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June deadline as South Africa prepares to cut Super Rugby franchises

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South African rugby has become “diluted” with six teams in Super Rugby and the revamped format for 2018 could bring greater quality for the Springboks, says Jurie Roux.

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The South African Rugby chief executive was speaking after SANZAAR announced the plans to change Super Rugby from an 18-team competition to 15 next year.

Under the new guidelines South Africa will only have four representatives in the tournament, meaning two will be cut.

Roux acknowledged the reduction in South African teams was “unavoidable” after struggling for competitiveness in recent seasons.

In 2016 only Lions made it through the quarter-finals, and they were eventually beaten 20-3 in the final by Hurricanes.

Of the South African franchises only Bulls have won the Super Rugby title – on three occasions – and their last success came seven years ago.

“The 18-team Super Rugby competition has not worked and we had to face up to that hard fact,” said Roux in a statement.

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“The integrity of the format and the lack of competitiveness in too many matches were major issues that needed addressing.

“From a South African rugby high-performance perspective, we’ve had to acknowledge that the dilution of talent and resources across six franchises – at a time when rand weakness has led to more departures to Europe and Japan – has seriously affected our ability to compete across the board.

“As a rugby nation, we need several strong franchises all of whom are in with a serious chance of challenging for the title and we could no longer say that.

“A reduction in the number of South African franchises was the unavoidable conclusion, especially when put in the context of SANZAAR’s long-term strategy of adding to our tournament’s appeal and commercial success which, in time, will mean greater returns for SA Rugby.

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“Retaining a number of under-performing teams in Super Rugby makes no sense from a high performance or financial point of view. We no longer have the resources to support them to the required level.”

The six franchises will have until June to stake their claim for a place in the revamped format of the competition.

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Nickers 25 minutes ago
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I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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