Super Rugby Round 6
 

My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones in the Christchurch shootings. Cancelling the Hurricanes-Crusaders match was the right thing to do to honour the dead and allow the Christchurch-based Crusaders (and all of us) to grieve. Let’s agree to live our lives the way those that died would have lived theirs if only they could. My son told me that me that after being an army battalion surgeon in combat zones.

Good luck,

Ray Stefani

"It is expected that SANZAAR will announce on Friday that the Sunwolves will be removed from Super Rugby only three years after their inclusion. As part of more revamping, Super Rugby will abolish the conference system and return to a round-robin format where everyone plays each other once."

Source:RugbyPass

SANZAR announcement-Bye Be Sunwolves
 

I wish we all could meet at a pub and have a great discussion about that press release. We could say a lot of things that ought not be printed online.

I didn’t think the Super Rugby system was broken enough (or at all) to need fixing when SANZAR added the Sunwolves and Jaguars, but I did understand the idea of tapping the Asian audience. OK, then why stop now of all times. Sure, the Sunwolves were awful at first but they are more competitive this year. More important to the Asian rugby audience, the 2019 Rugby World Cup is going to be played in Japan which ought to carry over into a large following of the Sunwolves when other Super Rugby teams visit, if they play all their home games in Japan. Then comes the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, including rugby sevens. That ought to further reinforce rugby in Japan. How about SANZAR taking some of the big TV and gate receipts that ought to happen in Japan and help visitors with travel expenses. If 2020 is a bad season for the Sunwolves on the field and at the gate, then pull the plug. I think this season is too soon, but I’d love to hear from you all.

..absolutely ray
..the cut happens from 2021
..still getting over the dumping of western force
..sunwolves kept their spot instead

SANZAAR Announcement and Jake's Comments
 

Right on Jake.

I guess we should have been clued in that a Japan Super Rugby team was temporary but Argentina would be welcomed longer when SANZAR became SANZAAR and not SANZAJAR. So, they demanded that Australia dump a team (the Western Force) to take in the Sunwolves and now that the Sunwolves will be dumped starting in 2021, they don’t suggest that Australia should get back their fifth team. The Japan Rugby Football Union apparently started it all by saying that they could not underwrite the Sunwolves after 2020, even though they ought to be swimming in rugby money after the 2019 World Cup and 2020 Olympic rugby sevens. Just where is all that rugby money going to go? I have a guess.

Starting in 2021, Super Rugby will have a round robin for 14 teams with no conferences, meaning that in year one there will 7 home games and 6 away games for some teams and 6 home games and 7 away games for the rest; followed in year two by the reverse schedule to balance home-away games every two years combined. Still, there will be a mismatched schedule each year where the luck of the draw will help some teams make the new six-team playoffs. The top two will get a bye for the first playoff week. If Australia got a fifth team, a 15-team round robin would have home-away balance every year for the 14 games.

ACT Brumbies coach Dan McKellar says he is "dumbfounded" by the decision to axe the Japan Sunwolves at a time he believes rugby in Asia is about to experience a massive boom.

The Sydney Morning Herald

The South African teams have been vocal in the past about their displeasure in travelling to Singapore & Japan to play the Sunwolves
Wonder if that has any bearing

South Africa and bye-bye Sunwolves
 

You got that right. Look at the name change from SANZAR to SANZAAR. South Africa, SA, appears first in both versions and the new name resembles SA words like Africaans and Transvaal. They do have clout and you are right that that has a lot to do with the planned demise of the Sunwolves. They do have a serious point too. I was curious about the actual miles traveled. I took one city in each country: Cape Town, Sydney, Christchurch, Tokyo and Buenos Aires. From Google I got airline distances and I added the distances from each country to the other four. South Africa teams travel 27,000 miles while Australia and New Zealand teams travel 20,000 miles. Actually, it’s worse for Japan (31,000) and Argentina (29,000). By dropping Japan, distances equalize to South Africa and Argentina (18,000 miles), Australia (15,000) and New Zealand (14,000).

Still, I agree completely with Brumbies coach Dan McKellar that rugby is about to become huge in the Asia market. SANZAAR doesn’t need to beg the Japan Rugby Football Union to please, please underwrite the Sunwolves. SANZAAR ought to be negotiating big money TV contracts with the major Asian TV networks to carry all Super Rugby games, incentivized by the Sunwolves and especially by being able to advertise Super Rugby when they carry the Rugby WC in 2019 and rugby sevens at the 2020 Olympics. SANZAAR ought to be able to earn all the money they need to help with travel and have lots left over.

I get it that having a Northern Hemisphere team in a predominantly Southern Hemisphere competition is a square peg in a round hole but the idea was to dig the round hole into gold bars.

Super Rugby Round 7
 

For round 6, I had the much-improved Blues and Reds as favourites whilst the bookies had them as underdogs. They both won and their supporters cashed nice value bets. The Sunwolves didn’t help their cause at all by losing 24-37. I thought the Sunwolves would want to show that they do belong in Super Rugby.

Good luck with week 7,

Ray Stefani

Crusaders record 19 match-winning streak has been halted courtesy NSW Waratahs
Bookies unmoved, Crusaders still odds-on