I have been reading a fair bit recently about the crazy situation shaping up in Victoria regarding the 5th team for Australia in the expanded Super 15 competition. This 5th team would give each of the three Tri-Nations countries five teams, create a home and away domestic competition and each country would be represented in the playoffs. Simply put, this is an awesome idea for the game of rugby in the Southern Hemisphere! You'd see an increased interest in provincial rugby in Australia (which the game needs) and the playoff series would become a bit more interesting. It would provide a very nice lead-in for the Tri-Nations series and the Bledisloe.
Unfortunately, crazy has set in down in Melbourne. There appears to be plenty of in-fighting about who's in charge of the bid and who's going to run the show. It has gotten to the ridiculous level that now the South African government is talking about underwriting a bid/team to go after that 15th spot to give Port Elizabeth which is predominantly a black region of the country. This team would be the sixth South African side and would play in the Australian division.
John O'Neill is using this threat as a means of getting the Victorians onside but is also saying that the ARU is being damaged by the foolishness in Victoria. Personally, I think that even John O'Neill mentioning it suggests weakness on his part - the sheer stupidity of the idea is so great that only the Kiwi and the South African rugby administrators could entertain such a colossally stupid idea.
News Corp is sitting there with their fat chequebook, in desperate need of Australian content for all of those fancy Digital Foxtel channels, willing to pay a premium for a fifth Aussie team and yet here we are with SANZAR people so abysmally dim that they are contemplating putting a South African team in the Australian division. This is the same South Africa, I might add, that wanted to turn geography around last year when they talked of moving into the northern hemisphere to play their rugby against the Six Nations. Perhaps someone ought to buy South African rugby officials a globe or an atlas.
Let's just finish off with the Victorians. GET IT TOGETHER! You lost a team to Perth already! I know we're not talking about anything as important as AFL here, but perhaps you can refocus your lenses to the bigger global sports picture away from whatever Mick Malthouse had for lunch and sort out your Super 15 bid.
