Pro 14 Chief Executive excited by South African flavour

Pro 14 chief executive Martin Anayi admitted that the addition of two South African teams to the league ahead of the new season will only make it better and exciting.

Cheetahs and Kings were embraced by the Northern Hemisphere after they were axed in the Super Rugby competition thereby making the league a 14-team affair which will be divided into two conferences equally.

Conference A will feature Munster, Ospreys, Glasgow Warriors, Cardiff Blues, Connacht, Zebre and Toyota Cheetahs while Conference B will see Scarlets, Leinster, Ulster, Edinburgh, Benetton Rugby, Dragons and Southern Kings.

Every team will play a total of 21 games in the season which includes home and away fixtures while sides from Italy, Scotland and South Africa will play an additional Derby fixture to even out the schedule.

Admitting that he has learnt his lessons from Super Rugby, Anayi said Pro 14 tournament will get only better with more teams.

"I watched Super Rugby from the start, that is the thing that got me into rugby personally, so it's great tournament," he told an audience at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

"Some of the areas that we looked at in our due diligence was to say 'well, what hasn't maybe worked so well and why are they going from 18 back to 15 (teams)'.

"One of those is travel actually and time zones. Broadcasters and fans cannot get up to watch the games because they are across 18 time zones, that's one thing we have been very aware of when we have tried to expand, looked to expansion.

"South Africa is one or two hours from a time zone point of view - it's an overnight flight - so we have looked at all of those things.

"In my position you have to look at risk first actually and then you have to build a case why risk is something you should take on.

"And we absolutely looked at that and said across the board an expansion has to work from a player welfare point of view, it has to work from a conference or a format point of view, it has to work that the teams coming in are going to more competitive than the teams we have got, and has to work commercially - and South Africa absolutely does that for us."

Coaches and players from all the teams were present in the event which marked the launch of the Pro 14 season.

Rory Duncan, director of rugby at the Toyota Cheetahs, said his players were excited by the challenge.

"It is something that the South African support base has been asking for for years," he said.

"Something the players have been asking for quite some time as well.

"Everyone wants to know how we compare to the teams up north - now they have got an opportunity.

"It's not just a case of playing games away, we have obviously got half our games at home and we are really looking forward to seeing the teams come and play in Bloemfontein at altitude in the summer."

Cheetahs captain Neill Jordaan joked that the weather might provide a sharp shock.

"I think the worst thing for the Bloemfontein boys is coming to the north and playing in the winter because I hear the winter is quite bad here, the cold is something we are not used to, so that is going to be an interesting factor to take in," he said.

"But we are excited. If it's hard core rainy or dry we are just going to enjoy the moment and push ourselves to produce good running rugby and be very competitive."

Lions and Ireland star CJ Stander, Munster's South African-born number eight, said the arrival of the southern hemisphere sides would bring a "different vibe" to the tournament.

"Everyone's looking forward to it, it's going to bring something different to the game and we are going to learn more from them," he said.

Stander joked that the Cheetahs would have been the team he supported back in South Africa.

"Now I can't because we play against them," he said.