/ 22 May 2009

Aim for Bullseye

It has been a dramatic week in SA rugby, which began with the best Super 14 match of the season.

It has been a dramatic week in South African rugby. It began with the best Super 14 match of the season, continued with the announcement of the first Springbok training squad of the season, and ended with news of a complete restructuring of the season from 2011 onwards.

Not to mention the fact that the British and Irish Lions arrive in the country next week, ahead of the first game of tour against the ”Royal XV” at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg next Saturday. In between all of the above there have been citings, appeals against citings, injury clouds and miraculous recoveries.

It is pure coincidence, of course, but the decision by the South African Rugby Union (Saru) to agree terms with its South Africa New Zealand Australia Rugby (Sanzar) partners after a stormy few months, happened to coincide with the Sharks and Bulls game in Durban.

By the time the game kicked off the decision was a fait accompli, but a wise administrator would have watched and concluded that South African rugby needs the Super 14 more than it needs some pie in the sky deal with the northern hemisphere. The Sharks and Bulls provided a spectacle that justified most if not all of the political shenanigans surrounding the competition.

The Currie Cup may pit these two champion sides against each other two or three times more this season, but the subtext of Saturday’s contest will be absent. It was winner take all in more ways than one. Instead of claiming domestic bragging rights for a few months, the Bulls have the chance now to underline the strength of South African rugby by beating two New Zealand sides in the next fortnight.

It is impossible to underestimate the value of winning the Super 14 for South African rugby. The only time it has happened previously was in 2007, the same year that the Springboks won the World Cup for the second time. Bulls captain Victor Matfield made the point back then, that the Boks feared no one because of the success of the Bulls and Sharks in the Super 14.

Matfield cut an imposing figure during and after last Saturday’s game against the Sharks. On the field he did his normal butcher’s job on the Sharks’ lineout. When his team went behind early in the second half, he reminded them where they were going. He said:
”Before the game I said this is our chance. If we have to go to New Zealand for the semifinal so be it. But our best chance of winning the competition is to finish top of the log.”

And so the blue juggernaut reacquainted itself with the basics. Hold on to the ball, don’t hurry and don’t panic. The best example of the difference between the two sides came with drop goals. Morne Steyn struck two for the Bulls with a calm air of inevitability not seen since Naas Botha retired. Rory Kockott’s drop was used to convert Ryan Kankowski’s last- minute try, in a futile effort to convince the referee to ignore his watch and restart the game.

Time ran out for the Sharks, who will now be forced to watch the denouement on television. First up for the Bulls come the Crusaders, the seven-time champions who snuck into fourth place after a late season unbeaten run. Those looking for omens will note that the Bulls beat the Crusaders at Loftus in the 2007 semifinal.

Matfield’s pep talk is germane. The Crusaders had to wait until the small hours of Sunday morning to discover that their presence was required in Pretoria this Saturday. They arrived in this country jet lagged and sore after a bruising encounter in Auckland against bitter rivals, the Blues. If they manage to beat the Bulls on Saturday it will qualify as a minor miracle.

Such is the downside of the Super 14. The cards are stacked against the teams who fail to earn a home semi-final. The Crusaders are the only team to have finished fourth and won the title. But they were only required to fly across the Tasman to Brisbane for the semi and then to the tip of their own South Island to win the final against the Highlanders.

It is in part an attempt to alleviate these inequities that underpins the proposed new structure of Super Rugby from 2011 onwards.

Instead of playing all 13 of the other sides in a round robin format, the American system of ”conferences” has been proposed. Five teams in each conference, one conference for each Sanzar partner.

A 15th team will be based in Australia, but will not necessarily be Australian. The system will go some way towards levelling the playing fields, with each franchise guaranteed eight home fixtures and, instead of the sudden-death element of semifinals currently employed, a Super Six playoff stage at the end of league commitments.

The length of the competition – end of February to beginning of August – leaves precious little room for anything else and we wait with baited breath to learn how South Africa’s Sanzar representatives have managed to get all this past the traditionally intransigent delegates from the small unions.

We wait also to learn how involved Newscorp, the broadcast rights holders, have been in the discussions. It would be rich indeed if Sanzar’s warring executive had managed to agree on a compromise situation only to learn that the broadcaster has some rather different ideas.