The face of rugby in the southern hemisphere is set for a major overhaul in 2011 after SANZAR revealed a new plan that will be presented to broadcasters next month.
The region's benchmark club competition, the Super 14, will see an additional team introduced with the competition renamed Super 15.
Under the guidelines, the tournament will run for 24 weeks from February 25 to August 4 - two months longer than the current format - and will, for the first time, be divided into three national conferences of five teams each.
Teams will play the other four teams in their section twice (home and away), as well as playing four out of the five teams from the other two conferences (four home, four away), and the new arrangement will also guarantee each team a minimum of eight home matches and a 16-match regular season.
A six-team final series will then come into effect consisting of the three conference winners and three wildcard teams.
‘It has been an intense negotiation but we believe the outcome is a very good one for rugby, for the SANZAR alliance, for our players and fans and for broadcasters,’ said Andy Marinos, the chief executive of SANZAR and acting managing director of the SA Rugby Union.
‘We were all committed to an expanded tournament and have been able to make it work, taking into account the different landscapes of our domestic game.
‘What we have agreed upon is a competition with added domestic interest and a compelling international component that will see Super Rugby retain its status as rugby's toughest provincial competition.’
The new format would also see all 15 teams have a three-week bye while the tournament is suspended during the June international Test window.
The Tri-Nations series has also been given a new time slot in the calendar to run at the end of the competition, which is in mid-August.
Australian Rugby Union managing director and chief executive John O'Neill said: ‘This new structure will enable us to further embed Super Rugby as the premier provincial competition in world rugby.
‘The extended season, the home and away local derbies and a new-look finals series - we are building on what has already been an enormously successful rugby tournament.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew added: ‘We have said at every juncture that our preference was to maintain the three-country alliance and to build on it.
‘We are delighted that we have reached an agreement which allows us to move the Super Rugby competition to a new platform which we believe will capture and excite rugby fans in all three countries.’
The identity of the 15th team - a big talking point in recent months - is yet to be finalised. The league currently contains five teams from South Africa, five from New Zealand and four from Australia.
The SANZAR partners will present the proposed structure to the rights-holding News Corporation by the end of June, with any new deal coming into force from the 2011 season.
