Rugby: Super 12 ground war on eve of semifinals

By Chris Rattue

The Super 12 ground war continued last night with doubts over where the final will be played if it is held in Brisbane.

As the Queensland Reds and Canterbury Crusaders prepared for Saturday night's semifinal showdown at the traditional rugby home of Ballymore, there was "negotiation" between sponsors to determine the final venue.

A win by the top-seeded Reds on Saturday night would give them home advantage. But which home - Ballymore, or the larger Suncorp Metway Stadium, the old home of rugby league's Brisbane Broncos and still the venue for State of Origin games.

And as that issue remained unresolved, there was a suggestion from a leading South African rugby writer that the Stormers were being disadvantaged by playing at their home stadium at Newlands because of problems with newly laid turf.

The Stormers host the Otago Highlanders in the other semifinal, starting at 5.15am on Sunday (NZ time).

Suncorp was announced as the venue should the Super 12 final be played in Brisbane. But the battle is over signage rights at Suncorp, which holds 40,000 spectators compared to the 25,000 at Ballymore.

Suncorp is a bank and insurance company and competitor of the Bank of Queensland, which sponsors Queensland rugby, and insurer AAMI, which is the Australian Super 12 sponsor. The two rugby sponsors want signage at Suncorp if the final is played there.

"Of course, we're not saying we're in the final yet - we've got too much respect for Canterbury," said Queensland rugby spokesman Peter Kelly.

"We're still very hopeful of going to the larger ground. But we've got to show loyalty to our sponsors and if we can't sort it out, we may well have to go back to Ballymore."

Meanwhile, Cape Argus rugby writer Gavin Rich claimed there was a growing feeling around the Stormers' camp they would have a better chance in the final playing away from home.

The Newlands turf was relaid to help drainage but it has not taken hold properly, exposing an energy-sapping sandy base.

Chiefs manager Steve Gilbert was one of the few prepared publicly to criticise the surface, describing it as "substandard," but all teams have struggled there.

The Stormers have cut out Monday on-field training sessions to help them to recover from the extra fatigue.

And fears about what effect prolonged playing at Newlands was having on the Stormers were increased when they were beaten there by the Cats in the final round.

The Stormers also believe their expansive game and speedy backs would be more suited to a hard surface, which they would find in Brisbane.

Meanwhile, ACT have re-appointed Eddie Jones as coach of the Brumbies for another two years.

Jones turned down more lucrative jobs in Japan, because the Brumbies job held more prestige. He added that he was not tempted to chase the New South Wales job, vacated by Matt Willliams after the Waratahs failed to make the semifinals again.

Jones believes the Super 12 winners would come from Saturday' night's semifinal in Brisbane.

Crusaders captain Todd Blackadder said: "I think we have stepped up in the past three weeks. I put it down to desperation. But the Reds showed last week that they have stepped up as well.

"Their defence has been the best in the competition. We won't be able to give them a start the way we have with other teams in the past few weeks."

The Crusaders travelled from Sydney to Brisbane last night, a day earlier than planned.

South African referee Andre Watson will control the semifinal in Brisbane, and Australian Peter Marshall the match in Cape Town.