The announcement that the two South African franchises Toyota Cheetahs and the Southern Kings will join an expanded Guinness PRO14 tournament in time for the upcoming 2017/18 season, has been eagerly welcomed across the game in Scotland.
Scottish Rugby was instrumental in driving forward the ambitious expansion of the competition, believing the introduction of South African teams will raise playing standards in what is already one of the most competitive and attractive in the world game and create unique matches, develop all the teams involved and generate additional revenue across each of the participating nations.
The new format
The Guinness PRO14 will adopt a two-conference model which will allows for the new clubs to be added into the Championship without need to add extra rounds in 2017/18. Each conference will contain 7 teams with an equal split of teams from each union, with every team playing 21 regular season games. Scottish, South African and Italian teams will play an additional derby fixture to even out the schedule, meaning that Edinburgh will play Glasgow Warriors three times next season!
The Guinness PRO14 Final Series will now include Quarter-Finals allowing six clubs to reach the knock-out stages (teams 1-3 from each Conference) with the top 3 clubs from each conference qualifying for the Champions Cup, while the team with the highest points total outside of those six teams across both conferences will claim the final Champions Cup place (the South African clubs are not currently eligible to qualify for EPCR tournaments).
“Expanding into new markets such as South Africa is something that is natural for us to consider,” said Dominic McKay, Scottish Rugby’s Chief Operating Officer and PRO12 Director. “As the growth of television and sponsorship in South Africa will be beneficial to Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors, allowing them to filter the growth in revenues to help attract and retain the best talent.”
“It will be interesting to see the mix of South African and Celtic styles,” said Glasgow Warriors Managing Director, Nathan Bombrys.
This sentiment was echoed by Henry Pyrgos: “All the boys watch Super Rugby, so it’ll be a real challenge to test ourselves against teams who like to play the ball around, similar to ourselves. Hugely exciting!”
“Ground-breaking,” was how Edinburgh Rugby Head Coach Richard Cockerill summed up the news. “It’s been mooted for a long time with English and French clubs and the Pro14 have gone and done it, leading the way.”
A fixture list has been drafted for all 21 rounds, and PRO14 Rugby will confirm round 1-13 next week (commencing August 7) after final consultation with the Championship’s broadcast partners.
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