Rugby: The 1st XV - new era in Super Rugby

Greg Peters gathered a tight team of officials to co-ordinate refereeing, operations and publicity issues. Photo / Getty Images

Bigger? Better? "Yep" and "dunno" would have to be the responses for the latest version of the Super 15 series.

The conference system will promote the tribalism of derby matches although it remains to be seen if there is a disconnect from the other Sanzar nations about those games from their television and spectator audiences.

There must also be concerns about the wisdom and fairness of sides not playing two of the other teams in the competition and conjecture about the finals' setup.

Any tournament with a lopsided draw is distorted.

Promoting each conference winner maintains the interest for all three international partners in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

Including the next three sides who have accumulated the highest points in the competition offers some thoughts of "arrangements" being made.

But at least the series has a chief executive again, a man at the helm after years of sparring between the partners.

Greg Peters has been around the New Zealand rugby scene for many years and has transferred his skills and allegiances to raising Sanzar's form and cohesion as it works towards the Quad Nations test series next year.

He has gathered a tight team of officials including Lyndon Bray, Brendan Morris and Anthony Mackaiser to co-ordinate refereeing, operations and publicity issues.

"It has been a bit manic so far, trying to get a range of things in order and organised but we are getting there," Peters said.

"When I came in, the tournament schedule and format had all been agreed and sold to broadcasters and we are just bringing life to that."

Sanzar was encouraged about the benefits and impact of conference rugby, the five teams from each of the partner nations and fans' responses.

The Waratahs mimicking the All Blacks' skills video and the Brumbies doing something similar showed players were entering into the fun, hype and interest of the revamped series.

On a more serious note, all three member countries had suffered recent catastrophes and the Super 15 would collect money to help the ongoing relief work after the Pike River mine disaster in New Zealand, widespread floods and fire damage in Australia and serious loss of life in flooding in South Africa.

Peters' initial focus is to sharpen Sanzar's tournament control.

"We have to build relationships with all 15 sides to make sure this tournament is run in a consistent, professional manner," he said.

"We need to build on the goodwill nations have done by rotation in the past.

"We need to be up to date and adding value rather than building empires."

Plans were already being mulled over about the next broadcasting deal, expansion ideas and cross-country sponsorship deals while Argentina had to be sorted for next year's expanded test series.

"We will be talking to people as much as we can, getting around to see them but there are also ways of using systems like Skype which help us a great deal in talking to our partners," he said.

"Meetings and discussions can be held more often and in much more cost-effective ways by using that sort of technology.

"But, at the end of the day, to run a business like this you have to get out and about and meet people. There is a great deal of excitement about building a business and seeing what the commercial landscape looks like in the next few years."

Rugby was facing a huge year culminating with the seventh World Cup in New Zealand. Super 15 could both piggyback and assist that interest as it whetted the sports fans' appetite for what might occur in late October at Eden Park.

Franchise sides in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa had ramped up global interest since the 1996 start to the Super series and their national teams had built on that as well.

The three countries have all tasted Super success but only four sides have claimed the title since the Blues' dual success in the opening two seasons.

They have won just once since, in 2003, while the Crusaders have claimed an unmatched seven titles, the Bulls three and the Brumbies two.

Five teams, the Reds, Rebels, Force, Lions and Cheetahs, have yet to appear in any final in the 15 seasons of competition.

Doug Howlett is still the top tryscorer in the competition with 59, though he is being chased by Stirling Mortlock who has 53 tries as he begins the next phase of his Super life after shifting to the Rebels in Melbourne.

When the series is held in non-World Cup years, the season will push out to 24 weeks with 125 matches as each team plays 12 of its 16 round-robin games inside its own national borders.

HOW IT WORKS

* Five teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa will each form conferences. They will play all four of their local rivals at home and away.

* They will play four of the five sides in the other two conferences, eight games split between home and away.

* Each team ends up playing 16 round-robin games with 12 of those matches in their own countries.

* Sides get four points for a win, two a draw, one point for a loss by sevens points or less and/or for scoring four tries and are awarded four points for their bye week.

* The winner of each conference qualifies for the six-team finals with three other teams, regardless of which conference they played in, who have claimed the most points.

* The three conference winners receive a ranking order and are guaranteed a home finals game.

* The finals will be played over three weeks with the sides ranked first and second qualifiers earning a first week bye.

* Referees will be merit-based but Sanzar officials have agreed, where possible, to avoid appointing referees to control matches in their own franchise.