S18 on its way

[Eyes and Ears]

2016 Super Rugby referees:
Federico Anselmi (Argentina - 0 Super Rugby, 7 Tests)*
Nic Berry (Australia - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Stuart Berry (South Africa - 21 Super Rugby, 5 Tests)
Nick Briant (New Zealand - 25 Super Rugby, 2 Tests)
Mike Fraser (New Zealand - 23 Super Rugby, 4 Tests)
Angus Gardner (Australia - 26 Super Rugby, 5 Tests)
Rohan Hoffman (Australia - 26 Super Rugby, 3 Tests)
William Houston (Australia - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Quinton Immelman (South Africa - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Glen Jackson (New Zealand- 41 Super Rugby, 16 Tests)
Craig Joubert (South Africa - 93 Super Rugby, 64 Tests)
Shuhei Kubo (Japan - 0 Super Rugby, 6 Tests)*
Andrew Lees (Australia - 22 Super Rugby, 2 Tests)
Jamie Nutbrown (New Zealand - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand - 5 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)
Jaco Peyper (South Africa - 59 Super Rugby, 29 Tests)
Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Chris Pollock (New Zealand - 70 Super Rugby, 22 Tests)
Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa - 9 Super Rugby, 1 Test)
Jaco van Heerden (South Africa - 6 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)
Paul Williams (New Zealand - 0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
* Denotes a new squad member in 2016

 

[TOCC]

2 new Aussie referees, Nic Berry and William Houston.

I really like Nic Berry as a ref, he is a former Reds halfback and spent a few years in France before he was forced into retirement due to concussions(I believe). He has only been referring a couple of seasons but obviously knows the game well and as like all halfbacks, won't shut up.

Glad to see O'Brien? Missing from the list, he had a few absolute shockers in 2015 and creates dour games.


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[qwerty51]

Yeah because he's too busy ruining the 7s circuit.

 

[Merrow]

Yeah because he's too busy ruining the 7s circuit.

And isn't he doing a fine job there?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Good to see Joubes back from purgatory following that penalty in RWC.

 

[Lindommer]

Why would Craig be sent to purgatory for his RWC performances?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

^^^ This.

 

[#1 Tah]

Rasta!!!! OMG!!!!

 

[Brumby Runner]

2 new Aussie referees, Nic Berry and William Houston.

I really like Nic Berry as a ref, he is a former Reds halfback and spent a few years in France before he was forced into retirement due to concussions(I believe). He has only been referring a couple of seasons but obviously knows the game well and as like all halfbacks, won't shut up.

Glad to see O'Brien? Missing from the list, he had a few absolute shockers in 2015 and creates dour games.


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I also like the look of Houston. Put in some good performances in the NRC after a strong SS last year.

Not sorry to see O'Brien go; now if only Glen Jackson would move on I could hopefully get over some of my ref-rage.

 

[TOCC]

Incredible distances needing to be travelled by the Sunwolves and Jaguars

 

[Highlander35]

Biggest difference between the two seems to be that the Japanese have the away match against the Argies. Otherwise it's ~1500km between the two.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^^^^^^ Sunwolves are in Africa 1 Conference, Jaguares in Africa 2.

 

[Highlander35]

Got it wrong anyway. Jaguars travel to Tokyo. Will be even worse for the Sunwolves next year I'd imagine then.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^^^^^^^^ Oops, momentarily forgot how the inter-conf side of things works. Won't be the last time, I'm sure. Someone really should write a blog article about it. Oh, wait

 

[Highlander35]

Everybody in your partner Conference once (4 games for the Saffa and International sides, 5 for the Australasians), one conference from the opposite group once (5 for the Saffa/Internationals, 4 for the Australasians) and 6 games from teams within your own conference (everybody twice for the Saffa/Internationals, 2 teams twice and 2 teams once for the Australasians).

It's a decent enough system, the problems that emerge are that the uneven conference sizes make the schedule utterly ridiculous. If it were 4 conferences of 4 teams each instead, it'd look much much nicer and be easier to figure out on the face of it.

 

[Hawko]

It's a decent enough system, the problems that emerge are that the uneven conference sizes make the schedule utterly ridiculous. If it were 4 conferences of 4 teams each instead, it'd look much much nicer and be easier to figure out on the face of it.

You and I must have a different understanding of "decent enough".

The problem is that the 16th team in is the Kings, with Jaguares and Sunwolves as 17 and 18. The whole point of the expansion was to get the Kings in, the Jaguares and Sunwolves were added to pacify those outside SA. So, if it is 16 teams it is no Jaguares or Sunwolves. That would have been a disaster with increased travel for at least some teams (those in the hybrid SA/Aust conference).

With 18 teams the sensible conferences are 3 X 6. Six SA teams, five Australian teams plus the Sunwolves, five NZ teams plus the Jaguares. Swap Jaguares and Sunwolves each alternate year to make it fairer. Instead we've got the dog's breakfast of a draw we have now.

I hope that we can morph this into a four conference competition - Americas, NZ, Aust and SA in two or three years, earlier if the Kings collapse, which is not unlikely. Until then we just have to suck it up.

 

[Slim 293]

I've said it many times before, but I'll say it again..............

Having a Japanese team in an African conference is just fucking stupid.

 

[Highlander35]

If you can't fit in a double round robin, the undisputed king of sports, conference systems are the only one that are remotely feasible.

It's almost beautiful from the South African side. Got the double round robin within their own conference so there's maximum opportunity for the double point games and to set yourself up with the top spot in your conference. You play everybody else in the partner conference to maximise the opportunity for a wildcard spot. Then you play the same cross group opponents as those within your own conference, so that home or away is the only difference, you still play the exact same teams.

It's certainly an absolute dogs dinner from this side of the Indian Ocean though, and should never have been approved in the first place, but whatever. The system would be mint in a 16 team league either with a partner conference and 14 games or a free for all and 18 games. Doesn't work here though. 4 is still the optimum number for a conference where you want a double round robin though. 6 teams would mean that the best part of 2/3rds of the games were within the own conference, even 5 was probably pushing it with 8 games.

Meh. This ended up going rather tangentially. I like playing with numbers, times and dates in my spare time. e.g, If the British and Irish Unions were to abandon europe and create their own Super Rugby, by promoting Bristol and getting one of the Caledonia Reds or the Border Reivers re-established in Scotland, they could run a 29 week conference based league quite easily.

Irish Conference, Welsh Conference, Scotland conference (plus Newcastle) and 3 English Conferences divided based on either geography, traditional rivalries or hell, whatever brings in the most money. Everybody in your own conference twice for 6 games, everybody else once for 20, and 3 rounds of knockout finals, with the top team of each conference plus the two best of the rest teams in the quarters, hosted by the best 4 conference toppers, before semi finals and the final held at predetermined Stadia.

What was I saying? Yes. Fairly simple in that it does make sense in concept, the implementation just couldn't be much worse unless all the conferences were different sizes.

 

[TOCC]

Doesn't help Japan that they have to play some 'home' games in Singapore just to appease the South Africans who are concerned about travel...


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[Lindommer]

The major problem for Super Rugby in 2016 was the insistence by the SAf government of the inclusion of the Kings together with the Saffers reluctance to play in Japan. The Kings' mother union, Eastern Province RU, has gone broke resulting in SARU taking over management of the Kings but the squad looks very thin. They're shaping up to be a joke.