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The whole Super Rugby project was supposedly unstoppable.

Adding teams in Japan and Argentina were supposedly just the start of something big. Now, appearances suggest maybe not.

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SANZAAR, the alliance which runs the world’s biggest rugby competitions — Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship — announced Sunday in Sydney that there will be fewer Super teams in 2018: back to 15 from 18.

It’s an astonishing retreat from what was being pushed not so long ago as a bold, bigger future.

Less than a year ago, further expansionwas described as “inevitable” by New Zealand head man Steve Tew.

“You need to be patient,” Tew said last May. “We either grow the game and we’re part of the growth, and we try to lead it and we have some ability to control it, or we sit back and we’ll get swamped.”

But for now, retreat. It’s only temporary, SANZAAR’s bosses suggest. The battle for global rugby domination isn’t stopping. This is just a strategic re-set, they insist.