The Springboks are the Tri-Nations champions and all’s right with the world. Believe that and you’ll believe Kortbroek in an Afro wig. With two months left in the domestic season, the horse-trading for players has begun.
National coach Jake White wants his Springboks used sparingly in the Currie Cup, while the sweet sound of opening chequebooks is tempting players to migrate.
Marius Goosen has played his last game for the Pumas and with him on the plane to Italy goes, in all likelihood, that province’s chance of figuring in the Currie Cup semifinals. Corne Krige is already in Northampton while his fellow Stormer, Daan Human, will wait until the end of the season before joining Castres in France.
The Sharks have approached Bakkies Botha. His coach at the Bulls, Heyneke Meyer, has issued an ‘over my dead body†rebuke that would carry more weight were it not for the fact that his union is one of several in the market for the Sharks’s outstanding back-rower, Luke Watson. The days of one man, one province are long gone. Every man has his price and if he doesn’t like the offer but his province does, then tough.
Behind the scenes, things are even more interesting. The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) recently released a statement alluding to the ongoing discussions about a broadcast deal for the Sanzar (South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) countries in 2005. The most interesting thing about the statement was that it said precisely nothing, a sure sign that the discussion is about politics, not rugby.
Sarfu president Brian van Rooyen has been quoted in typically bullish mood, saying that Supersport’s hegemony on live coverage must be stopped.
The SABC must show rugby, he says, but the national broadcaster’s head of sport, Mvuso Mbebe, has apparently demurred. So little does the SABC care for the oval ball game, in fact, that it has just cancelled its only outlet for it, The Rugga Show hosted by the estimable David O’Sullivan.
In the greater scheme of Sanzar things, however, these domestic squabbles are irrelevant. The executive has yet to reveal how much (or how little) they are likely to receive for their product after next year and even the apparent fait accompli of a Super 14 is still under discussion. That’s because there are greater games being played higher up.
Last month an unsolicited document was sent to interested rugby parties concerning the restructuring of rugby into a single, global season. It suggested an international competition made up of one franchise from each country, including such fringe nations as Canada and Japan. What it did not do was dare to suggest which season the games would be played in: northern or southern hemisphere?
Much of the document was pie in the sky daydreaming, but it succeeded in its intention of rattling a few cages. Less than 24 hours after it was sent, the International Rugby Football Board (IRB) issued a furious reminder that the author of the document has no standing in the hierarchy of the game.
We were assured that the IRB has a working party looking into the issues of a global season and that, in the fullness of time, said party would deliver a report. Which hardly addressed one of the main concerns of the document, which was that someone had to make a decision now, not after Sanzar had signed a new five-year deal.
The eerie silence that has subsequently settled on the corridors of power suggests that the reason we have heard so little about the new Sanzar deal is that they are waiting for the IRB to make a move. If history teaches us anything, however, it is that the IRB is not a body replete with speed freaks, so eventually Sanzar will do their deal and the 2005 season will continue as planned.
In which case it is time we started to think long and hard about how the season is structured in South Africa. Van Rooyen has already backed down on his intention to give the Super 12 back to the provinces and part of the reason for that is a sea change in support locally.
Six years of regionalism has made the black Stormers brand far more seductive than that of its blue and white Western Province counterpart. Although it is true to say that the Bulls and Sharks have a brand that covers both the Super 12 and the Currie Cup, you only need to look at the attendance figures of the two competitions to see where the true balance of power lies.
Even through some desperate times, the South African public has been seduced by the Super 12, and a Super 14 will mean more home games and even less emphasis on the Currie Cup. In New Zealand, the nettle has been grasped already: no current All Blacks are permitted to play in the NPC.
It will be a brave politician who suggests a permanently Springbok-less Currie Cup, but who would ever have thought the Stormers would be more popular than WP?