Super Rugby
Pienaar attacks plans to expand Super Rugby
ESPN Staff
March 5, 2014
South Africa's World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar and current captain Jean de Villiers at the Nelson Mandela memorial service, FNB Stadium, Soweto, December 10, 2013
Francois Pienaar would like to see Super Rugby trimmed rather than expanded © Eye Witness News
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Former Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks captain Francois Pienaar has spoken out against SANZAR's plans to expand Super Rugby to 17 teams in 2016, with a sixth team in South Africa, saying there is already "too much rugby to watch".

"I would like to see less [Super Rugby], not more," Pienaar told Business Day. He said the Varsity Cup, South Africa's university rugby competition, provided an illustration of the principle of less is more.

"It's so short and compact - therein lies the success," Pienaar said. "If you make it longer it will fizzle. [Super Rugby] is just too much. The guys are playing too much rugby; there is too much rugby to watch."

SANZAR - the organising body in charge of Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship - recently approved plans to increase the number of teams to 17, with the plans likely to come into effect for the 2016 Super Rugby competition.

SANZAR chief executive Greg Peters said "we now have a preferred model that involves six teams from South Africa and a new team from Argentina".

The Southern Kings are likely to be South Africa's extra franchise, after the Port Elizabeth-based franchise played in 2013 only to lose a two-legged promotion-relegation play-off against the Lions.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

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