Coronavirus: Super Rugby could run into December, says Sanzaar boss Andy Marinos

​Sanzaar boss Andy Marinos has revealed Super Rugby has until December 31 to complete a competition this year.

The tournament was put on hold on March 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Sanzaar unions have been scrambling to come up with formats get the game back up and running, and it now appears that rugby at Christmas time is a possibility in a revised structure with the focus on domestic derbies.  

"We have a calendar that can now go up until the end of December and our players are now on an extended period of rest, so we have till the end of 2020 to configure something," Marinos told Newshub.

"I wouldn't want to be definitive as to when there is a point of no return.

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"We have to work with the confines that we have and, at the moment, that looks like between May and December 31… to put a competition structure together and get a competition under our belts."

Due to travel restrictions, Sanzaar has all but given up hope of staging a regular competition in favour of a scenario where New Zealand teams play each other, Australia's sides compete in a domestic competition along with the Sunwolves, and the South African sides go head to head against each other and the Jaguares.

However, that also depends on what their respective governments allow as the coronavirus threat eases, and Marinos conceded that the cancellation of the season was still a possibility.   

"If you start getting towards the back end of September/October and we still haven't had a resumption of rugby, I think logic would say that's when we would consider that [cancelling the season]," Marinos told Newshub.

The Super Rugby season was effectively shut down when the New Zealand government announced plans to isolate New Zealanders returning to the country in March, and as the coronavirus crisis developed it became clear that international travel would be off the menu for the forseeable future.

That has forced Sanzaar to dramatically change its approach and work on a country-by-country solution.  

"We will continue to work closely with all the governments and health authorities in all the jurisdictions we are playing," Marinos told Newshub. "That's central to our focus at this point.

"We have put a revised competition format to the front of the table, which is largely domestically focused and that is within the controls we can manage.

"That's what we are looking at." 

"We still have time and we will certainly look at how we optimise both the international and 'Super' programmes, but the clear message is the Super format we are used to for so many years will become a local-market focus, without the necessary crossover."