Sanzar stands firm on Super Rugby format
14 Feb 2012
Sanzar CEO Greg Peters dealt South Africa’s hope of gaining an additional Super Rugby franchise a hammer blow by insisting the format will not change until 2015.
In January the South African Rugby Union (Saru) committed to the Kings’ Super Rugby inclusion in 2013 but conceded that they did not know how they would be accommodated. They then rejected a relegation match as an option of trimming a franchise and also said a merger between two franchises was not an option.
Weekend reports indicated that the South African franchises had resolved to boycott the tournament in 2013 if they were not awarded another franchise. Saru quickly moved to dismiss those reports as false but did issue an ultimatum to their Sanzar partners saying: ‘… the franchises have made it plain that the only option to them is the expansion of Super Rugby. They also pledged their support for the Kings’ inclusion in 2013 as well as for Saru’s efforts to persuade Sanzar to include a sixth South African franchise.’
A letter from the five franchises to Saru president Oregan Hoskins stated:
* That such inclusion will benefit South African rugby in general;
* That none of the existing franchises shall be prejudiced by such inclusion in any way whatsoever;
* That none of the existing franchises shall be eliminated from the tournament in 2013 or at any stage thereafter as a result of the inclusion of the Kings;
* That Saru, as custodian of the South African leg of the tournament, will ensure that the Kings are included without prejudice to any of the existing franchises.
However, Peters insisted that no such concession can be made in light of the current tournament model being sold to broadcast and commercial partners until 2015 and the conference system being unable to function with an uneven number of teams.
‘The reality is that expansion of Super Rugby is not possible at this stage,’ Peters told keo.co.za. ‘Before their inclusion, the Kings’ aspirations were discussed in detail. How they are accommodated is a domestic issue for South Africa. And while we are always open to dialogue on this issue, it is incumbent upon them to make the necessary adjustments to facilitate the Kings’ inclusion.’
Peters added that they had explored a wide range of format options prior to settling on the current model and that there simply was no viable alternative to it at present. He added that New Zealand and Australia, the latter recording a 41% increase in television viewership in 2011, were opposed to any change in the format.
‘The Reds won the competition last year and I know other Australian franchises feel confident they can replicate that success, so it is understandable that there would be resistance to this idea from them. New Zealand are pleased with the model. They are realistic about the number of franchises they can field before the quality of those franchises is compromised,’ he said.
‘Also, we’re in year two of Super Rugby. The tournament in this guise is still in its infancy. It is nonsensical on a number of levels to alter its form.’
A final decision on the matter is expected on 31 March once all discussions have concluded.
By Ryan Vrede
Read Mark Keohane’s view on this issue here
Follow Ryan on Twitter
Follow SA Rugby magazine on Twitter
370 Comments
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14 Feb 2012, 14:43 pm
Dilbert November?????????????
seriously?
LMAO
14 Feb 2012, 14:44 pm
@Michael-157: wrong,they conveniently don’t wanna recognise it,because,if they do,it will go against their god-given belief that rugby can only be played in sa by the afrikaner.
14 Feb 2012, 14:46 pm
I am suprised no journalist has yet confronted the Lions creditors with questions or done a bit of digging.
Do you guys think GUMA will get a stake in the Spears and if so at what price? Do you think the spears will play games at Soccer city?
14 Feb 2012, 14:47 pm
@au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir…-195:how come?the kings are playing their b or c team.yes,if the lions don’t beat them convincingly then we might just have to wonder…….
14 Feb 2012, 14:50 pm
@Train-203: i am surprised that sars haven’t investigated them for tax fraud.how is it possible for two or more companies,connected to the lions,share one tax or vat number?
14 Feb 2012, 15:00 pm
@clm-205: Sheezus…. Capo with this comment you prove yourself to be one special kind of invalid…. I couldn’t insult you intelligence better if I tried…. Farken idjit of note
14 Feb 2012, 15:04 pm
@clm-204:
lets be realistic about this.
as bad as the lions have been in super rugby they would still make rude love to the kings under any and all circumstances irrespective of the teams fielded from now until jehovah comes.
you saw what they did to the sharks’ super rugby outfit in the currie cup final.
as well wp in the semi.
14 Feb 2012, 15:14 pm
@au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir…-207:
don’t talk to him about rude love.
for the sake of the poodles.
14 Feb 2012, 15:16 pm
I am very interested in how SA Rugby will deal with this mess.
14 Feb 2012, 15:23 pm
Keohane on Twiiter is smugness personified. Stuff like “Lions fans better get used to their last season in Super Rugby” and more in that vein. He’s gloating like some little office brown-noser who just got promoted to stationery cupboard supervisor against all odds. If anyone has contact with him, tell the little urchin that 500 of the katman’s SA Ront say that the Kings will not be playing Super Rugby next year. If he has any balls and conviction, he can find me here and put his Watsondollars where his big mouth is.
14 Feb 2012, 15:27 pm
@>^..^< katman-210:
Mail him!
Follow him on twitter!
