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In fairness, the South Africans are more likely to be at the business end of the table than the Italians ever were, so we will care who gets the points in those derbies.Laighin Break wrote:Similar to when the Italian teams play each other.LeRouxIsPHat wrote:Hadn't thought about this until now but how weird will it be when the SA teams play each other? Nobody over here will give a sh!t.
enby wrote:The addition of the two SA teams seems to be an act of madness on so many fronts. The only marginal advantage that I can identify is a little bit of exposure to SA conditions for some players. The promised slew of funds will only be believed when lodged in the bank.
Leaving aside the foolish and potentially devastating conference idea, what benefit will the existing clubs get from this change? I can just imagine the scenario: Leinster have a crucial European game coming up and the internationals are just back from bruising AIs or 6N. Leo wants, as is the norm, to play them in the Pro12/14 the week before the ECC match but it is an away match at altitude in Bloemfontein with a 3 flight God knows how long journey there and back.
When this experiment eventually fails, and it (to adopt GT's favourite word) assuredly will, the League's credibility will suffer a massive blow.
dropkick wrote:enby wrote:The addition of the two SA teams seems to be an act of madness on so many fronts. The only marginal advantage that I can identify is a little bit of exposure to SA conditions for some players. The promised slew of funds will only be believed when lodged in the bank.
Leaving aside the foolish and potentially devastating conference idea, what benefit will the existing clubs get from this change? I can just imagine the scenario: Leinster have a crucial European game coming up and the internationals are just back from bruising AIs or 6N. Leo wants, as is the norm, to play them in the Pro12/14 the week before the ECC match but it is an away match at altitude in Bloemfontein with a 3 flight God knows how long journey there and back.
When this experiment eventually fails, and it (to adopt GT's favourite word) assuredly will, the League's credibility will suffer a massive blow.
Your mistake is presuming its going to be a failure when it could be a big success! The Cheetahs and Kings are 2 decent teams and the SAs have promised to strengthen them. If that happens then you'll have a league with good sides like the Kings, Leinster, Scarlets, Munster, Ospreys, Ulster, Glasgow, Connacht and Cheetahs. A match between any of those should be a good contest worth watching and the battle of the top 6 will be more intense also.
Its not ideal having to go to SA but imo the pros outweigh the cons. The teams looked like they've been financially compensated not to mention it could result in a bigger tv deal next season as well as the other SA sides watching things closely with a view to joining.
People mention super rugby but that was ok up until recently when they brought in weak teams, moved the matches to even more slots (fridays etc) and had a highly complex conference system where the average Joe don't have a clue whats happening in terms of seedings for the playoffs not to mention it was unfair. I'm sure the Pro12/14 will have a much simpler conference system in place though it could be even more straight forward if they didn't have the extra derby games for teams in different conferences (I know why they're doing it).
