The Melbourne Rebels or the Southern Spears? How about neither? Because if the performances of the Lions and Western Force are anything to go by, South Africa, and Australia are already plumbing the depths of their respective talent pools.

The two teams are currently holding up the bottom of the table, both were given a smack over the weekend, and both are fielding mediocre teams incapable of mounting serious challenges for the Super 14 title. They always put up a fight, they have one or two genuinely great players, but in the end they are walking bonus points. Their biggest problem is a lack of depth.

The teams each play 13 games per season. That adds up to 26 in total, at least 20 of which will be mismatches against far superior opponents.

The Super 14 — and Tri-Nations — is struggling to draw supporters to the grounds. Interest in both tournaments is beginning to wane. Sanzar is at a loss to explain why. Their solution to the flagging crowds is, among other things, not to cut the number of games, but rather to increase them by adding more teams.

Where are the players coming from?

When Sanzar first proposed adding an extra team to the tournament all three countries put a team forward. New Zealand, which already has five teams, eventually withdrew, admitting that they did not have the necessary structures in place to support a sixth. South Africa, which also has five teams, and Australia, currently with four, stuck to their guns, adamant that they have the depth and structures necessary to field an extra team.

South Africa put forward the Southern Spears. A laughable prospect, considering the history of financial mismanagement and the political power plays that continue to unsettle the region expected to host the team, the Eastern Province. The Spears have been in the works for some time now and their chief claim has always been the mass of talent in the area, but when they fielded a team last year, it consisted mostly of players from outside of the area?

Unsurprisingly, South Africa, and thus the Spears, missed out.

It is much the same with the Melbourne Rebels, who are aptly named when you consider that most of their players are set to come from outside of Melbourne. Yesterday marked the day that the Rebels were allowed to start contracting players from the other Australian franchises and they have been licking their lips for months.

Backed by private money, the Rebels have the cash to buy just about anybody. They have already signed England flyhalf Danny Cipriani and they are chasing veteran Wallaby Stirling Mortlock, among other big name targets, all seemingly from outside of Melbourne. The other Australian teams are entitled to four foreign players, the Rebels are allowed to sign 10.

A bit strange with ARU boss John O?Neill harping on about how Australia has the depth of talent to field five teams.

If the scenario sounds familiar, that is because it is. The Western Force did much the same thing when they signed Matt Giteau with the help of a private consortium. When the private funder went belly-up, so did their contract with Giteau. When Giteau bolted, so did his mate Drew Mitchell.

The Force has since gone to pieces, which is not surprising when you consider their two best players up and left?

Expansion not a solution

In my opinion, the fans are growing tired of the non-stop games. There is no excitement in blow-outs and cricket scores. Nobody wants to see a score-line reading 73-12 every weekend.

Super Rugby has already been stretched to breaking point by making it Super 14. We used to have the Cats — made up of the Lions and the Cheetahs — and they were thumped every other weekend. Both the Lions and the Cheetahs complained that it was the loss of their respective identities that caused the team?s' woes, and that by splitting them up we would see improvement.

The Lions and Cheetahs have both been playing as separate entities now for four years (since the advent of the Super 14) and we have yet to see any real improvement.

The Force, for their part, have fared better, but that has been down to some key signings. The loss of Giteau and Mitchell has proved how they have papered over the cracks.

It is quite clear that expansion is not the solution, but will only add to the problem.