Lions to miss Super Rugby in 2013!!

The South African Rugby Union (SARU) on Thursday confirmed South Africa’s participants in Vodacom Super Rugby at a General Meeting of the member provinces.

The top four teams in the South African Conference in 2012 (DHL Stormers, Vodacom Bulls, The Sharks and Toyota Cheetahs) will join the Southern Kings in the 2013 tournament.

The teams were confirmed after the General Meeting accepted a proposal first tabled by the Executive Council in January. The proposal was that: “The franchise occupying the lowest log position of the five franchises at the end of 2012 would be relegated.”

The MTN Lions, who finished bottom of the South African Conference, will have the chance to regain their status in 12 months’ time. The Executive Council had previously determined that the bottom team in 2013 would play in a two-legged promotion and relegation series against the relegated franchise. The promotion/relegation series will also be in place in 2014 and 2015 – at which point the broadcast contract expires.

“All rugby provinces have been consistently in support of the need for an Eastern Cape team in the Vodacom Super Rugby competition,” said Mr Oregan Hoskins, president of SARU. “That decision was first taken in 2005 but their inclusion has twice been postponed.

“We made a commitment to the Kings to include them in 2013 and rugby has delivered on that commitment. The franchise represents more clubs than any other region – apart from the Stormers – and contains numerous leading rugby schools. It has been starved of top-class rugby competition for a decade and a half and now it has the chance to show what it can do.”
Mr Hoskins said that SANZAR’s decision to grant the 15th franchise to Melbourne in 2011 – rather than the Southern Kings – had created a dilemma for SARU. He said that the organisation and players had wanted a “rugby solution” to accommodate six franchises in five places and this had been delivered, as challenging as it was for the relegated team.

“The provinces asked for a rugby solution and we believe that this was the fairest and most transparent method to respond to what is undoubtedly a less than ideal situation,” he said. “We also canvassed Vodacom Super Rugby players before the start of the season, through the Players’ Association, and this was their preferred mechanism

“We will continue to push the case for early expansion within SANZAR. Negotiations on a new broadcasting rights deal will begin shortly and the inclusion of six South African franchises will be firmly top of our agenda.”

Jurie Roux, the CEO of SARU, said that the decision to apply a promotion and relegation system from 2013 was standard practice in sport.

“We operate promotion and relegation in all our Absa Currie Cup competitions, with the bottom-placed team being relegated unless it wins a play off,” said Roux

“We lobbied hard with our partners in Australia and New Zealand to expand to 16 teams with the inclusion of a sixth South African franchise from next season, but they had no incentive to change what has been a winning format.

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Sharks seek to make history in Super Rugby Final showdown!

Can The Sharks do the almost unthinkable and bring the Vodacom Super Rugby trophy back to Durban by beating the Chiefs in the final in Hamilton on Saturday?
Should they achieve this, they will most certainly become the greatest team in the competition following their arduous campaign thus far.
The last few weeks had been as close to a dogfight as you would find on a rugby field for the men from Durban.

 
After crushing the Vodacom Bulls (32-10) and the Toyota Cheetahs (34-15) in their final two league matches, they beat the Reds in Brisbane in a tough qualifier (30-17) before returning to South Africa where they were too good for the DHL Stormers in last weekend’s semi-final in Cape Town (26-19).

The upside is that The Sharks qualified for their fourth Vodacom Super Rugby Final. The downside? Another trip halfway across the globe, this time to Hamilton in New Zealand, where that country’s Conference winners, the Chiefs, await.

 
For Sharks and Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis it’s also quite a special occasion, as he will be playing in this 100th Vodacom Super Rugby match – all of them in the colours of The Sharks.

 

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Stormers sink in Semi’s!

The Sharks’ magnificent Vodacom Super Rugby run continued in Cape Town on Saturday when they qualified for their fourth final by beating the DHL Stormers in Cape Town.

The men from KwaZulu-Natal have now won eight from their last nine matches, including last weekend’s qualifier over the Reds in Brisbane and yesterday’s semi-final victory by 26-19 over the DHL Stormers in Cape Town.

Because of the travel factor, many experts thought The Sharks would struggle against the South African Conference winners and the team that finished top of the log. That was not the case though as the DHL Stormers could not match the physical intensity of the KwaZulu-Natalians.

Keegan Daniel and his team did not stray from their winning recipe of the past month and will now have an opportunity to win their first-ever Vodacom Super Rugby title after The Sharks lost in the finals of 1996 (to the Blues playing as Natal), 2001 (to the Brumbies) and 2007 (to the Vodacom Bulls).

To lift the trophy against the Chiefs in Hamilton though, The Sharks will have to do what has only been achieved once in the history of Vodacom Super Rugby – win a final in another country. In 2000, the Crusaders travelled to Canberra where they beat the Brumbies by 20-19.

Only two teams have won finals away from home – the Crusaders also did it in 1998 (against the Blues in Auckland) and 1999 (against the Highlanders in Dunedin), while the Vodacom Bulls beat The Sharks in Durban in 2007, but in each of those matches, the final was played in the eventual winners’ home country.

Chiefs down Crusaders

In Friday’s first semi-final, the Chiefs reached only their second final when they beat the Crusaders by 20-17 in Hamilton, outscoring the seven-time champions by two tries to one.

It will be the first Vodacom Super Rugby final in New Zealand since 2008 and the first ever hosted by the Chiefs

 

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