Super Rugby
Super Rugby could include Singapore side
ESPN Staff
May 9, 2014

The ever-increasing bid to make Super Rugby more marketable and commercially appealing might involve bringing in a team from Singapore, according to ESPN columnist Greg Growden.

In a week when it was announced the tournament would be expanded to 18 teams, including one from Argentina and one from an as-yet-unnamed country, Growden said a New Zealand source claimed the push for a Super Rugby team in Singapore is intensifying … SANZAR officials have been eager for some time to have a Super Rugby base in Asia.

"The logic is confounding, though, especially if this Singapore team is supposed to be part of one of the two proposed conferences based in South Africa," Growden said. "The amount of travel required would be mind-blowing. Then again SANZAR has recently been the master of dopey decisions … so clearly the crazier the idea the better."

He went on to say high-ranking Australian provincial officials have been told by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) that there is "competitive tension" over the Super Rugby broadcasting rights.

"At last week's ARU meeting at which the SANZAR expansion plans were explained, snouts tell us the provincial officials in attendance were told that Fox Sports was not alone as a pay-TV broadcaster interested in showing Super Rugby matches in Australia, and there could be a bidding war."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

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