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Flat out: Can tired bodies compete for the World Cup?
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World renown South African sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes believes that the SANZAR countries might be shooting themselves in the foot by expanding the Super Rugby tournament.
Noakes reckons that winning the World Cup will come down to managing the workload of top players - a tough thing to do when they are expected to play in a tournament that lasts six months.
A successful Super Rugby franchise could play as many as eighteen or nineteen matches in the new expanded format. A country will have to win seven Tests to lift the World Cup. For top players in southern hemisphere countries, who would have just finished four games in the Tri-Nations, the potential exists to play 30 top-level games by November.
"It adds up to 29 or 30 games, while I believe the ideal for 2011 would be 16 or 17 games. We have to find a way of bringing 29 down to 17," told Supersport.
"If one of South Africa, New Zealand or Australia win, it will be because they managed their players the best. If your top players play throughout the entire season, there is no way that you will win the World Cup.
"In that case it will open the door for countries like France, England and Argentina."
The major change in the new Super Rugby format is the addition of more local derbies, but Noakes believes these are exactly the kind of games top players need to sit out.
"Don't play your best players against South African teams in the Super 15," he suggested.
"It makes a lot more sense to want to beat New Zealand and Australian teams. You have to beat your opponents if you want to be successful in the World Cup."
Comments
Number8 says...
17 games each year per player seems too few. That's one game every 3 weeks. Surely young men can manage more rugby than that?
I also agree with wazsere. Super rugby is an unnecessary duplicate layer of professional rugby. The best option is big domestic tournaments and a separate Heinekin cup style champions tournament. Most fans and players want this. Unfortunately SANZAR doesn't care what the fans and players want.
SANZAR will never support this logical tournament structure because, if the unions had their own tournaments, they wouldn't need SANZAR. SANZAR has become self-serving. It needs the Super broadcast revenue to pay for it's own massive staff infrastructure and running costs - so we are stuck with it.
Posted 05:05 27th September 2010
wazsere says...
Easy fix - South Africa play in their own domestic league, the Kiwi's and Australia play in their own domestic league (which may even stand a chance to rival Soccer and NRL) and then they come together for a Pan-Pacific version of the Heineken Cup - and here's a wacky idea, maybe even invite a couple of teams from Japan (and one day Canada, and the US?) to join in the fun. - stick the final in Tokyo and hey presto, a final with 80,000 people to rival the euro-version. Good strong domestic competition with little or no jet-lag followed by a short burst of jet-lag inducing games in the name of regional glory ..
Posted 06:39 24th September 2010
spliffed says...
Aah I can hear the cash registers of the various rugby boards around the world filling up. Agree with the various comments made here. But I suspect the point being missed by NH folk is the continuos time zone hopping not faced by the NH teams and length of flights. I mean play a hard game against say a Kiwi team in SA on Saturday and bruised and battered bodies are cooped up in a plane the very next day enduring 18 hour flights and multiple time zones.. meanwhile back in the good ol NH players are having a nice rest with wives, girlfriends/boyfriends etc. contemplating the two hour bus drive for their next game (or in their Jaguar?) I suspect were it not for the distances SANZAR would have them playing every Saturday and twice on Wednesdays if they could. If you think about it unblinkered its actually quite remarkable that players especially the scrum have so many players with 50 plus test caps never mind super rugby, can still play at these high levels. PDV asside its no real wonder the boks look jaded. A combination of PDV and burn out?
Posted 09:56 23rd September 2010
KingShark says...
Few NH readers realise that the S15 consists of a minimum of 16 matches per team. Top teams may play another 3. The Currie Cup adds another 14 rounds before an additional 2 rounds for semi's and finals. That brings the total matches to a minimum of 30 with a possible 5 additional matches. That is only the provincial matches.
The test season includes a minimum of 3 tests in June but can be as many as 4, followed by 6 Trinations games (from 2012 it will be a four nations competition but still 6 matches). The end of the year tour is normally 4 tests, often 5, followed by a Barbarians game for some. That means that there could be 13 to 16 matches for a player.
Fair enough, participation in the Trinations excludes one from parts of the Currie Cup but the reality is that there is no such a thing as an off week. The only time of the year when I don't watch TV, is from the 2nd week of December to the 2nd week of February, the rest of the time there is always rugby on show.
Posted 05:45 23rd September 2010
Bigspottedcat says...
@ scotch13 - I hear you buddy, but I know Prof Tim Noakes as well. He is one of the leading experts in sports science. Not in a prescriptive role, but in a descriptive one. He will be there regardless of the decision.
Northern players do play more matches, but you cannot compare a Magners League encounter to Super Rugby. The pure physicality is in another league and closer to a 6 nations game. I think the French Top 14 have the worst schedules of all - the French league is incredibly physical and they play more matches than anybody else. And as a result - their men will not have the rest and group training necessary to win the RWC.
Boks to win in 2011.
Posted 19:25 22nd September 2010
dclp says...
Tim Noakes offered a lot of advice to Jake White in the build up to the world cup. Jake pulls the top players out of Tri-Nations away leg, rest of the world goes crazy and claims he's insulting rugby, Springboks win the world cup later that year...and the winners is...Tim Noakes!! The Sports Science Institute is a leading research body, listen and learn! No surprise the World Cups only been North once!!
Posted 15:22 22nd September 2010
ninkynonk says...
I think travel may also be an issue here.
France and Italy are hardly onerous journeys for British teams (and vice versa).
Re the NH season being longer.
Have you asked yourself why SH teams dominate world rugby?
I don't think chest-beating about a longer NH season implies harder men is a basis for a possible NH dominance.
A case-in-point is the weakened state of NH end-of-season tours and the ridicule this generates.
Posted 14:07 22nd September 2010
txoxmxaxsx says...
I think it has a lot to do with travelling. Its easier for players to move around Europe. Flights are much shorter and taking the train is also an option. While down south plane is the only alternative plus the crosssing over several timezones take a tally on the athletes bodies.
I think this guy is sopt on, top players should play against teams from other countries. And South Africa and NZ have enough derbies so no need to add more into the mix. This tournament was clearly created to favour australian teams which lack domestic competition.
Posted 13:53 22nd September 2010
5Lock4ward says...
Agreed, this is non-sense. The NH has a much longer season with domestic and Heineken Cup commitments.
Posted 12:37 22nd September 2010
scotch13 says...
sorry to say this... but that isnt an excuse... athelets are there to push the limits of the human body, expand the envelope... not for scientists to tell them what they can and cant do. im willing to bet that if you ask the players, they will be up for it.. when you are passionate about the sport, you want to play as much as you can, the more competitive the game, the better
Posted 12:10 22nd September 2010
AkaRed says...
This is such crap, it's just a matter of managing the amount of games that the internationals play in Super Rugby. European clubs still play far more games than in the Southern Hemisphere, even with the expanded "Super 15"
Posted 11:40 22nd September 2010
rodofle says...
French and English clubs play 9 month in the year, and those two national teams still are very competitive during the world cups!
Posted 10:06 22nd September 2010