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Super Rugby conferences only serve to strengthen New Zealand rugby

Super Rugby evolution

All Blacks captain Kieran Read is the latest voice to call for a return to the old round-robin format to replace the controversial conference system in Super Rugby.

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“I like the idea of a full round robin where you play everyone once, but we can’t continue with this conference system moving forward,” Read told RadioLIVE.

“They have to work something out there before expansion. A round robin or something along those lines would be fairer for everyone and result in a better product for the fans who turn up every week,” he said.

The system was changed to cater to the fans and made some sense commercially. More local fixtures with home and away derbies would produce higher viewership in ideal timeslots. New teams in new countries would open up new rights deals.

The American model conference system was also supposed to prevent one country from dominating and taking all the playoff spots. The inter-conference battles would cause enough collateral damage to falsify the final standings. A team with 9 wins in the Australian conference looks the same on paper as a team with 9 wins in the New Zealand conference.

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What has transpired in recent years is not what the administrators planned for – the New Zealand conference has produced multiple teams with fantastic records, often with more competition points than the other conference winners. This has created a farcical playoff system that fails to produce fair outcomes for teams.

An unintentional side effect of this format is that Super Rugby serves to strengthen New Zealand Rugby. The New Zealand conference has the best talent pool and coaching in the competition, which has only advanced ahead of all others due to necessity. The conference has developed into a brutal competition of survival, where only the fittest survive. The vast injury tolls are a symptom of an unforgiving system that breeds winners. The Australian conference, by contrast, has fallen behind and is stuck there – they fail to get better by playing each other more than they play the best.

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The strong get stronger by virtue of tougher opponents and the weak are left behind.

A return to the round-robin format would fail to provide even contests for a while but would benefit Australian rugby in the long run as they get tested with greater competition more frequently.

Without being pushed to their limits in their intra-conference contests, they don’t know how far they have to go until they get wiped off the map by a high-powered Kiwi team. It happened again this year when early promise was met with dampened expectations when the first trans-Tasman clashes arrived.

The American model works because the talent is spread through equitable means – draft systems and free agency. That can’t, and will not happen in Super Rugby with national interests at play. The best they can do is to abolish the conference systems, which in the long run will stop New Zealand evolving so fast.

Competition breeds innovation, which is exactly what Australian rugby needs more of.

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Nickers 28 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

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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