Finals Series Facts
- The top team in each Conference will automatically advance to the finals in positions 1, 2 or 3 (depending on their individual competition points totals)
- The other three teams to advance will be those with the highest number of competition points outside of the Conference winners
- The teams qualifying in 4th, 5th and 6th can come from any Conference they could all come from one Conference
- In week one of the finals the teams qualifying 1st and 2nd will rest - The 3rd placed team, as a Conference winner, will host the 6th placed team in a sudden death Qualifier
- The 4th placed team will host the 5th placed team in another sudden death Qualifier
- The two winners will play the top two sides in Semis the following week The winners of the Semis will meet in the Final

I have a feeling this is all leading up to an Argentinian(possibly a south american) conference, once the new rights deal comes up, which would be pretty sweet imo, that'd do wonders for southern hemisphere rugby especially for argentina(or even other south american teams)

[SID|DensitY]

I'm going to go off-track slightly here <_<

I don't think the increase in games is not a very good idea, for the players and spectators.

For players I see some serious burnout issues. 24 weeks of Super rugby followed by ITM/NPC and/or International rugby, that is a lot of rugby to be played. Rotation comes to mind but people pay to see the top teams play week in and week out in these competitions so I see it hurting weekly ticket sales as a result.

For Spectators it means a long long season of watching rugby, boredom and lack of money will see gate numbers drop come ITM/NPC after people have been bashed with 24 weeks of super rugby + Tri-nations (4 nations come 2012). Star players needing to be rested will also see a drop in interest from spectators as not many would want to see a B or C team play for the admission fee.

As for the competition layout, I like it, and love the idea of a Conference system. When it comes to rugby I generally only care about All black games and games between our local NZ teams in super rugby, so I'll have a few weeks to get my fill on rugby I enjoy then tune out for the rest of it until itm/npc.

[QWERTY?]

yeh i get the feeling that it might end up being more teired, super rugby being the top, and they draw from the ITM/NPC (which will have some overlap end of season)

I dont see any burnout issues if they only play one or the other, similar to how NRL players have 26 weeks (24 games), and there is tiering with NSW cup, Queensland cup, etc

[MrTTTT]

fuck rugby already takes up too much of the cricket season

[Spoon1]

I think you mean Supe Rugby, according to the new logo at least...



(Hopefully I haven't been screwed by hotlinking that.)

I hate dropped letters in logos.

[PhX]

Yeah the SupeRugby is just stupid, sure it looks ok but seriously sometimes one should not give in to the designers will.

[JERI]

They're trying to work the player to death?

[mr selfdestruct]

I agree with Qwerty, there won't be burn out issues and I think it's great the top Super 15 players won't be part of the ITM Cup anymore, it's BS how they always come in at the end to bolster the big 5 unions to help them win the championship. And yeah the NRL goes for a long time and still maintains interest. I love the Play Off system, it's very cunning of them to have it built in that the top team from each conference automatically qualifies thus ensuring interest from all three countries no matter how poorly their country may be playing.