Super Rugby underwent the most significant revamp in its history this year, expanding from 15 to 18 teams.
Comprising teams from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, the competition was already unique in world sport for the distance teams had to travel to play each other.
The 2016 additions to the tournament made for an even more demanding travel schedule, with teams from Japan and Argentina (as well as another from South Africa) being entered for the first time.
To lessen the distance teams travelled, a convoluted conference system was established, which resulted in a number of teams not playing each other during the round-robin.
Heading into 2016, the revamped competition had garnered its fair share of criticism, with few people looking towards the changes with much optimism.
So with the competition now two-thirds of the way through the regular season, how has the expansion affected the tournament?
Less is more
While the tournament now spans four continents and countless time zones, it actually feels much more of a local affair than it has in previous years.
The conference system, which divided the teams into four conferences within two regions (South Africa and Australasia), has focused spectators' attention primarily to their own local conference.
While teams play everyone within their own region, they may go a year or more without playing some teams in the other region.
This perception has been particularly strong in the New Zealand conference, whose teams have consistently performed to a higher level than the other conferences.
While local derbies between New Zealand teams have been of high quality with large crowds, there has been little interest at all in games not featuring New Zealand teams.
In New Zealand then, while Super Rugby has been producing some of its most compelling rugby in recent memory, many fans are ambivalent about the competition as a whole.
The future of Super Rugby
So while it may seem that fans want a competition with more focus on local derbies than tours traversing the globe, it seems unlikely they will get what they want.
Last week, NZRU chief executive Steve Tew suggested that further expansion of Super Rugby was "inevitable", with the possibility of incorporating more teams from Asia and the Americas.
The reason behind this model of continued growth is ultimately due to financial concerns. In order to compete with the wealthier Northern Hemisphere unions, Super Rugby needs to open itself up to new markets.
Much of the money that national unions such as New Zealand and Australia devote to their top teams, comes from broadcasting deals. Super Rugby has traditionally been able to command a high price for such deals, because of the high quality of the competition.
As Super Rugby continues to expand though, there are fears that SANZAAR (The governing body of South African, New Zealand, Australian, and Argentinian rugby) may be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The continual expansion of Super Rugby from the initial twelve teams that competed in 1996, has undoubtedly diluted the quality of the competition. As a testimony to this, New Zealand, the only country which has not added more teams since 1996, has in 2016 easily the most player depth across its five franchises.
So what is the answer to the problems Southern Hemisphere rugby faces? While there doesn't appear to be an easy solution, perhaps what has happened in 2016 so far can provide a way forward.
A decentralised competition, dominated by local conference derbies, could be a blueprint for the future. Keeping the focus local would be better for fans and for player welfare (having to deal with less travel). Less regular visits from foreign teams would help preserve a sense of novelty about the occasion, and would help mask any glaring differences in quality between conferences.
It may not be the fairest or most ideal system, but it might be the best that Super Rugby fans can expect.
Tim Newman lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is a keen sports fan, particularly following Rugby and American Football.
Tim Newman's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/tim-newman.html
