KEY POINTS:
As the future structure of Super Rugby gets clearer the make-up of the Tri Nations is starting to get a little murky.
Sanzar officials agreed late last week to engage the US, Canada, Argentina, Japan and the Pacific Islands in discussions about a revamped Super 14.
By September Sanzar hopes to have a clear format to present broadcast partners, with a view to having their new Super Rugby competition up and running by 2010.
But they face a tougher task in assessing how to shape the international component. Under the current broadcast deal the Tri Nations earns about 60 per cent of the income, with the Super 14 accounting for about 30 per cent.
Test football, and the All Blacks in particular, remain the key attraction for News International, the most likely buyer of the next broadcast package.
News and Sanzar officials both agree that the extended Tri Nations format, in which each country clashes three times, has failed to engage spectators.
Going back to the original set-up of each team playing just twice would reduce the potential value of the package and still leave spectators largely disinterested.
It would also be a risk to whet the appetite for more exotic flavours by introducing franchises in the Pacific Islands, Japan, Argentina, Canada and the US and then keep those nations out of the international competition.
The Tri Nations is as much in need of an overhaul as the Super 14, yet there are complications in simply inviting Argentina and the Pacific Islands - Japan, USA and Canada don't have the quality yet - to make a Five Nations.
The bulk of Argentina's players, as well as those of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, are based in Europe. Whatever else might change in the brave new world, the timing of the competition will remain roughly the same - running from July to September.
That prevents both Argentina and either a combined Pacific Islands team or one of the three individual nations, depending on how things are structured, from gaining access to their best players.
A competition featuring full-strength New Zealand, Australian and South Africa teams and a half-strength Argentina and Pacific Islands would be a disaster.
New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew was in Dublin last week for Sanzar and IRB meetings and said there were robust discussions about player-release initiatives.
"We spent some time discussing regulation nine, which deals with player release," he said. "That is still a work in progress."
Sanzar bosses hope they can appeal to the European club owners to show some leniency around releasing Argentinian and Pacific Island players outside official IRB test windows.
July and most of August are pre-season periods in the Northern Hemisphere so clubs could be leant upon to release test players to play in an extended Southern Hemisphere international competition.
And this is where things get tricky for Sanzar. The European clubs are notoriously difficult on the issue of player release. There is also the danger that they agree to compromise but, come the time, individuals are suddenly diagnosed with mystery leg strains and are declared unfit to play, yet front up for their club a week later.
So the risk is that Sanzar tries to sell News a Five Nations format with no guarantee in place it can deliver.
Yet, they don't want to be too conservative and stick with a tired Tri Nations format.
If the new competition allows franchises to select players from around the world then it is hoped enough Argentinian and Pacific Islanders will be involved so as to enable the Pumas and Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to have guaranteed access to strong teams during the Tri Nations.
All these unknowns make it hard for Sanzar bosses to know what to pitch to News International inSeptember.
They just can't be sure what the best formula is for the international component of their offering.
All they do know is that they have to get it right.
