Just minutes after the siren sounded in the Force's 46 to 41 victory over South Africa's Southern Kings, the competition's governing body SANZAAR confirmed a restructure for next year, with one team from Australia and two from South Africa set to be cut. The restructuring comes after widespread criticism of the first season of the 18-team format, which was introduced in 2016 after Argentina's Jaguares and the Sunwolves of Japan joined the competition and the Port Elizabeth-based Kings returned. The current 18-team competition will be streamlined to a three conference, 15-team format with five teams from New Zealand, four from Australia, four from South Africa, one from Japan and one from Argentina, SANZAAR said. Eight team Finals Series: Three Conference winners and; five wildcard places — the next best performing teams based on competition points after the Conference winners regardless of Conference. Under pressure due to financial losses and fan discontent over the confusing and unbalanced competition, SANZAAR has opted to slash it from 18 teams to 15 and from four conferences to three — the numbers that existed in 2015.
In rugby union, SANZAAR announces that three teams will be eliminated from Super Rugby after the current season. One team from Australia and two from South Africa will be axed, reducing the competition to 15 teams.