Tweet him!
14 Feb 2012, 15:29 pm
@>^..^< katman-210:
Keo’s tired old strategy is to repetitively state something as an established fact, in the hope that it will then become reality.
Butch James for starting World Cup 10 ring a bell?
Gert Smal a certainty for Bok coach?
Keohane says it in that indescribably irritating smug little way of his, which at the same time tries to convey the idea that he has inside konwledge that no one else has access to and that you’re an idiot for daring to dispute his omniscience.
Then when it doesn’t happen, he continues as if he never made an utter fool of himself. Or he tries to pretend that it DID in fact happen, but for the fine print. Again, recall the Butch-the-staring-Bok-flyhalf saga.
He’s a plonker. Just gotta accept it and read his posts in that light.
14 Feb 2012, 15:29 pm
@>^..^< katman-210: that wee little man stole our Keo dollars – he and his leprecheaun mates will not think twice of robbing your house of all its valuables while you sleep. Beware the dwarf man.
14 Feb 2012, 15:35 pm
@Tacitus-212: He thinks that posting a banner ad here telling us about some journalism award he won makes him absolutely right in everything. The way he conflates the Lions’ financial trouble with the Kings’ so-called claim to Super Rugby is just baffling. What does the one have to do with the other? Yet he states over and bloody over that the one justifies the other, finish en klaar. My bullshit detector goes beserk when he starts making claims.
14 Feb 2012, 15:39 pm
@>^..^< katman-210: well,he is perfectly entitled to his opinion …..and he might just be totally right.the pride will be no more after 2012 imho.
14 Feb 2012, 15:39 pm
@>^..^< katman-214:
Wasn’t he claiming at one stage that JWWW was cheap at twice the price?
Only to do an about turn once that relationship soured?
At the moment the Kings are his JWWW and every word he writes is of course absolutely unbiased and without any hidden agenda. He is just doing his civic duty, fighting in Cheeky’s corner.
14 Feb 2012, 15:41 pm
@clm-215: No one asked you.
And what’s more, many posters here have pets. So that restraining order the SPCA has against you should also prevent you from logging on here and entering our homes virtually.
Do the right thing and piss off.
14 Feb 2012, 15:43 pm
@Tacitus-216: Although it’s a tiny pond here in SA, keo reckons he’s the best spin money can buy in the sports marketing game.
14 Feb 2012, 15:46 pm
What odds on Keo being paid by Cheeky to drive the nail into the Lions coffin?
14 Feb 2012, 15:50 pm
@>^..^< katman-218:
As I posted yesterday, I predict a massive “Racist expose” on the Lions or some other SARU affiliated organisation, to weaken SARU’s position utterly and basically force them to bend over and accept the Kings’ terms or else.
With Cheeky’s pals in parliament making big noises on cue, threatening armageddon-like investigations into whatever “claims” the expose supposedly unearthed.
That’s the type of dirty tricks I associate with these “spin doctors”. Just wait and see.
14 Feb 2012, 15:51 pm
@hendrikp-219: I’m sure Cheeky is fighting this on many fronts. It’s called a 360 degree strategy. Keo is probably one of many channels.
14 Feb 2012, 16:03 pm
@stormersboy-149: before you get yourself in knots making Kamps and making laagers so that you can easily deal with comments that you don’t agree with, this is what i said on the day of the announcement.
149.Transformation:
27 Jan 2012, 13:15 pm
i don’t know why you lot are so worked up, this is how SARU strings the Eastern Cape along, how come if they can vote unanimously on the fact that the Kings should participate they can’t decide there and then how it will go down?
the Spears were ALSO promised that they were definitely going to play super rugby and what followed was Regan Hoskins using R10 million rand of SARU money in legal fees to get rid of the Spears.
this is what they did with the Currie Cup too, they decided 6 teams will make up Premier Div and only after the competition was done did they tell us, there will be no promotion/relegation games, so Boland’s win of the 1st Div is WORTHLESS
remember this post, the Kings won’t be playing Super rugby next year!
14 Feb 2012, 16:05 pm
@Tacitus-220: I wouldn’t be at all surprised. And keo will stick around with his new friends like a dog at a braai as long as the going appears to be good. But at the first sniff of the Eastern Cape ostracising itself again, and its rich benefactor pulling out like a fast-sobering groom on his stag night, then keo and HSM will turn tail and head for the next “sure thing”.
14 Feb 2012, 16:05 pm
And so it goes on day after day, week after week, month after month and season after season for years upon years now. This one problem is fast approaching 10 years now.
The same old cycle, the same old s hit, recycled and presented as if it is new.These dishonest misfits, kith and kin of the Kloppers,Naudes, Du Plessis, V.d Merwes(the founders of the Broederbond) go on and on about nothing in their religion of ugly rugby(or would thugby be more fitting).
The cultural interferences and subsequent sins of the founders(they have given us S.A.rugby in its present, reformed, neo-racist format) being visited upon the children.
