I know it is a bit early to discuss but save this article as a guideline. Not all is revealed yet but this is what is known about the Super 15
The format for the Super15 is not yet completely set in stone because the dates have not yet been released but this is what we know so far. Once the fixtures are released it will make more sense.
There will be three pools or geographic conferences each containing five teams.
Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will each host one pool and the new 15th team will participate in the Australian pool.
The new team is from Melbourne and they are the Melbourne Rebels.
The tournament will start in late February each year with a couple of exceptions.
In 2011 and other world cup years the tournament will start earlier to make space for the world cup.
British and Irish Lions tour years (ie. 2013) could also see the tournament being forced to start two to three weeks earlier.
Super 15 Phase One
The tournament will start with a series of teams playing the other teams in their own conference. Teams will not travel out of their home country at this stage and they will play each team in their conference. (4 Matches per team)
Super 15 Phase Two
After the first round of conference games the teams will then play four of the five teams in each of the other two conferences. Under this format it is possibly that a team such as the Bulls could miss out on playing the Crusaders one year as the teams will play four of the five teams in the other conferences. They could however meet in the play offs.
These eight games will be a mix of home and away games as they are with the Super14. (Another 8 Matches = 12 in total so far)
Super 15 Phase Three
The tournament will then return to a conference format again and another round of domestic challenges as in Phase One but with the venues reversed. This means that each team in a conference will have a home and an away match with their fellow conference teams by the end of the tournament. (Another 4 matches, bringing the total to 16 matches)
Once these three stages are complete teams will have played a total of 16 round-robin games.
A winner from each conference will be determined from the results in the previous three stages. Each conference will have one winner and therefore Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will each be gauranteed to have one team participating in the finals..
Super 15 Phase Four
NOTE: Due to 2011 being a Rugby World Cup year the June Internationals appear have been suspended across the board.
The Super15’s fourth phase is not really a stage of the tournament at all as the tournament takes a break in June when the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies will host tours from international teams – historically from the Northern Hemisphere – these are usually known as the June tours. Once the June tours are complete, the Super 15 resumes and the finals start.
Super 15 Phase Five/Finals
The new format for the Super 15 finals is an expanded format and will feature six teams rather than the Super14’s four team format. The six teams will be made up of the conference winners and the three next teams with the highest total number of points. The top two ranked conference winners get a first round bye in the playoffs.
The expanded finals is expected to start in July and will therefore finish in early August.
Deciding who plays who
Deciding who plays who in the Super 15 could be a case of the teams being given alphabetic names in order to determine which teams miss playing other teams due to the congested fixtures.
This means that it could be a case of “B for Brumbies” if an alphabetical system is approved to determine the draw for next year’s inaugural Super 15 , enabling the ACT side to avoid playing the Bulls and the Blues in 2011 according to the Australian.
With next year’s competition being played under a conference system, with the five teams in each of the Australian, New Zealand and South African conferences playing each other on a home and away basis before combating their foreign opponents, the draw will be too crowded to allow all teams to play each other during the course of the regular season.
SANZAR have all but decided that each team will miss an opponent from the other two conferences.
Each year for the next five years the draw will rotate so that at the end of that period every side will have missed every other foreign side once.
Precisely how the rotation system will operate has not been determined but a telephone hook-up of SANZAR officials with broadcasters will discuss a range of options, the most likely being simply listing the teams in each conference alphabetically by their popular names – hence “Waratahs” not “NSW” – and pairing them off next year against their corresponding New Zealand and South African sides.
If that system is endorsed, the Brumbies would be the first team to benefit, dodging the Bulls and the Blues, the former a two-time Super rugby winner, in 2007 and 2009, the latter a triple champion, in 1996, 1997 and 2003.
A few more Notes
8 home games. 4 against own conference sides. 4 against other conference sides-(2 Australian and 2 New Zealand sides).
The 15 teams will compete in an expanded 24-week competition
The competition will stretch from the last weekend in February to the first week of August
A six-team finals series includes an extra round with two “sudden-death” qualifiers before the semi-finals.
At least one team from each of the three countries will be included in the finals series.
All teams will get a three-week bye while the tournament is suspended during the window for June internationals.
The flow-on effect is that the Tri-Nations will be shifted to later in the calendar so it still runs at the conclusion of the Super 15 season.
Am i right to say that come the 6 team play offs, a country can have 4 teams there?
and then
End up with 3 in the Semi finals?
Thanks, now it is still as clear as mud!
I personally don’t like this system at all. So some teams will miss playing the top sides? Would rather we just have carried on the way the S14 is now. Just add that other game with the Rebels.
Far too much rugby already being played.
1 – Super, Yes that will happen. From what I have read above. Each country will have one in the top 3 the rest will come from being 4th, 5th and 6th. So yes, it could be that a country could have 4 in the top 6.
2 – gbs, hahahahahahahahaha. Ja, you can say that again 😀
Good morning everyone!!!!!
Ek is nou so gedisconf&%ulate!!!! weet nie wat hier aangaan nie 🙂
5@ Trippie – Calm down, smoke a siggie, if you still do smoke… read it again… and then just give up!
