Wynne Gray: Here's a plan to raise interest in Super 15

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The Super 15 should be altered before it lurches through one more season.

It is a series with too many weaknesses, too many iniquities - and it will get worse next year when it breaks for the June test series.

Already the competition feels too long and is meandering towards the playoffs with the bulk of the finalists sorted and five rounds left to play. National franchise matches are fine but double rounds create an imbalance.

Crowds have been modest except for matches like the Blues-Reds clash last night and television ratings are said to have dipped too.

All sorts of reasons are given, like the effects of the Christchurch earthquake, people using the recording benefits of MySky or fans saving their dosh for the World Cup.

Whatever, the figures are not flash. Here's a couple of ideas for retooling the series.

* Start it a month later in March and slash it to a transtasman contest just like the netball competition so we get all the games in a similar time-zone.

* Run the semi-professional ITM Cup at a similar time, perhaps as curtainraisers to the Super 15 matches. That would free up part of the congested rugby calendar and have fit replacements on tap if needed for Super 15 injuries.

* It may seem old-fashioned but every team should play each other. Then we can forget the imbalance of the Crusaders, for example, this season not playing weaker sides like the Lions and Rebels.

* Forget the June break for tests. About 130 players in the New Zealand sides should not have to down tools so 30 others can ply their international trade.

You can bet it will get worse. Whoever is the next All Black coach will want his players excused from the Super 15 for at least a week before the June test series and will then want them to rest for a week afterwards.

If the Wallaby and Springbok coaches are pulling their players out as well, it will leave a motley Super 15 series in what is supposed to be the high point of the tournament.

We're told South Africa brings a strong commercial component to the series but they also bring a so-what content with games screening in the middle of the night.

A transtasman competition would cut the travel, ramp up the sporting rivalry, provide more attractions for audiences and allow a test programme with greater intrigue if that involved the Springboks.