SARrugby.com

 It is interesting that these two appear to now have a qualification game to be in the Currie Cup 1st division.

When does this take place? Before or after the Superxv?

The Queens also have a qualification game against the Lions for the Superxv. When does this take place, presumably after the Superxv?

Would it not make sense to just use the Curry Cup as a qualification systems for the Superxv, if their is going to be a qualification? 

The first 5 teams in the Curry Cup play the Superxv. This would seem to be a better qualification system as is based on numerous games rather than a one of match. 

Where would these one of matches be held?

From a commercial point of view changing a team each year would be make it more challenging. Do all players now have to have clauses in their contracts in case their union is disqualified? Otherwise it would make contracting of players difficult. Much safer to get a contract from the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls who have less chance of getting knocked out than the Cheetas and Lions, and now Eastern Kings.

Having one team being relegated each year will also make the rebuilding process harder. Imagine the Melbourne Rebels or the Western Force got knocked out in the first year. What would happen to all the contracted players, how would the even recruit players in the first instance if they knew it was likely that the team would be relegated after the first year?

Sharkbok

The answer to the questions raised by  you is not that simple.The main reason is that the Queens issue is not in reality rugby-related.   It had more to do with political issues - where the Watson clique used political clout to force the issue on the basis of development of rugby in the Black community.   It is consequently evident that even as expected the Queens fail miserably in the  2013 Super Series - there still may be moves afoot to eliminate the qualification matches you referred to.

That is probably the reason why SARU will never make any announcement on anything relating to the play-offs.   We will have to see what happens towards the end of the Super 15 series net year.    Another interesting question is what happens to the players loaned by the Lions to the other franchises in the event of any . qualification match.   Say it is to be a match between the Quens and the Lions.   Will the queens be bale to retain the Lions players or will they in fact play for the Lions?

Mike

I think you are probably right about the qualification matches. The Lions are probably out untl the tournament can be restructured in 2015 or beyond. 

The sponsers would probably complain if one SA team changes every year, because this is not realistically going to make the 5th team of the SA contingent competive. It will not pull crowds for the away games if a team has no chance of being competitive. 

Although South Africa contributes more of the revenue than New Zealand and Australia combined from the SuperXV, and this is why the queens comedy show has even been tolerated to date thus far. 

The whole structure of the tournament will need to change if more teams are added as their is allready to many games. It would be good to get a few teams from Japan and the pacific islands. The pacific islands have good players and Japan has lots of money to add to the tournament. It seems the Japanese are the highest paid rugby players. Although the japanese team may all be foreigners like Sunny Bill and Jaque Fourie