/ 6 July 2001

Time to sort out the calendar

RUGBY

Andy Capostagno

What has happened to the rugby calendar? A sequence of three Test matches on successive Saturdays has just been concluded. During that time the only concession to provincial rugby was the Sail Running Rugby Festival in Port Elizabeth a couple of weeks ago.

This Friday the Currie Cup begins, some five weeks after the final of the Super 12. After two rounds of fixtures the competition then goes on hold for a fortnight while the Springboks play their first two Tri-Nations fixtures. Another round of fixtures later the competition again misses a week because New Zealand are playing Australia in Dunedin. Why?

In a quirk of fixture arrangement the Natal Sharks play the Lions in Durban this Friday night, but are then idle until they play the Griffons in Welkom on August 5. What that means is that Natal will have played one game in 10 weeks since they contested this year’s Super 12 final.

Bear in mind that we had the winter solstice two weeks ago and that traditionally we are slap bang in the middle of the season. Now ask yourself a question: with the Tri-Nations about to begin and with more questions than answers emerging from two Tests against France and one against Italy, where does Springbok coach Harry Viljoen look to augment his squad?

He can’t turn to clubs because the teams at the Supersport Club Championship, being played on a mud bath in Stellenbosch, contain few provincial players. He apparently isn’t interested in the Currie Cup, since the new squad announcement was carefully timed to avoid the country’s premier domestic competition.

The national selectors have to select a squad to beat the Wallabies and the All Blacks by looking at videos of the Super 12 and making a few educated guesses. Is that any way to run a national side?

The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) has been involved in dialogues with the other two Sanzar unions to restructure the season. Australia are happy to fall into line; in fact they are happy to do anything that will avoid their closing down their domestic season at the end of the Super 12 and bringing the Wallabies out of retirement to play Tests.

New Zealand are being intransigent about the hallowed status of their National Provincial Competition (NPC). They play the NPC towards the end of the season, at the time when logically the Super 12 (or Super 14 as it seems set to become) should be played.

Now is the time for Sarfu to wield the big stick. Restructure the local season and force the Kiwis to fall into line. Play club rugby in the autumn, progress to the Currie Cup in winter and the Super 12/14 in spring. That way there is a logical progression in the strength of competition.

The Tri-Nations and warm up Tests can all be played during the Currie Cup. That way the Currie Cup gets some status back and the national selectors get to see some rugby being played at the one stage of the season when they actually need to know something about the general health of South African rugby.