I think the Super-12/15/18/whatever competition made less and less sense after the original Super 12 format where each South African team played all of the Aussie and Kiwi teams, either at home or on one trip over to that side. By the time it was the Super 18 they were playing against mostly the other SA teams about 3 or 4 times in a glorified local Currie Cup instead of getting to play the overseas teams, which totally defeated the purpose. It also lasted forever and a casual rugby fan like me got bored and zoned out. I get these rugby players have short careers and should play as much as they can in the years that they have, but seriously it just started to feel like more boring opportunities to get injured playing against other local teams rather than getting the experience of playing the overseas teams!
So I'm very glad we changed over to playing the Northern Hemisphere teams in our own time zone. I don't know how much it has to do with the Springboks, and some of the Northern Hemisphere teams, playing well while New Zealand struggles... but I'd imagine it's at least part of the story?
Totally agree as they played the local teams twice to cut down on the travel which kind of defeated the purpose of playing different teams. I stopped watching as it was boring and only watched the big matches. SA Rugby lost their way and the last World Cup I went to was in 2015 and I may be tempted to pop over to France next year. A good excuse to combine some sports and travel.
Oh dear I remember 2015 was the year we even lost to Japan! But it means that you missed 2019 where we landed up winning?
I think the World Cup in France is a perfect excuse to travel! Perhaps you can even watch matches at a couple of locations that you enjoy for a few days each? I always tease that all of France is beautiful (you watch the Tour de France!)... except Paris - but maybe that's just me and big cities! hahaha