Super Rugby

Plans to expand the Super Rugby tournament to as many as 18 teams could allow a team from Argentina - and possible from Japan and the Pacific Islands as well - to join.

The initiative is being driven by South Africa who want six franchises to take part as opposed to the five they, Australia and New Zealand currently have.

The five-team structure means one South Africa side misses out. Southern Kings will miss out in 2014 and will in all likelihood have to play a series of promotion/relegation matches at the end of next season to determine who will play in the 2015.

The Rugby Paper reported that New Zealand back the idea of a Pacific Islands team based in Auckland and a Japanese team based in Australia to increase the number of teams to 18 in 2016.

SANZAR chief executive Greg Peters said there were two key points. "One is that South Africa will have six teams and the second is that we'll use our best endeavours to include Argentina." He said he had not seen any proposal that included Pacific Islands and Japanese teams.

"The models we're working on endeavour to include Argentina because they play in one of our competitions now and it's logical to include them in the other one to create a professional rugby base for the future development of professional players out of Argentina.

"[It is] is not without its logistical and geographical problems, but we are endeavouring to include them if at all possible."