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Stephen Nell
Cape Town – The bye in the first week of the Super Rugby tournament will go to one of the New Zealand or Australian teams next year.
Greg Peters, chief executive of SANZAR, provided that assurance in an interview with Sport24 from Sydney.
“With 15 teams in the tournament it’s inevitable that someone must have a bye. The reason for the initial decision that it should be a South African team was to ensure that one of South Africa’s teams does not start the tournament with a four-week tour,” said Peters.
“We’ve taken the feedback on board and next year an Australasian team will tour South Africa in the first week. It means that a South African team will not have a bye in the first week. It will be rotated in future.”
SANZAR will also reconsider the awarding of 4 points for a bye. Peters conceded that it had led to confusion among rugby fans, though that was possibly also because it hasn’t been communicated beforehand.
He was positive about the viewership figures that the tournament had delivered in its new format.
“Round 17 was the seventh successful week in which viewership figures in South Africa surpassed 2 million. The match between the Stormers and Bulls had 960 000 viewers,” said Peters.
“In Australia viewership has increased by 28% compared to last year and in New Zealand the figures are flat.”
The period in which the Super Rugby tournament has to be fitted means that it’s unlikely that SANZAR can do anything about the fact that every team does not play every other one.
Each team misses matches against two overseas opponents every year and that means that the dice sometimes roll unfairly. For example, the Crusaders this year missed relatively easy matches against the Lions and Melbourne Rebels.
“The time for the competition is limited due to the Currie Cup in South Africa and ITM Cup in New Zealand. We can’t start earlier in the year because of the heat,” said Peters.
As far as crowd attendances are concerned, Peters said that the average in South Africa and New Zealand by round 17 is more or less the same as last year, while there has been an increase of 16% in Australia.
“The average in South Africa (until round 17) is 27 458. There is a direct link between a team’s performances and the number of people that come to watch. The 48,200 people that attended the match between the Reds and Crusaders in Brisbane was a new record for Australia.
“In New Zealand the earthquake in Christchurch, bad weather in Hamilton and poor performances of certain teams had an impact. The match between the Highlanders and Crusaders had a crowd of 20 000 – the biggest (for Dunedin) since the final of 1999.”
The participation of the Kings in Super Rugby from 2013 is still a headache and further expansion does not appear to be on SANZAR’s agenda at this stage.
“We are aware that it (the Kings’ participation) is topical in South Africa, but have not had any formal proposal about how they can be accommodated. The current conference format was sold to broadcasters for a period of 5 years,” said Peters.
The expansion of the tournament to possibly include teams from Japan, the United States or Pacific Islands is also not on the agenda yet.
“It’s a topic that SANZAR will consider at some stage, but our vision is to run the best competitions and commercially strongest competitions in world rugby,” said Peters.
“The idea is to enhance rugby in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. We’re in the first year of a new conference format and need to do that well before we look to the future.”
Cape Town – The bye in the first week of the Super Rugby tournament will go to one of the New Zealand or Australian teams next year.
Greg Peters, chief executive of SANZAR, provided that assurance in an interview with Sport24 from Sydney.
“With 15 teams in the tournament it’s inevitable that someone must have a bye. The reason for the initial decision that it should be a South African team was to ensure that one of South Africa’s teams does not start the tournament with a four-week tour,” said Peters.
“We’ve taken the feedback on board and next year an Australasian team will tour South Africa in the first week. It means that a South African team will not have a bye in the first week. It will be rotated in future.”
SANZAR will also reconsider the awarding of 4 points for a bye. Peters conceded that it had led to confusion among rugby fans, though that was possibly also because it hasn’t been communicated beforehand.
He was positive about the viewership figures that the tournament had delivered in its new format.
“Round 17 was the seventh successful week in which viewership figures in South Africa surpassed 2 million. The match between the Stormers and Bulls had 960 000 viewers,” said Peters.
“In Australia viewership has increased by 28% compared to last year and in New Zealand the figures are flat.”
The period in which the Super Rugby tournament has to be fitted means that it’s unlikely that SANZAR can do anything about the fact that every team does not play every other one.
Each team misses matches against two overseas opponents every year and that means that the dice sometimes roll unfairly. For example, the Crusaders this year missed relatively easy matches against the Lions and Melbourne Rebels.
“The time for the competition is limited due to the Currie Cup in South Africa and ITM Cup in New Zealand. We can’t start earlier in the year because of the heat,” said Peters.
As far as crowd attendances are concerned, Peters said that the average in South Africa and New Zealand by round 17 is more or less the same as last year, while there has been an increase of 16% in Australia.
“The average in South Africa (until round 17) is 27 458. There is a direct link between a team’s performances and the number of people that come to watch. The 48,200 people that attended the match between the Reds and Crusaders in Brisbane was a new record for Australia.
“In New Zealand the earthquake in Christchurch, bad weather in Hamilton and poor performances of certain teams had an impact. The match between the Highlanders and Crusaders had a crowd of 20 000 – the biggest (for Dunedin) since the final of 1999.”
The participation of the Kings in Super Rugby from 2013 is still a headache and further expansion does not appear to be on SANZAR’s agenda at this stage.
“We are aware that it (the Kings’ participation) is topical in South Africa, but have not had any formal proposal about how they can be accommodated. The current conference format was sold to broadcasters for a period of 5 years,” said Peters.
The expansion of the tournament to possibly include teams from Japan, the United States or Pacific Islands is also not on the agenda yet.
“It’s a topic that SANZAR will consider at some stage, but our vision is to run the best competitions and commercially strongest competitions in world rugby,” said Peters.
“The idea is to enhance rugby in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. We’re in the first year of a new conference format and need to do that well before we look to the future.”
