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belle · 09-10-2009, 06:16 AM

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SOUTH African Rugby Union president Oregon Hoskins has all but conceded the Southern Kings have no chance of winning the Super 15 expansion licence but hopes its players will be allowed to join the Melbourne side.

SANZAR will decide at the end of next month whether Melbourne or Port Elizabeth will be home to the new team, but Hoskins is sufficiently acquainted with the realities of southern hemisphere rugby politics to anticipate how the vote will go.

"We're outvoted anyway, we always are," Hoskins told The Weekend Australian.

Asked if he was implying that Australia and New Zealand always ganged up on South Africa in crucial SANZAR votes, Hoskins replied with a laugh: "Oh, absolutely! You know that."

Self-interest might influence the vote, but even for New Zealand, which would not welcome the extra travelling involved if South Africa were granted a sixth Super rugby franchise, it's sheer logic that looks like scuttling the Southern Kings.

The side admitted as the 15th franchise will be required to play out of the Australian conference, but even Hoskins was at a loss to explain how the Kings would fit into a round-robin series against the Waratahs, Brumbies, Reds and Western Force.

Would, for instance, the Australian teams be required to travel to South Africa for some matches or would the Kings be based in Australia for the conference stage of the tournament?

"I really haven't looked at it very closely, but I just thought it was possible they could spend time in both countries ... maybe even more time in Australia, seeing they are playing in the Australian conference," he said.

"But I'm not sure if this whole idea will get past first base anyway, because Australia is keen on having its own team in the competition.

"I haven't given up. I thought we might actually be able to have a combined franchise."

It was put to Hoskins that such a format could not work. "At first glance, it might not but we need to explore the possibility of thinking outside the box and stop thinking tribalistically."

He was quick, however, to embrace the idea of Kings players joining the Melbourne team. "Absolutely," Hoskins said. "That possibility exists. We're open to that. Certainly our players are. It would still give them the opportunity to play Super rugby, even if they are based in Melbourne for that season." Hoskins also was enthusiastic about an idea first proposed by ARU chief executive John O'Neill -- of allowing Australian, New Zealand and South African players to move freely within the SANZAR alliance and still be eligible to play for their country.

That would mean, for instance, that an Australian player could be signed by a South African or New Zealand Super rugby franchise and still be considered to play for the Wallabies.

Indeed, Hoskins says, SANZAR has to start coming up with some creative solutions if it is to reverse the current situation where, despite the three top-ranked countries on the IRB world rankings all playing in SANZAR, the northern hemisphere is driving the game.

"It is important for us in the southern hemisphere to not just catch up," he said. "We've lost big ground. We need to catch up and once again set the pace or else we are just going to see a massive exodus of our players to the northern hemisphere. We can't afford that."

Certainly he is nothing if not ambitious in his thinking, not just backing the admission of a full-strength Argentina to an expanded Four Nations tournament in 2012, but also calling for the inclusion of Japan, the Pacific islands and even the Americas -- the US, Canada and, presumably Uruguay -- in an even larger Super rugby tournament played in conferences.

Hoskins confirmed a recent report in The Australian that the sale of broadcast rights currently under way would deliver a jump in TV revenue.

"It's a substantial improvement on the last time," he said. "I think it's good for all countries involved that television has voted in favour of the brand."

Indeed, he said, the idea of Argentina coming in to form a Four Nations tournament that, despite the extra team would be more compressed because it would permit two matches each weekend, had been well received by broadcasters.

Although South Africa has received the lion's share of television revenue in the past because it provided more product, its private sale of its inbound Tests and the Currie Cup tournament meant that all three SANZAR nations would receive an equal split of the money this time.

"I think it's fair -- on Australia and New Zealand anyway," Hoskins said.

Source: South Africans face Super 15 reality | The Australian