The response of the children to all of this is merely to behave like sickly ‘manged’ dogs chasing their tails furiously cycle after cycle and getting just ‘f o k k en’ nowhere very fast.
Stop your maddening cycle of dishonesty and move forwards. Even backwards to naked RACISM is better than this demeaning behaviour of supposedly ‘mature men’.
14 Feb 2012, 16:06 pm
@>^..^< katman-217: this is an open forum and if you don’t like it you can always go and post on the koeksister website where you have to provide your id number for acceptance.
14 Feb 2012, 16:08 pm
@>^..^< katman-174: Thank you for that nauseating mental image.
14 Feb 2012, 16:08 pm
@clm-225: I don’t know that site. So why don’t you go there and I’ll stay here?
14 Feb 2012, 16:08 pm
@ET.-224:
What
the
F&^%!
are you doing here?
Get back to your kennel. Dimwit.
14 Feb 2012, 16:12 pm
How do you get fired from SARU? Or how do you get appointed to be one of the big guns at SARU??
14 Feb 2012, 16:12 pm
@ET.-224: i believe that this race-based entitlement comes down to that vow the plonkers made at bloedrivier.
14 Feb 2012, 16:14 pm
@Transformation-222: I’ve stood on record stating that the inclusion of the kings would probably be to WP’s benefit.
What is unclear to me, and that’s why I mentioned it, is where you stand on the issue.
I know what you think will happen. That the Kings will probably get shafted (I personally am not sure)
But what I’m keen to hear from you is what you would like to see happen and why.
I.e. I think that the Kings should/shouldn’t (delete whichever isn’t applicable) be included next year and why/why not.
Really keen to hear your thoughts.
14 Feb 2012, 16:16 pm
@Atreides-226: I aim to please.
14 Feb 2012, 16:17 pm
@Tacitus-228:
14 Feb 2012, 16:19 pm
@>^..^< katman-227: i am not eligible…..you have to pass the pencil test and have a ox-wagon license.
14 Feb 2012, 16:19 pm
@Dawn-233:
Sorry about that. It was uncharacteristic of me. I’ll switch on the ignore function again.
14 Feb 2012, 16:20 pm
@Tacitus-235:
No problem.
I see you are human after all.
14 Feb 2012, 16:20 pm
@the artist formerly known as Cun.t(her)-48:
” I am secure enough in my masculinity …. ”
WHAT? Really now?
Do you not truly mean that shameful ‘shemalinity’?
Surely even you know the essence of “masculinity” is the pitter-patter of children’s feet scurrying across the floor. Wonderful sound even on a Valentine’s Day.
How many pairs of feet has this ‘shigolo’, Cun.t(her), blessed S.A. with? Is it 10?
Is that figure one misplaced in front of the zero(0)?
Have you used the ‘mielies en hoender ‘ remedy yet?
Have you unravelled the wise use of the magical “haploid cells”? Do you even know that it has the ‘n’ number of genes and not the ’2n’ number?
You have dug this hole so call it what you may,
14 Feb 2012, 16:37 pm
@clm-230: Nope, more from not f ucking up pretty much everything we touch
14 Feb 2012, 16:37 pm
@ET.-237:
nope read it again.
you impotent old cape spanish troll.
14 Feb 2012, 16:38 pm
@ET.-237: I believe you are very sort after as a spelling teacher?
14 Feb 2012, 16:44 pm
@ET.-237: i understand he is the pink bunny at mavericks.
14 Feb 2012, 16:44 pm
@Atreides-240:
Indeed. his sort is sort after.
14 Feb 2012, 16:46 pm
@clm-241:
And how would you know that.
14 Feb 2012, 16:46 pm
@stormersboy-231: all i want is for all the unions affiliated to SARU to be included in Super Rugby so that all the benefits that accrue from that competition are shared EQUITABLY.
14 Feb 2012, 16:47 pm
@Atreides-240:
whenever he isn’t quirping.
he’s a regular corpus our khakiballs.
14 Feb 2012, 16:52 pm
@Transformation-244: Is it shared equitably in NZ?
14 Feb 2012, 16:52 pm
@stormersboy-154:
Careful now, just now Ryan Vrede will come on here and tell you to dry your ******* tears and that they have very good reasons to post 5 Kings articles in 2 days which is none of our business to know why!
14 Feb 2012, 16:54 pm
@Tactless-228:
The heroism of your pedigree getting to you?
And now with your post 228 another LIE being exposed as you try to recover in post 235 with yet another lie?
It all comes very easy to you broeders, as it was all set in play by the founding fathers of Kloppers,Naude, Du Plessi and V.D Merwe all later joined in ‘broederskap’ by all those Malans(Avril, Abe etc.), Verwoerd,Vorster,Anton Rupert, Botha etc., etc.
Another one bites the dust.
14 Feb 2012, 17:00 pm
@willievz-246: well i wouldn’t know what the NZRU is doing mate
14 Feb 2012, 17:00 pm
Pissant
See what bedfellows you have in this dodgy cause you’re backing?
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