Steve Morris: Rugby
It is an inevitable consequence of the continuing struggle this nation is having with the concept of joining the rest of the world and allowing the free flow of ideas and innovations, that this would be mirrored in the South African obsession for sporting activity.
It is also understandable that the triumphs and failures of one sporting discipline should be held up as an example — or a warning — to the rest. Just such a case is the current debate on the contracting of Springbok players to the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) over a 12- month period.
In essence the idea has far more logic and merit than the hasty rand-rich signing of the 1995 World Cup squad in the aftermath of acrimony over the advent of professionalism which followed hard in the wake of the heady triumph over New Zealand at Ellis Park.
It makes sense for the country’s controlling body to have the say over controlling the destinies of the top players in South Africa. It also has the apparent merit of national coach Nick Mallett having some influence on provincial selections with regard to players who are injured or simply being over-played in key positions.
But comparisons need to be drawn between the system as it will probably operate in rugby and that which, at present, exists in South African cricket at international level.
The cricketers are equally professional sportsmen and, like their Springbok rugby counterparts, spend the greater part of the year either honing their skills on the practice field or demonstrating them in the playing arena. The contracts are essential in that there is little time left in a crowded sporting calendar to pursue another career path. All bets are off until retirement.
Cricket has followed the type of eminently sensible route which has typified that sport’s approach to the game it is mandated to administer. The contracts awarded players are graded from A to C and paid accordingly. These contracts survive from season to season and are awarded on the basis of performance and games played as South African representatives in the season just past, weighed against that individual’s potential value to the national side in the season to come.
To this is added a match bonus for selection to either the Test or one-day sides and other incentives for individual match or series victories. All these figures are open to the players and the public. Everyone knows who gets what.
There is also the benefit of every contracted player knowing exactly where he stands. The veteran downgraded knows that he has either to take up the fight against the young challengers or start making plans for a life outside the game. The newly contracted C category international knows what is expected of him to make a better deal for himself within the game.
Equally, the provincial unions know — give or take a change in selection here or there — where they stand with regard to playing staff and salaries.
It is an eminently businesslike system which has worked well for cricket and — with some modifications — could do equally well for rugby. The rugby unions, so long a protected species, are not that happy. But then they should take a short look back at their own histories before putting the knockers on an idea which will ultimately benefit rugby as a whole.
The unions never thought twice about pulling club players out of league commitments when it suited the province. Or of loading the sides of favoured clubs as feeding grounds for their representative teams. It was an intransigence of thinking which has all but led to the total collapse of club rugby in Gauteng.
While it is true that they are already under fire from Sarfu through the “regionalisation” of the Super 12 competition which has almost certainly devalued the Currie Cup irrevocably and as a consequence severely undermined the strong provincial system in this country, the unions must eventually see that this is the only viable system for the survival of the Springboks as a power in international rugby.
The major problem though is that the net has probably not been cast widely enough. The New Zealanders have taken the contract system to perhaps its ultimate, identifying and signing up the top 150 players in the country, gathering the players who will make up the Test, sevens and junior squads, and then feeding them back into the Super 12.
It has been a true national effort unhindered by the petty claims of provincialism and broad enough to encompass virtually anyone with the potential to enhance the All Black claim to world dominance.
It has also had the effect of creating a pool of talent that is already part of the necessary elite without isolating them entirely from the superstars of the Test squad. Classic personnel management if you like and, perhaps more importantly, financed at all levels by the competitions, Tests and tournaments these players perform in.
Having all but rung the death knell on competitions like the Night Series and Currie Cup with the muddied thinking on our Super 12 sides, Sarfu has surely foreshortened the reach downwards that the New Zealanders have underpinned through their system.
Again, holding cricket up against this, the United Cricket Board has done its utmost to upgrade the game at provincial level through a willing, involved and innovative sponsor in Standard Bank, admitting the weaknesses that have appeared worldwide in the four-day representative game and pushing the money-spinning one-dayers hard enough to bring through some exciting talent for the future.
And, while the UCB’s contracts do not have the vast stretch shown by New Zealand rugby, the massive fiscal drag which their development programme has imposed is starting to show the benefits in players like Makhaya Ntini. This has been cricket’s logical trade-off to ensure the future of the game in terms of playing talent and financial survival.
Rugby, a game widely regarded as being the home of the under-the-counter deal and the inventors of shamateurism in the form of boot money, has yet to address the era of professionalism with a truly professional approach.
Perhaps the contracts with the top 25 are a start, but the feeling remains that the real deals have yet to be thought through.