New Sanzar boss has no doubts about Japanese franchise

The slow moving Japanese side is the biggest concern for new Sanzar boss Andy Marinos, but he has hinted that longer term, it may be the growing exodus of South African players that poses the bigger threat to Super Rugby.

Marinos, a former Welsh international of South African extraction, takes over as chief executive of Sanzar in January, and his first tasks will be to guide the troubled Sunwolves and Southern Kings into the brave new world of Super 18.

The latter is under the administration of South African Rugby Union due to severe financial difficulties and the former is still without a head coach and a significant component of their playing roster.

The latest update out of Tokyo is that around 25 players have been contracted - primarily from the Japanese national team. A head coach is forecast to be in place before the end of the year and with that announcement, decisions are likely to be made by a significant number of other targeted players who are holding off committing until they have clarity.

New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew has said that he and his Australian and South African peers would like to have seen more progress in Japan, but fears of the Sunwolves not being ready to take their place have at least been expunged.

Marinos says he has no doubts they will be ready to go by mid-February - as will the Kings.

"With the Kings and Japan it's a hell of a lot of the unknown - how are they going to adapt to the travel, to the schedule," he said.

"But in saying that I've learned one thing in rugby you can never start writing off teams before the competition gets under way and I have no doubt that any one of those teams who may not start the season off well will have a huge upset in their ranks at some stage."

The secondary focus for Marinos will be determining the new strategic direction of Sanzar and building a comprehensive plan for the respective Super Rugby and Rugby Championship competitions.

He says that once the new format is embedded and has proven itself to be sustainable in both a financial and playing sense, then he'll begin the process of determining the next phase of growth.

There is no fixed plan or pre-conceived idea of where Sanzar could take Super Rugby, but North America and Asia are the most likely places, with parts of Europe also on the radar.

"I think you've got to have a pretty open piece of paper," Marinos said. "Besides the rugby strength that you've got to look at it's also got to be in good markets from a commercial point of view because at the end of the day you've got to generate sufficient revenue to sustain the competition so you've got to look across the board."

In talking about sustainability, Marinos made telling observations about the situation in South Africa where the weak Rand is conspiring with the Springboks' offshore selection policy, to encourage the best players to head to foreign lands.

World Cup Springboks Bryan Habana, Francois Louw, Ruan Pienaar, Zane Kirchner and Morne Steyn are already playing for European clubs and have been joined by the du Plessis brothers Bismarck and Jannie and Duane Vermeulen.

The underlying drivers behind this exodus show no signs of changing which is why Marinos feels the solution to the problem lies with the players.

He said that players will have to rationalise that their best chance of being picked to play for South Africa is to play in South Africa and be part of Super Rugby. The intensity, speed and skill on show in Southern Hemisphere rugby made it the only place to be for players to prove their worth.