Cape Town - Representatives of the South African Super Rugby franchises will accompany the delegates of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) to present a case for competition expansion in 2013 to SANZAR partners next month.

Representatives of the Bulls, Lions, Southern Kings, and the Sharks will accompany SARU’s SANZAR representatives on visits to their counterparts in New Zealand and Australia in mid-March.

The delegation was formulated during a meeting between SARU’s leadership and franchises in Johannesburg on Thursday. SARU will argue for the expansion of the competition to 16 teams to accommodate all six of our South Africa’s franchises.

“We had a very good conversation on the future where we discussed the options on achieving a solution that is in the interest of South African and southern hemisphere rugby,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SARU.

“We would like to workshop our position with our SANZAR colleagues and have included representatives of our franchises to underline the seriousness of our appeal.”

The South African delegation will include Brand de Villiers (Bulls), Kevin de Klerk (Lions), Cheeky Watson (Southern Kings) and Brian van Zyl (Sharks). They will accompany SARU president Oregan Hoskins, deputy president Mark Alexander and Roux.

The delegation departs on March 17.