carpelone says...

Cuw3100

Spot on. The first 3 or 4 rounds of S15 are meaningless, go back to S12.

Fattysocks, thank you for the exercise, but neither SA nor NZ have the depth for a decent fifth teams. Not to mention Australia.

Posted 18:32 15th August 2012

fattysock says...

@Melkdave

I was meaning Div A be the top div, and Div B be the bottom div. If you were in Div B, you were trying to get promoted to Div A, and if you were in Div A, then you were playing for the title (again, think Premier League and Championship in UK Football). Promotion/Relegation happened at the end of each season...

Splitting the teams initially would be easy - just split the teams based on the most recently completed season's final standings

(on that note, it would be unfair to do that THIS season, as no one would have known the ramifications of finishing 9th rather than 8th, and might have played their last couple of games differently due to that).

For example, if it WAS to be implemented, next season we'd have:

Chiefs, Stormers, Sharks, Crusaders, Reds, Bulls, Brumbies and Hurricanes in Division A

and Highlanders, Cheetahs, Waratahs, Blues, Rebels, Force, Lions (and that new team from SA.. can't remember their name) in Div B

If we assume that the finish in the order above, then "finals weekend 1" would be:

Chiefs vs Crusaders (Game A) and Stormers vs Sharks (Game B)

Cheetahs vs Waratahs (Game C)

Bulls vs Brumbies (Game D)

and finals weekend 2 would be:

Winner Game A vs Winner Game B = play for title

Winner Game C vs LOSER Game D = Play for promotion/relegation

also

Highlanders automatically promoted (winner Div B)

Hurricanes automatically relegated (last in Div A)

I dunno - it's probably a terrible idea... but it would mean a shorter AND fairer season (as everyone would play the respective teams twice, rather than now where the Reds (for example) get to play the Rebels twice, but don't have to play the Hurricanes or the Cheetahs at all!)

Posted 13:03 15th August 2012

melkdave says...

@Fattystock

Just who would decide which teams are in div A or div B ,if your going to use this system then surly it should be done on a form basis or your going to end up with a very hard and very soft divsion.Only way to really do it ,is to have 1st in the league in one div 2 nd in the other and continue it for all lteams,of course it means having a real league and an end of the present farce of having an Australian team as 3rd which really is 5-7 th .Even then it wouldnt be perfect

Posted 11:31 15th August 2012

fattysock says...

@CUW

I agree with you on that one. Too long, too many games... the fact that the comp stops for 3 weeks for the internationals is also stupid.

Just a thought, but seeing as SA are determined to push in another team (so 16 in total), what about a two-tier system?

With two divisions (of 8) a home/away round robin would be only 14 games, rather than the 16 they play now... and the finals series could simply be semi&final.. so just 2 weeks rather than the 4 it currently lasts.

Would reduce the whole season by a month... remove the need for stupid scheduling (where some teams don't play each other during the regular season) and the conference system.

Just thinking on my feet here, so don't crucify me if something sound daft... but perhaps promotion/relegation could work in a similar way to football in the UK?

1) Last in Div A is relegated. First in Div B is promoted.

2) 2nd/3rd in Div B play off in a "semi" to see who could get promoted

3) 6th/7th in Div A play off in a "semi" to see who could get relegated. This happens as the same time as the semis for the top of Div A

4) Then, on the same day as the big final for Div A, the winner of "2" plays the loser of "3" with the winner going into/staying in Div A and the loser dropping down to/staying in Div B?

Actually, not sure if that's a good system. Perhaps just a Top 2 go up, Bottom 2 go down is better?

Posted 10:09 15th August 2012

rugbyphile says...

He has never been thesame player he was before his illness lay-off. SA stocks are low and no obvious replacement. Never mind, Meyer will find someone from the Bulls.

Posted 04:22 15th August 2012

DutchWing says...

blessing in disguise? ;-)

Posted 22:44 14th August 2012