Super 14 franchise areas

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The Super 14 competition in rugby union, including teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, is based on a franchise system of teams representing substantial regions of the three participating countries. This article provides specific detail as to the areas covered by each Super 14 franchise.

Contents

[edit] Australia

In Australia, the four franchises each represent a substantial geographic area:

However, players are not automatically tied to a particular team, as shown by Wendell Sailor's transfer from the Reds to the Waratahs for the 2006 season and only one player on the Western Force's roster being from Western Australia, John Welborn.

There are four states and territories which do not have a franchise:

  • Victoria — Australia's second most populous state, but Australian rules football is the dominant sport and many other sports are also popular. The Victorian Rugby Union bid for what become the Western Force franchise.
  • South Australia — a substantial market, but again Australian rules football is the main sport.
  • Tasmania — a small market, though larger than the ACT (but less geographically concentrated). Australian rules football is the main football code.
  • Northern Territory — Australia's least populous state or territory.

[edit] New Zealand

In New Zealand, each of the country's five Super 14 franchises is linked with several provincial unions in the country's two domestic competitions, the professional Air New Zealand Cup and amateur Heartland Championship. For all practical purposes, all Super 14 players will be drawn from the Air New Zealand Cup sides. Each franchise is entitled to draw players from any of its member unions without any player draft or negotiations with another franchise. The specific unions linked to each franchise are:

[edit] South Africa

South Africa operates its Super 14 system in basically the same manner as in New Zealand, with each franchise linked with one or more unions in the country's domestic competition, the Currie Cup.

The country currently has six franchises, at least technically; however, only five are competing in Super Rugby. The four franchises from the Super 12 era—the Bulls, Cats (now the Lions), Sharks and Stormers—were joined in 2006 by the Central Cheetahs. The sixth franchise, the Southern Spears of the Southern and Eastern Cape region, became a major bone of contention in South African rugby. Originally, the Spears were entrenched in the 2007 and 2008 Super 14. To make room for the Spears, a promotion/relegation process was to be instituted in 2006 to determine which team would not participate in the following season's Super 14. The entrenchment of the Spears proved highly controversial; after allegations of financial mismanagement and poor results against other South African sides, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) decided on 19 April 2006 to scrap its original plan to admit the Spears in 2007.

The High Court of South Africa gave the Spears a potential reprieve in August 2006 when it ruled that the Spears had a valid contract with SARU and its commercial arm, SA Rugby, to enter both the Currie Cup and Super 14. Both the SARU and SA Rugby planned to appeal this decision. In November 2006, all parties involved reached a settlement; the Spears dropped their suit and abandoned any attempts to enter the Super 14.[1]

The unions linked to each franchise are:

Since the Spears are now confirmed not to be a part of Super Rugby, the SARU and SA Rugby must now determine how to reincorporate players from the Spears region to the other franchises.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Spears abandon their Super conquest. Planet-Rugby.com (2006-11-16). Retrieved on November 22, 2006.

[edit] See also

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