VIDEO: SARU confirms SANZAAR stay
REACTION: Japan may be on the outer, but South Africa appear to be firmly entrenched in the SANZAAR team.
It was confirmed on Friday that the Tokyo-based Sunwolves, currently fourth in the five-team Australian Super Rugby conference, will be axed from the competition in 2021 – when SANZAAR’s current broadcast deal expires.
The Sunwolves were introduced in 2016 to bring rugby to new markets, but SANZAAR said it wasn’t prepared to bankroll the perennial wooden-spooners after Japan’s rugby board withdrew financial support.
This comes amidst continued uncertainty about the long-term future of SANZAAR.
Reports abound that additional South African teams are looking to join the Cheetahs and Southern Kings in Europe.
Some even suggested the South African Rugby Union could make a clean break from SANZAAR.
However, Rugby Australia Chief Executive Raelene Castle revealed that they have assurances that SARU is committed to Super Rugby.
Castle was speaking after SANZAAR released an update on the future of Super Rugby – which will see the creation of a 14-team competition from 2021 onwards.
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Castle said SARU had publicly declared their commitment to the alliance.
She said for a “whole lot of reasons” Australia’s best interests were definitely to remain alongside South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina in the SANZAAR alliance.
“[We are] very comfortable with the relationships that we have with our SANZAAR partners and those relationships are incredibly important – not just when you’re talking about delivering outcomes to a Super Rugby competition, but also when you’re sitting around the World Rugby table,” Castle said.
“We have got history together as part of the Super Rugby competition.
“There is no doubt when you bring the financial and commercial opportunities out of three markets that adds to the potential for Rugby Australia around it’s commercial objectives.
“The South Africans add some capability to the competition from the different side of play, which is important when you’re thinking about growing Wallabies in the future.
“And we have this thing called the Northern Hemisphere at the World Rugby table, and the Southern Hemisphere need to be united and aligned.
“That’s important where we are, because when it comes to World Nations Championship-type competitions, you need to have some alignment.
“So all of those bits come together for us and our fan research suggested that they want to see a competition that has South Africa in it.
“So when you bring all those bits together we believe it is the right structure.”
SANZAAR said they’d issue updates about the Rugby Championship make-up at a later time, no doubt waiting on whether the Nations Championships concept gets up.
Source: @rugbycomau
