SANZAAR boss suggests radical idea to save season

David Skippers

SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos has suggested that Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship could be run simultaneously in a bid to save the 2020 rugby season.

Traditionally Super Rugby has run until July with the Rugby Championship kicking off a month later in August, so players are primed for international rugby.

The Super Rugby competition this year, though, was suspended after seven rounds due to the growing coronavirus pandemic, throwing the 2020 schedule out of whack.

Marinos floated the prospect of playing both Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship in the same window to try and limit the impact of Covid-19 on either competition.

Under that plan, Super Rugby teams would play some weeks without their international players, in a similar vein to club teams in the Northern Hemisphere during Six Nations windows.

“Could you be playing the Rugby Championship at the same time as a domestic competition?” Marinos told Newshub on Tuesday.

“It’s not trying to rubbish one for the other, it’s how do we get a sensible solution in what may be a restricted time frame?”

With international travel bans still in place for the foreseeable future, SANZAAR would still face challenges in getting a form of Super Rugby.

Marinos said the idea of competition bubbles was a possibility, something that has been proposed in the NRL.

That scenario would likely see the Sunwolves relocate to Australia and the Jaguares to South Africa with teams all being quarantined and contained in a specific area.

“Logic would suggest if there is an ability to create like what we’ve seen with the NRL around a bubble, if it’s all in one location it seems a bit easier,” said Marinos.

“At this point in time, we’d be silly to rule out anything.”

Marinos still expressed a desire to continue the Super Rugby competition, rather than cancel the remainder of the tournament.

“We are hell bent and have every intention of delivering the complete package,” he added.

The Rugby Championship is scheduled to begin on August 8.

Argentina