rugby union

Super Rugby organizers say bigger is better in 2016

9 Comments
By STEVE McMORRAN

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9 Comments
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Have to say the new format is awful probably the worse draw i have ever seen. Lets face its all about money and finding new markets for sanzaar.

The sunwolves will play half their home games in Singapore. Not the ideal way to grow your fan base for a new team. Go figure. Administrators are watering down what once was a great comp.

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@goldorak: The draw is bad, but TBH how else is it possible to organise a league when you have teams from countries spread out across the world, Ie. The league itself is fundamentally disadvantageous to the Japanese and Argentinean teams. I think its great no matter what they've created a multinational domestic style league in the first place

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The 3rd expansion now and I will reserve judgement. The Argentinian side should be strong, particularly at home, but there is no way South Africa have the playing depth to support 6 teams. Looking at the Sunwolves roster they will struggle as well, with so many of Japan's top players opting for other teams/competitions (Kensuke Hatakeyama, Kotaro Matsushima, Michael Leitch, Male Sau, Fumiaki Tanaka, Hendrix Tui, Ayumu Goromaru etc,)

I understand the commercial reasons behind the expansions, however from a purely rugby perspective, the original Super 12 most closely reflected each countries playing stocks, with NZ having 5 teams, Australia 3 and South Africa 4

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@dcog, perso I just dont think you can create a meaningful multinational domestic comp with teams from 5 different countries and 4 regions/continents. You need 'some' consistency, like playing all your opponents at least once. My favorite model is what we see in Europe in most sports: domestic leagues in all countries and top clubs qualify for a euro cup the following year.

Even the super 15 wasnt great but at least you had 5 franchises from 3 top rugby nations. The new format is all over the place. I just hope japanese rugby benefits from it and that it doesnt kill the top league. But asking the wolves to play some of their home games in Singapore is pretty poor if you ask me.

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Any one know if the sunwolves games are going to be shown on free-to-air television here in Japan? Seems unlikely but it certainly would help to generate more supporters of which there are likely to be few as the franchise finds its feet unsteadily.

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Allow me to slice through the hype -- adding teams to Super Rugby dilutes the talent pool and thus lowers the standard of play, resulting in boring games.

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Not sure about including the Japanese team yet. A lot of travel and games in Singapore which might not good but on the other hand if they do do well it might generate a lot of interest (¥) in Japan. Certainly the Argentinians deserve their place. I think they should have two teams. SA is too stretched to have six. What about a Polynesian team. So much good raw talent in the islands.

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veejayFEB. 19, 2016 - 07:09PM JST Any one know if the sunwolves games are going to be shown on free-to-air television here in Japan?

Yes champ they will show the games on nhk bs or sim delayed from about 'pm I believe - follow rugby news japan on Facebook for all relevant info

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Sat, Feb. 27th, Sunwolves vs. Lions is on Jsports1, LIVE. http://www.jsports.co.jp/program_guide/month/english/c_month27.html

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