Cape Town - Sharks coach John Plumtree believes there are too many derby games on the current Super Rugby schedule.

"We're playing way too often against the other top South African teams," Plumtree told the Rapport newspaper after his side went down 18-13 to the Bulls in their season-opener at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

"It wears the players down to play against each other so often. For SANZAR it's obviously fantastic because it boosts revenue.

"Just look at the crowd that was here tonight," he said, referring to the 46 000-strong Loftus crowd.

"You'll never achieve that with the derby games in Australia and New Zealand. The standard of their derbies isn't nearly as intense as ours here in South Africa."

Plumtree feels the South African players play each other into the ground during all these games, and by the time the international season starts, the players are either injured or burnt out.