Tough calls need to be made

We are in the final throes of preparing for the new season and this week I had the opportunity to interview Sanzar Chief Executive Greg Peters.

The full interview will screen next week on our first ReUnion show of the year, which you will be able to see on SuperSport of course. I don’t want to give too much away, but we did talk about the push coming from South Africa for the Kings to be part of Super Rugby from 2013.

It seems the only way that will be possible in the short term, will be at the expense of another South African team.

There is a contract in place for a three conference system with five teams in each, and that can’t change until the end of 2015. To add another team to that format now simply wouldn’t work, so Saru has got a big decision to make.

Clearly there is some political clout behind the Kings, and a great determination to see them enter Super Rugby, but who would you leave out to accommodate them?

The easiest way to do it would be to relegate the bottom placed team in this year’s South African conference, but there are other considerations such as finance. I’m glad I’m not making the call.

It is possible that a sixth South African team could happen beyond 2015, with Sanzar again exploring the possibilities of expanding the competition and making moves into Asia and Americas.

With Argentina coming into the “competition formerly known as the Tri-Nations” it would make sense for there to be an Argentine presence in Super Rugby as well.

What excites me about the possibility of teams in say Japan and/or Hong Kong, is that these would open up some big TV markets, and bring in some big financial players.

Obviously these teams would need boosting with foreign players, and with the backing of some of the giant corporations this could be a good way of bringing South African, New Zealand, Australian and Pacific Island players currently plying their trade in Europe back into our competition.

But as always, the hard part with Sanzar is finding something that suits everyone.

We have been shown some stats that suggest Aussies love the existing format....viewer numbers were up about 40 per cent in Australia last year (largely because of the Reds' success no doubt) while they remained the same as the previous year in SA, and were down a bit in New Zealand, although the impact of the Christchurch earthquake was a big factor.

New Zealanders like the “local derby” aspect in the three conference system, but the feedback I get from South Africans is that you already see the Bulls and Sharks, for example, playing twice a year in Currie Cup and you don’t necessarily need to see them twice again in Super Rugby.

So it’s not easy finding common ground. It’ll all go into the mix in deciding what happens in three years' time, but as I say there seems no possibility of any changes before then.

There will be some cosmetic changes, and again some experimentation.

Super Rugby will see the trial of a “white card” system, which will be shown when a referee suspects there has been an act of foul play but cannot tell for sure, or cannot identify the culprit, or is approached by a player complaining of foul play such as an eye gouge.

The idea is to alert the citing people to the possibility of something untoward so they can then check out all the angles afterwards, whereas under the old system it might have passed unnoticed.

I have my misgivings about such a system, and suspect it could be a bit of a gimmick, but we will wait and see.

The one thing for sure is that it should not be a “cop out” option for a ref. Red and yellow cards should still be issued on the field because they are still the best deterrent for foul or negative play, and we are being told that any ref who shirks his responsibility in this regard will be stood down.

As I put it to Greg Peters, what people want more than anything is consistency in the process and we have never really had that in Super Rugby.

But still, talking about the upcoming start to the season is starting to get the excitement levels up.

We’ve had a good four-month break since the World Cup, and with the Proteas arriving in New Zealand determined to inflict some damage on our cricket team, rugby might be a good distraction over the next few weeks!!!!