Rugby around the world: Iberia

I kindly remember one comment in the NZ Herald last year about the pool rivals for the All Blacks (Italy, Portugal, Romania and Scotland)

"Portuguese scare me. I don't know anything about Portugal".

Spanish as I am it made me smile; How high this kiwi aficionado rated the rugby in Iberia (Spain and Portugal)!!! Portugal managed to score two tries against the All Blacks, true. But they received 105 points against, if I am not mistaken.

The truth is that Portugal and Spain play in the same division, and they cannot certainly pose any threat to any Tier 1 nation.

But, alas, some news are nice to read, and the news that Spain and Portugal are engaging their own SuperRugby competition is certainly good news.

Data:

1. Ten teams, 5 from Spain, 4 from Portugal, 1 from Gibraltar (since Gibraltar belongs to Britain, they could be hot-favourites, don't you think? :-)
2. 10 players in each team will get paid (that is how professionalism can be introduced in Iberia)
3. The name shall be: "Liga Super Iberica"
4. Kicks off in 2009 hopefully