AUSTRALIAN RUGBY UNION boss John O'Neill's plans to expand Super rugby have merit. Put simply, the value of the product will remain stagnant without some sort of change.

Super 14 is the successor to the Super Six and Super 10 competitions of the early 1990s, and the Super 12 championship, which kicked off in 1996. The Super 14 keeps 132 players on the books of Australian rugby. Some are jointly funded as Wallabies, and some play club rugby. The income derived from the TV rights and sponsorship of the Super 14 makes these players "affordable" in the competitive international marketplace. With the Super 14 and Tri Nations having delivered a broad promotional reach and healthy financial status for the greater game, the question is: Where to from here?

One suggestion is to expand the season by splitting the teams into two pools, and creating a home-and-away regular season and revamped finals series. The American experience shows that conference-style competitions help manage logistics and grow sponsorship returns, however, it's the simplicity of a home-and-away competition that is most appealing.

The Super 14 season is too short. Those 132 players are paid full-time annual wages yet the competition runs for only four months. Some will go on to play for the Wallabies, Australia A or in the junior world rugby championships, but their game time still represents a limited return on a significant outlay.

If the competition is expanded, a larger finals program must be adopted. The Brumbies in particular have criticised the present final-four system as far removed from the modern finals program of rugby league and AFL. I don't advocate a structure that would allow a team which loses more than it wins in the regular season a finals berth, however, there needs to be a little bit more love for a season-long effort. A finals series involving six teams might be fairer in the context of a 14-team competition.

With 14 teams and only four finals spots, teams can afford to lose only a maximum of five games throughout the regular season, and even four losses can count you out if you don't accrue bonus points. This happened to the Brumbies last year.

The other reason for extending the finals series is the additional commercial opportunities it would present - and this cannot be ignored. Finals rugby draws big crowds and these games are not budgeted for in a team's revenue structure. That means a finals-driven windfall can make a big difference to a union's bottom line.

The other issue with a single-round competition is its all-or-nothing nature. Yes, that challenge can bring out the best in sides, but the reality of injuries and other setbacks can make the time a teams stays alive in the competition incredibly short if things go wrong.

The seasons of our rival codes run long enough to allow injured players to return and add value. In 2006, the Broncos lost 10 games in the regular season but still managed to claim the league premiership.

Brisbane's ability to resurrect themselves after six early losses is a great story of endurance and survival - attributes young Aussie kayakers Justin Jones and James Castrission, who inspired their beloved Waratahs by attending training this week, have in spades.

Their world-first journey across the Tasman took 62 days to complete. That's more than half a Super 14 season. In the future, it would be nice to know that, whatever adventure they embark on, Justin and James will be back in plenty of time to see the Tahs fight for a place in the play-offs.