Fardy hits out at 'men in suits'
SANZAAR has decided to trim down the Super Rugby competition from 18 teams to 15, with the South African Rugby Union forced to cut two teams and one Australian franchise team getting axed.
SANZAAR's decision has left the ARU in clutters. The Union announced that either the Melbourne Rebels or Western Force are on the chopping block and have spared the Brumbies for the 2018 Super Rugby competition.
As the Super Rugby competition heads into Round nine, the uncertainty still looms over teams' heads. However, Brumbies captain Fardy, is far from surprised at how the 'faceless men in suits' at SANZAAR are dragging their feet with the final decision.
"It is disappointing that it is taking this long, but is anyone surprised?" Brumbies captain Fardy asked reporters.
"I am not surprised. The officialdom has always been like this. You have guys in suits controlling proceedings and who you never see in this game.
"Everyone looks at ARU at the moment, but we don’t know who is the head of SANZAAR – it is faceless men in suits in the board room and it’s the same with the judicial process," he stated.
Fardy heads to Ireland to join Pro12 side Leinster at the end of the season, however, the Wallaby veteran stated he feels for his fellow Australian players and teams who are caught in this dilemma.
"I really feel for the guys at the Force and Rebels. It is incredibly tough because they don’t they know what their future entails.
"I hope structure changes and people in higher hierarchy see the flaws in structure of the competition so that we don’t have to have the same conversation 10 years from now,"
Fresh from a 17-19 defeat against the Melbourne Rebels, the Brumbies are faced with the tough task of heading to New Zealand to take on the defending champions the Hurricanes.
"Hurricanes have an incredibly hard-working pack, they play energy efficient rugby and it is going to be a huge task for us.
"We have to produce an 80-minute game, we cannot stop and led our heads down. Against the Rebels were guilty of sitting on our heels and loss.
"To beat any New Zealand team, you have to play well. You cannot focus on their play, you have to focus on your game," Fardy stated.
Sharing his captain's sentiments was lock Sam Carter.
"Hurricanes have skills and are great ball runners, their offloads can really hurt a team. And we have been practising how to defend that, and if we can put them under pressure for 80 minutes, we can get a great result.
"We tend to be in the game for 60 or 70 minutes but a lack of concentrations in the last minutes make us lose the matches in the end – we definitely have to rectify that," Carter said.
