John O’Neil CEO of Australian Rugby Union praises the ongoing Super Rugby season
The Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Rugby Union, John O’Neil has praised the success of the ongoing Super Rugby season. He told the media today on May 31, in an interview that so far tournament has remained highly successful with the changes made
early this year. The current season has witnessed 14 rounds of the championship that has been received well in all three member countries of South Africa New Zealand and Australia Rugby (SANZAR). Super Rugby has attracted immense viewership across the South
Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
John O’Neil has a long experience of administrating sports bodies. He has served at Australian Rugby Union several times as CEO. He has performed the same duties from 1995-2003 and was reappointed the CEO in 2006. O’Neil has also performed as the head of
Football Federation Australia in 2004-06.
SANZAR formatted the Super Rugby championship early this year and included a 15th team into the mainstream. The governing body further took some encouraging steps to enhance the standard of Super Rugby and increased home matches for every team
up to 40 percent. Previously the home matches were reduced to only 25 percent which often created exhaustion in the players.
Talking to the media today morning, John O’Neil said, “Overall we're very pleased, very happy, with the new format, the conference system, the additional team with Melbourne.”
O’Neil also talked about the performance of the Australian teams in the so far played matches and expressed his satisfaction over their success. He said, "From an Australian rugby perspective we expected to be the beneficiary of the new conference system,
with the additional team, the Rebels in Melbourne and that's the way it's turned out to be. We have two teams in the top six at the moment so that's a positive. The Rebels are a new entrant and new entrants tend to find the first season fairly tough.”
On the other hand Super Rugby has also been criticised by few legendary figures, including the head coach of All Blacks, Graham Henry. Henry had an outburst at the longevity of the season and said it would affect player’s performance in the forthcoming Rugby
World Cup.
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