Expanded Super Rugby may limit player exodus but force shift in seasons | Paul Rees

New-look tournament starts next week with 18 teams aiming to reach August’s final and long season will add to pressure for a ‘global season’The new Super Rugby season was launched this week all over the southern hemisphere. A tournament that started out as the Super 6 in 1992 has expanded threefold, taking in teams from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Argentina as it looks to combat European club aggression by expanding its commercial base.The result is that a tournament once a round robin with play-offs to determine the champions is now, in the words of a New Zealand commentat…