Hehehehe
No boys it is easy
First we play a single round in SA, we will play the second game later in rd 3
Round 2 we play 2 NZ teams Away and hopefully 2 Aus teams away in a row
The 4 games home against them(the away lot)can be either before you leave or after you leave or 2 before and 2 after or 3 here before or 3 after….. Now hows that for clearing it up. 😆
must say i understand why the draw is not out yet, they need a bit of time to understand it themselves.
Gerook gekallemeeeer en gestook, nogsteeds gedisconf&%ulate!!! hahahaha
Ag ok, verstaan so bietjie
7…dankie tog, is net ‘n bul wat ‘n ding so kan verduidelik 😆
A great mind like Albert Einstein once said: Keep it simple, but not simpler. With 5 x phases instead of 2 x phases it will never be simple. Even the simpler version of 1 x phase will be preferable.
It is such a long competition why did they not play each other once anyway. This in fact extends it more.
If they kept the old format it would have been 14 game for each team , now it is 16 and they miss two teams completely.
Kak sisteem, ons gaan amper ‘n donnerse jaar vat om uit te vind wie wen, ons gaan nie ‘n clue he wie loop voor nie, geen measure van hoe sterk ons spanne rerig is nie.
Hierdie sisteem gaan ons rugby net opfok, algeheel, mense gaan squads van 60 of meer moet he om hierdeur te kom, so Australie gaan lekker afkak, al voordeel is, ons het die Lions/Kings en die Cheetahs as bonus games in ons conference.
Ek kan nie sien hoe hierdie sisteem goed gaan wees vir rugby in die geheel nie. Suidelike halfrond spanne gaan soveel games speel, dat ons basies easy pickings vir die Noordelike halfrond wees. Onthou Argentinie speel ook nou Tri-Nations.
Ons is geflok!
11 – Yip, Super I agree there. Would just have kept the old format and playing all 14 teams. Now some teams can miss playing the top teams. Not keen on this new system.
Okay out of here catch up later.
This format will help SA top teams, cause we have weak teams like the Lions and Cheetahs to milk for points.
This system is from Australia, it will see them play rugby the whole year long. We should incorporate the two SA phases with the Currie Cup somehow.
What i dislike most is the big break between the league part and the 6 team final playoffs. I even hated the 2 week wait in the CC between the semi and the final. Waiting a month , i will lose interest.
15
Snoek yes that will work, let the CC run with the S14 , and let the S14 games between the 5 SA teams count for the CC.
Ek dink ook nie die sisteem gaan werk nie.
Dan word die toetse ook nog tussen-in gespeel. Hoeveel games gaan die manne moet speel?
Word 3 of 4 van jou spelers in die toetse beseer speel jy ook met ‘n ander span na die periode. Ja beserings kan enige tyd of plek gebeur, hierdie verhoog net die kanse…
Gebruik eerder ‘n pool A en B.
Laat boonste 4 in elke pool “Quaters, semi’s & finals” speel… So iets.
The only way this could work is if the Super 15 Domestic games also DOUBLE UP as Currie Cup fixtures at the same time, otherwise there’s just too much rugby in 1 season.
@ 17 superBul
That will work really well, but for the people making money out of this competitions it won’t make sense.
Effectively cutting broadcasted games in halve…
Could work though…
I would play the CC in 2 sections of 5 teams each, the S14 group and the Rest of SA group
That will expand it to 10 teams
Top 4 in each go to 1/4 finals , so only the 2 worst teams fall out
Dit suig.
14 – Snoek, Cause it will be derby games don’t think we will pick up easy 5 points from either the Cheetahs or Lions. These derby games against each are normally very tough. For some reason when we play each other here we just want to smash each other up. I think we will have more injuries. Those teams raise their game playing a saffa side.
We got beaten by the Cheetahs and only just mangaged to beat the Lions. Yes with a bonus but remember Stormers never even got a bonus against the Lions.
I personally don’t like the new system. Much prefer the S14 the way it is. Just add the Rebel team to it. That should have been the way to go.
23 – mangaged meant managed
Right – 18 Teams(include Arg)
2 Pools
Pool 1) ARG, Bulls, Stormers, Waratahs, Force, Chiefs, hurricanes, Cheetahs
Pool 2) Rebels, Brumbies, Reds, Crusaders, Highlanders, Sharks, Lions, Blues
Each team in pool play the other once
Log agter pool rounds:
pool 1) Pool 2)
Bulls 🙂 Crusaders
Stormers Sharks
Waratahs Brumbies
hurricanes Blues
Chiefs Reds
ARG Rebels
Force Higlanders
Cheetahs Lions
That is a total of 7 games played
Bottom 3 of each pool goes and play in a tournament with Japan and or Tonga, the whole tournament being played in one country like the WC.
The top 5 of pool 1 plays the top 5 of pool 2.
Total 12 games for top teams.
Semi’s and finals for top 4 and bob’s your uncle.
Quality over quantity and the tv schedule sees more matches with the cellar dwellers comp too.
Should be 16 teams
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