Brumbies have 'simple' solution for complex format
The 2016 Super Rugby season will expand to its bulkiest ever, 18 teams, the SANZAR (now SANZAAR) competition the first that include teams outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The Jaguares (Argentina) and Sunwolves (Japan) join the Southern Kings (South Africa) as the latest additions.
However, the format is complicated and teams don't play all the other teams – despite a multitude of inter-conference and cross-conference games.
Dargaville, speaking to the media at the Brumbies' pre-season training base in Canberra, said they have taken a simplistic view of the competition.
"I have watched a video that simplified it, apparently, but it is still pretty complex," the utility back said.
"You have to finish on top of your pool, that is the most important aspect.
"It is simply a matter of winning as many games as we can, especially at home, and then at the end of the season being there or thereabouts.
"It is a matter of really preparing well and when you do face teams away, you have to bring your A Game."
The 18 teams will be grouped geographically.
There are two regional groups, each consisting of two conferences: the Australasian Group, with five teams in the Australian Conference and five teams in the New Zealand Conference and the South African Group, with six South African teams, one Argentinean team and one Japanese team split into a four-team Africa One Conference a four-team Africa Two Conference.
In the group stages, there will be 17 rounds of matches, where each team will play 15 matches and have two rounds of byes for a total of 135 matches.
Teams will play six intra-conference matches; in the four-team African Conferences, each team will play the other three teams in their conference home and away, while in the five-team Australasian Conferences, each team will play two teams home and away and will play once against the other two teams (one at home and one away).
The other nine matches will be a single round of matches against each team in the other conference in their group, as well as against each team from one of the conferences in the other group.
For 2016, the teams in Africa One will play the teams in the Australian Conference, while the teams in Africa Two will play the teams in the New Zealand Conference.
The top team in each of the four conferences will automatically qualify to the quarterfinals. The next top three teams in the Australasian Group and the next top team in the South African group will also qualify to the quarterfinals as wildcards.
The conference winners will be seeded No.1 to No.4 for the quarterfinals, in order of log points gained during the group stages, while the wildcards will be seeded as No.5 to No.8 in order of log points gained during the group stages.
In the quarterfinals, the conference winners will host the first round of the play-offs, with the highest-seeded conference winner hosting the fourth-seeded wildcard entry, the second-seeded conference winner hosting the third-seeded wildcard entry, the third-seeded conference winner hosting the second-seeded wildcard entry and the fourth-seeded conference winner hosting the top-seed wildcard entry.
The quarterfinal winners will progress to the semifinals, where the highest seed to reach the semifinals will host the lowest seed and the second-seeded semifinalist will host the third-seeded team.
The winner of the semifinals will progress to the Final, at the venue of the highest-seeded team.
