Exclusive: SANZAR CEO Greg Peters Talks Super Rugby Expansion

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: March 2, 2013

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In 2004, the International Rugby Board (IRB), recognizing that North America lacked an effective high-performance rugby competition, used its strategic-investment dollars to create a tournament known as the North America Four (NA4). 

The tournament pitted two Canadian teams of identified high-performance players against two similar sides from the United States. The hope was that such a competition might eventually draw the attention of private and commercial investment and lay the groundwork for the first true professional rugby league on the continent.

Success came very slowly at first, and the project never truly took the shape its backers in the IRB imagined.

The United States asked that its IRB investments be targeted elsewhere and Canada went to work building four regionally associated sides, based on the Welsh rugby development model.

Today, after almost a decade of hard work, those Canadian regional teams are the equal of their Argentinian provincial counterparts, while the United States is seeing an explosion in the growth of the Sevens game, as well as accompanying commercial and media attention.

The admission of Rugby Sevens into the Summer Olympics in 2016 has made certain that domestic government funding has begun to flow into athlete development and player participation in both countries is reaching new highs.

These accomplishments are impressive, but admittedly fall far short of readying North Americans to compete at the top levels of international rugby. For that, a domestic professional league of the highest standard is required.

But where to look?

Bleacher Report published a recent interview with Mr. David Jordan, head of the RaboDirect Pro 12 competition in Europe. Mr. Jordan made clear that his organization has no interest in further expansion, in North America or otherwise.

All eyes then turned to SANZAR, the organization which runs The Rugby C...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union

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