KEY POINTS:
Next year's Super 14 draw has left both the Blues and Waratahs fuming about their respective fates.
The Blues had been scheduled to play the Crusaders in their final round-robin game but that encounter has been switched to round one, costing the franchise an estimated 10,000 ticket sales.
The Waratahs, after making the final last year, have been hit with the bad news they will have to make two trips to South Africa.
No other team will have the same travel burden, although the Highlanders will have to play a game in Perth then return to New Zealand rather than playing the Western Force on route to South Africa.
Having to make two trips to South Africa will seriously impact the preparation and recovery of the players.
Blues chief executive Andy Dalton said: "We were scheduled to play the Crusaders in round 14 as part of the five-year draw. The idea behind that was to rotate teams on a fair basis so you play different teams at different times of the season. We opened our season against the Crusaders in 2007.
"I think the best way to explain the impact is this; we had 37,000 watch our last game this year against the Hurricanes and assuming the Blues were tracking well, we would expect similar interest for the Crusaders clash in round 14 next year.
"I can't put a cash figure on that off the top of my head but it is significant," Dalton said.
The catalyst for changing the original draw was the decision to extend the playoff rounds to include six teams.
With test matches to be played in June, Sanzar couldn't push the competition to finish later and the idea of playing mid-week games was vetoed as it would be too demanding on the players.
One other possibility was to remove the bye round but that created too many complications so the decision was reached to start the competition a week earlier.
The solution reached was to switch round 14 in the original draw to round one - which means the Waratahs will play the Cats in South Africa in round one, then fly to Wellington to play the Hurricanes with a second trip to South Africa in rounds 13 and 14.
A spokesman for New South Wales said he couldn't comment until the draw was confirmed but it was unlikely anyone from the Waratahs would have anything positive to say about their itinerary.
Starting earlier means the Blues game against the Crusaders will be played on Waitangi Day.
Not only are several thousand prospective fans likely to be out of the city on holiday at that time, the game will also clash with the Wellington Sevens.
"It would be nice to play that game when there are actually some people in Auckland," said Dalton.
