White: Do away with play-offs

Sharks director of rugby Jake White has questioned whether the current Super Rugby format favours the home teams in the knockout stages.

With the Sharks scheduled to face the Crusaders in the first semi-final in Christchurch, White has once again raised concern about this year's draw and the future expansion of Super Rugby.

'Sanzar is going to have to have a long look about whether or not we should have quarter-finals and play-offs cause we are wasting a lot of time, a lot of money,' said White of the current structure.

His proposed solution involves a smaller competition involving a proper round-robin season and to do away with the play-offs altogether.

'In a smaller competition everyone plays. Player welfare comes first, national teams come first but that's never going to happen when you're trying to sell 169 rugby games on TV as opposed to 55 rugby games on TV.'

With the 2016 Super Rugby structure already firmly in place, it seems that White's calls for a shortened schedule are going to fall on deaf ears.

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