SINGAPORE – The Sunwolves endured a torrid debut season in the Super Rugby competition last year as they finished last out of 18 teams in the overall standings, recording just one win in 15 matches.

However, the chief executive officer of competition organisers SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby), Andy Marinos, believes the Sunwolves will not remain at the bottom for long.

Indeed, the 44-year-old former Welsh international is confident that the Japan-based franchise will find its feet in Super Rugby within the next two to three years.

Speaking to local media at the InterContinental Singapore earlier today (Jan 18), Marinos said: “It is going to take some time, maybe about two to three years, for the Sunwolves to get used to the intensity of this competition.

“This is arguably the toughest rugby competition in the world, so the Sunwolves’ results were expected. But I think they surprised all of us in terms of the quality of their performance and the exciting brand of rugby that they played, which won them a lot of new fans.”

Marinos added that he expected the Sunwolves to show signs of improvements in the coming season, especially given that they have a more established structure in place now.

“In January last year, the Sunwolves weren’t in a very ready state. There were questions over who was going to be the coach, how many contracted players they had and were they able to turn up and perform,” explained Marinos.

“But you fast forward 12 months, and now they’ve got a settled new coaching structure with new head coach Filo Tiatia coming in, and they’ve also managed to get a more settled group of players together for the season ahead.”

Last year, the Sunwolves played three of their home games at the National Stadium in Singapore which attracted on average about 8,000 spectators each time.

The Sunwolves will play another three matches here again this season — against the Kings (March 4), the Stormers (March 25) and the Sharks (May 20) — and Marinos is certain that local fans will continue to show up in support of the team.

“I was very happy with the reception that the Sunwolves got from the fans in Singapore last year,” said Marinos. “I felt the crowd adopted the Sunwolves as their own, and there were strong signs that the locals had embraced them as the team to follow in the competition.”

However, Marinos says that it is important for the Sunwolves to continue to engage the local community in order to grow the reputation of the team in the country.

“It’s about engagement and getting the teams who come here to get into the community and relate to the younger generation,” said Marinos. “Singapore and Asia is a good market to grow (commercially), but you got to grow by adding value to people’s life, as opposed to just coming in and taking the money.

“In Singapore in particular, when we first looked at the country as a market and engaged with the Singapore Rugby Union (SRU), we realised that ultimately what we want to see in the future is for local players to represent either the Sunwolves, or any other team that’s playing in the competition.

“That way, we’re creating an aspiration pathway for young kids to get into school and play the game, knowing that one day they can be one of the main actors on the big stage.”