Super 15 to be scaled back in 2011

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The Rugby World Cup will have an impact on the debut season of Sanzar's pending Super 15.

Sanzar has publicly released its plans for the future of the southern hemisphere franchise competition, including a sole expansion team and five-team conferences to be set up in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

The plans will now be presented to host broadcasters for deliberation on June 30.

But a scaled down version of the Super 15 will be on show in the first year of the next Sanzar broadcasting deal, with the 2011 World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand to impact on the length of the season.

Under the plan agreed upon by the three Sanzar partners, the Super 15 will be 24 weeks in duration.

However, that will be cut to just 21 in a World Cup year.

The regular season start date would be February 25. However, for World Cup year it would be February 19.

The season would end in a normal season on August 4. However, finals during a World Cup year would be on July 9.

One thing that won't change during a World Cup year is the new-look finals series.

It will feature six teams and run over three weeks.

The play-offs will feature the three conference winners and three wildcard teams with the highest number of competition points from any conference.

Key features of the proposed new SANZAR landscape are:

Teams will be divided into three national Conferences of five teams each. The new team will compete in the Australian Conference,

Teams play the other four teams in their Conference twice (home and away),

Teams play four out of the five teams from the other two Conferences (four home, four away), and

All teams will have a three-week bye during the June test window.

Australian Rugby Union managing director and chief executive John O'Neill said: "This new structure will enable us to further embed Super Rugby as the premier provincial competition in world rugby.

"The extended season, the home and away local derbies and a new-look finals series; we are building on what has already been an enormously successful rugby tournament.

"This is an important and necessary evolution for Super Rugby and the fans, I'm sure, will embrace the changes we have made.

"From an Australian perspective, having a presence in the marketplace from February to August delivers us the capacity to compete with the other codes from a stronger and more compelling position. Australia is the only country in the world where four football codes compete head to head.

"Expanding the Super Rugby season presents us with a wonderful opportunity to further increase the profile and popularity of our game, and in the long-term that will benefit Sanzar and the game worldwide."

Sanzar will present the proposed structure to the rights-holding News Corporation by the end of June. Any new deal only comes into force from the 2011 season.