RUCK N ROLL
GAVIN RICH: Waning interest goes beyond Super Rugby and predictable wins
Empty seats raise the question: Is Super Rugby under threat or the sport itself?
Hardly a week goes by without a commentator or scribe somewhere questioning the future of Super Rugby, but is it the competition that is under threat or the sport itself? The enthusiasm that was evident when slightly better crowds attended the derby matches in Cape Town and Pretoria over the past two weekends was evidence of how much the interest has waned. A few years ago those crowds would have been much bigger. What is particularly concerning is that the tournament could not be in a more interesting phase from a local viewpoint. All five teams in the conference have a chance of winning it, and both derby matches produced top-quality rugby. And yet the attendance at the Stormers match against the Chiefs on Saturday dropped by 12,000 from seven days earlier. The concern is not just limited to SA. The freaky come-from-behind win the Crusaders scored over the Waratahs stretched the Kiwi winning sequence over Australian teams to 39 games and wouldn’t have pleased Australian rugby boss...
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