Rugby: Currie compromise removes last hurdle

South Africa is expected to sign off a later start for the Currie Cup that will pave the way for agreement to be reached on expanding Super 14.

It is believed plans have been drawn to break the Currie Cup into a top pool of six teams and another of eight teams and push the start back from early July to late July.

This new Currie Cup format, if approved by the South African Rugby Union, will allow Super 14 to become Super 15 and be broken into three geographic conferences. It will also be able to start in early March, which is a non-negotiable for New Zealand and Australia.

South Africa have already sold broadcast rights to the Currie Cup and will not agree to any expanded Super Rugby format that significantly overlaps with their domestic competition.

By changing the format of the Currie Cup, it can be squeezed into a shorter window, which frees up room to expand Super Rugby without any conflict.

The solution being discussed between the Sanzar partners is still not ideal, however, as the preferred expansion plan has had to be compromised.

Ideally, the new format would begin in 2011 and would see each team play every other in their conference - home and away - and play against every team in the other two conferences once, in a mix of home and away fixtures.

That format needs to be condensed to finish before the Currie Cup so the proposal has been put forward to play home and away against each team in the same conference but only play four of the five teams in both the other conferences.

New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew says that while the compromise is not ideal, he still believes it is a workable and innovative solution.

That view prevails within administrative circles but they might have underestimated the difficulty fans will have with a format where not every team plays every team.

Fixing a formula to determine the draw will be problematic and it will also, inevitably, create room for accusations of unfairness.

For example, what if the Crusaders avoided the Sharks and Waratahs while the Blues are lumbered with trips to Durban and Sydney?

Tew says the draw will even itself out over five years. He also acknowledged that a phased expansion to 18 teams would eventually create a neater flow and format.

Expanding to Super 18 - with six in each conference - would maintain the same format except rather than play four of the five teams in the other conferences, the plan would be to play three out of six.

It would still not be ideal but would be a neater solution. This format would see, for example, the Blues play the Sharks, Bulls and Cheetahs in one season, then the Stormers, Lions and sixth team the next. These cross-conference games would be a mix of home and away - so of the six that each New Zealand team would play, three would be home and three away.

The other critical attraction is that it would allow Australia and South Africa their long-held goals of expanding the number of teams they operate. They could alternatively invite foreign operators into their conference.

In Australia's case, they could look to create a fifth team in Melbourne with a sixth based in Newcastle with a heavy Pacific Island influence. Or they could invite a Japanese side to compete.

New Zealand has not expressed a desire to expand from five so the foreign route might suit, with a Pacific Island side based at North Harbour surely of some interest.

"Moving to 18 teams may well be what happens in time," says Tew. "But is has to be carefully staged and it has to be financially sustainable and add value."

Executives accept that moving to 18 teams would create problems in terms of recruitment and quality.

Despite the growing confidence that agreement will soon be reached on expanding to Super 15, plans are still being worked on to set up an alternative competition that would not involve South Africa.

It would very much be an emergency fall-back but contingency has been made for New Zealand and Australia to split from South Africa and set up a Pacific-Asian tournament. It would probably be a Super 12 involving five teams from New Zealand, five from Australia and Japanese and Pacific Island sides.