Five Super Rugby teams works: Force coach
Mar 11, 2017 - 4:17 AM Western Force coach David Wessels has urged SANZAAR to keep five Australian teams in Super Rugby as governing bodies meet to decide on his club's future.While SANZAAR chiefs are meeting in London on Saturday morning AEDT to discuss the future of Super Rugby, a decision is not expected to be announced until representatives report back to their national board.
The Force and the Brumbies, who defeated them 25-17 in Canberra on Friday night, shape as the two most at-risk clubs if one Australian team is axed.
Wessels says there is no evidence five Australian teams isn't working.
"To my mind Australian rugby has had one of its most successful decades in the five-team model," Wessels said.
"The Reds and the Waratahs have won Super Rugby in that time and we've made a World Cup final and that didn't happen in the decade previous to that."
"I'm not sure that the five teams is at the root cause of our challenges.
"I think our challenges are around pathway development, coach development.
"I think reshuffling the deck chairs with the number of teams would be very sad because I'm not sure we've addressed the root cause of the issue."
But change is a must for the ailing competition, according to Wessels.
"It's hard for fans to follow and I think it's not equitable that not all teams play each other - that's a funny competition."
Wessels put his support behind the option which has recently emerged of an Australian conference with a Japanese side, a New Zealand conference with Argentina and all the South African franchises remaining in their own conference.
"We like playing the Australian derbies and I think the fans like it too, it brings back a real tribalism," Wessels said.
"It probably mitigates some of the travel burden that we face having to fly around the world.
"If we're flying just around Australia that would be much more manageable and that would make sense."
Source: AAP
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