Gregor Paul: Expansion into the USA the last thing Super Rugby needs

The USA might be the sleeping giant of world rugby but Sanzaar has no business waking it. Photo / Photosport

It is reassuring that Sanzaar finally has a strategic plan but not so much that they have their eye on expansion into the USA.

That's an idea to ditch before it gains any traction. America is a sleeping giant, but Sanzaar shouldn't be the one that feels the responsibility to try to wake it up.

Let USA Rugby develop rugby in the USA. A professional competition surfaced in the US in 2016 and lasted a season before it collapsed and it should now be a decision for Americans whether they give it another go, sweep up the broken pieces of ProRugby and see if it can be put back together in a different, sustainable way.

The USA has everything it needs - a huge economy, massive population, growing interest and playing numbers - to make a successful, domestic, professional competition.

And it is never going to be a genuine or even semi-genuine rugby force unless it builds its own competition which provides a pathway for American players.

Sanzaar should leave America be and drop it from its strategic thinking.

In fact, Sanzaar should drop any thoughts of expansion from its strategic thinking.

At least in the short term.

The last thing Super Rugby needs is yet more significant change to the format. The last few years have killed the credibility of Super Rugby - given the distinct impression that the people running it don't know really know what kind of competition they want it to be.

Constant change has eroded fan confidence and interest and if there is more change in 2021, another new format to understand and get to grips with, then Super Rugby might not survive the backlash.

The declining financial returns from gate receipts has been the undeniable evidence that fans are sick of constant change and are struggling to engage with something that doesn't have the confidence in itself to stay the same.

Sanzaar would frankly be mad if it looked to expand the competition from 2021. The picture has been erratic in the last 15 years: increase from 12 to 14 teams in 2006.

Change to 15 teams and three conferences in 2011. Change to 18 teams and four conferences in 2016 and a reversion to 15 teams and three conferences in 2018.

Stability and consistency are the bedrocks on which Super Rugby has to be built. Fans need certainty and security and expansion, given how badly it has fared in the past, makes everyone a little nervous.

Sanzaar CEO Andy Marinos. Photo / Getty

The new teams haven't brought the exotic as Sanzaar hoped. They have instead brought mediocrity, mundanity and a giant sense of boredom.

That word may seem strong but watching the Kings when they were around was boring? They were always going to lose regardless of who they were playing.

It's the same with the Sunwolves - they start each game, even against the Blues, as the rank outsiders knowing that an impossibly long list of things will have to go right for them to have any chance of winning.

If there is to be any change in 2021 it can't be the number of teams. But it could be viable, even advisable, for Sanzaar to boot out the Sunwolves at the end of the current broadcast deal and bring in a Pacific team that would be based in Fiji.

The Sunwolves have added little to Super Rugby and confused the picture in Japan where there is already a vibrant and compelling professional competition.

Swapping Fiji for Japan would keep the 15-team three conference format, cut travel time and costs and potentially give Super Rugby an immediate contender, or at least a team with the potential to win more than they lose.

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