Cape Town - Sunwolves coach Tony Brown believes bad blood between South Africa and Japan played a part in the Japanese franchise losing its Super Rugby status.
The follows SANZAAR’s announcement last week that the Sunwolves would not participate in Super Rugby from 2021, with the competition to revert back to a 14-team format.
Brown told Fox Sports that the Sunwolves' demise was because the South African Rugby Union wanted to exact revenge on its Japanese counterpart for not voting for it to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The hosting rights went to France, who had duelled with South Africa and Ireland for the rights to host the global showpiece.
"There's a bit of resentment from what happened at the World Cup vote a few years ago, and it's a relationship that's been pretty rough ever since," the former All Black flyhalf said.
"It wasn't a big surprise, we were probably just hoping there was a slim chance we could survive and build something sustainable for years to come.
"There were so many things that went on and the South Africans were just dead against having the Sunwolves involved."
Brown's Suwolves are in action against the Waratahs in Newcastle on Friday, with kick-off scheduled for 10:45 (SA time).
Teams:
Waratahs
15 Israel Folau, 14 Cam Clark, 13 Karmichael Hunt, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Curtis Rona, 10 Mack Mason, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Michael Wells, 7 Michael Hooper (captain), 6 Lachlan Swinton, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Ned Hanigan, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Damien Fitzpatrick, 1 Harry Johnson-Holmes
Substitutes: 16 Andrew Tuala, 17 Rory O’Connor, 18 Chris Talakai, 19 Ryan McCauley, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Jake Gordon, 22 Lalakai Foketi, 23 Alex Newsome
Sunwolves
15 Ryohei Yamanaka, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jason Emery, 12 Harumichi Tatakawa, 11 Semisi Masirewa, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco, 7 Dan Pryor (captain), 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Uwe Helu, 4 Grant Hattingh, 3 Jiwon Koo, 2 Jaba Bregvadze, 1 Pauliasi Manu
Substitutes: 16 Nathan Vella, 17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Mark Abbott, 20 Kara Pryor, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Takuya Yamasawa, 23 Josh Timu
