SYDNEY, March 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Japan’s Sunwolves will be axed from
Super Rugby from 2021, the governing body said on Friday, ditching Asia’s
first team in the competition just six months before Japan hosts the World
Cup.
SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby) said it
wasn’t prepared to bankroll the perennial wooden-spooners after Japan’s rugby
board withdrew financial support.
The globe-trotting competition will return to 14 teams and its previous
round-robin format from 2021, scrapping the unpopular and convoluted
conference system.
SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos said the Sunwolves decision was “not taken
lightly”, and held open the possibility of a Super Rugby Asia-Pacific
competition also involving Pacific nations, the Americas and Hong Kong.
“SANZAAR was advised by the Japan Rugby Football Union in early March that
they would no longer be in a position to financially underwrite the
Sunwolves’ future participation post 2020,” Marinos said in a statement.
Reports say much of the opposition to Asia’s first Super Rugby team came
from South Africa, whose teams were opposed to travelling to Tokyo and
Singapore for the Sunwolves’ home games.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said SANZAAR had told the Sunwolves to pay a
“non-negotiable” participation fee of about 1 billion yen ($9 million) a year
to stay in Super Rugby.
The Tokyo-based Sunwolves were introduced with great fanfare along with
Argentina’s Jaguares in 2016 as Super Rugby, seeking new markets, expanded to
18 teams.
Both teams survived a cull when the tournament shrank back to 15 sides in
2018, after the sprawling, globe-crossing new format proved unwieldy for
teams and fans.
But results on the pitch were slow in coming for the Sunwolves, who were
embarrassed 92-17 by the Cheetahs in their first season — before winning a
breakthrough first victory, against the Jaguares, the following week.
Two more wins followed in 2017, improving to three in 2018, but with a
litany of heavy defeats along the way, including a 94-7 hiding by the Lions
in 2017.
Now in their fourth season, they won away for the first time earlier this
month, beating the Waikato Chiefs 30-15 — only their seventh win in 51
games.
The Sunwolves have also faced criticism about the number of non-Japanese in
their team, raising questions over their core mission of developing home-
grown players.