According to most views, Super Rugby is anything but, and the powers that be have gathered to decide what, if anything, can be done to reverse the fortunes of the sagging competition.
Pessimistically, not much is expected from the meeting between the representatives of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. Any propositions they devise must be carried back to the national boards of each country, where nationalistic interests will result in additional violin playing while Rome burns.
Could it simply be a case of too much of a good thing?
Rugby at the moment enjoys such a surge in popularity that it is the fastest growing high school sport in the U.S.
That bodes ill for any place where rugby is played and has witnessed the distressing trend of skilled players abandoning the countries where they learned the sport for places where the money flows like wine.
One option on the table for Super Rugby seems to involve slashing the number of teams in the Australian Rugby Union, culling either the Force, the Brumbies or the Rebels.
Wallabies Coach Michael Cheika expressed the view that interest in Super Rugby might be waning due to the unwieldy conference structure where a team outside the New Zealand conference could make the playoffs without ever once having to prove their mettle against one of the powerhouse New Zealand sides.