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Could a British and Irish league finally be ready for take-off?
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this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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I was pretty adament SA wouldn't add much to European rugby. But I've been proven wrong, they have enlived the competition and are no pushovers. Your comments about the timezones show why a club world cup won't work too. Though I would love to see a Champions Cup vs Super Rugby match annually
Yeah I think an annual, limited comp would be good - though i'd go with URC, SR, Prem, Top 14 and it'd be great to find some way to include Japan League 1's winner too. Though probably more than 2 games is too many.
I didn't mean to say that SA didn't add to Super Rugby - especially early on they were crucial to it, just to try to show that its not that they were really good that helped NZ, because they weren't.
What NZR & Super Rugby needs to try to encourage is another team or two to play like the Blues & Brumbies - because especially the former played a massively forward oriented, direct and physical game - very much the DNA of South African rugby.
Do that, then Japan League 1 has so many better opportunities for NZ if we would just show a bit of humility and try to fix that relationship more. They increasingly have strong clubs, they are in the same timezone as NZ and play at fairly similar times of the year, it is about a natural fit for NZ & Aus as SA joining the URC is.
Yes, Japan in Super Rugby makes a lot of sense to me. And Argentina with MLR (who should also invite some Canadians too). And I never thought you did say that about SA, but I did!
Argentina has a couple of clubs in SRA, weirdly there’s also a USA based club. I wonder if there’s a a bit of friction between that comp and MLR. To be honest, I worry about the latter’s competitiveness given the age of some of the veterans still playing, and how many never would be Super Rugby players are so good in it. Having said that, it probably is about as good as SRA so a champions cup style thing ought to work for them if it’s financially viable.