Joe King
Dave Cowper (27)
I support the idea of 5 OZ franchises, because you can have almost 200 hired players for Wallabies playing Super Rugby level but not at this cost. If the ARU don't have the money and depth to have 5 competitive franchises then is not the way. To attract companies to invest in Super Rugby you need succesfull teams or at least competitive teams, if your 5 teams are smashed by everybody, not only by the migthy Kiwis, then is not a sustainable format.
With the performances of 2016 and 2017, I suggest back to the 3 teams format. You need to be competitive to attract sponsors and new supporters or you can be the NZ Warriors of Super Rugby.
I can understand why NZ (and others) might be pushing for this from a competition point of view. Super Rugby needs to be of a significantly high standard to ultimately withstand Europe, if at all.
And I am prepared to accept this proposal *IF* there really is a problem with Oz depth and reducing a team would fix it.
Maybe this is the solution, but I'm not sure. It seems some Oz teams with plenty of Wallabies still don't win very consistently. So I don't know if adding a couple more Wallabies to each Oz team would do the trick.
Some would say the problem with the Oz teams is mainly to do with skills. And that this is a coaching/structural problem.
The solution might be in focusing on skills a lot more (especially for developing players) and letting the NRC run for a few more years.
I want to rule this out as the potential problem before we lose a team that we may not get back again.
So I really hope they go to 3x6 conferences for the remainder of the broadcast deal (2020): play everyone in own conference twice (10 games) + 3 teams from the other two conferences (6 games) = 8 home and 8 away games for each team. Plenty of local derbies + a sufficient amount of cross-conference games, without the travel being too strenuous particularly for the SA teams.
Then at the end of the broadcast deal, if no real improvement in the Oz depth (and SA financial problems), look to cut some teams and go back to 3x5 conferences (unless there is something even better by then).