The people of Perth are debating whether they can live with the idea of supporting a team by the name of the Western Force, while the management team, headed by former All Black coach John Mitchell, are securing the signatures of a host of top players.
Meanwhile, in South Africa the bickering over the fifth Super 14 franchise has only just begun. The new deadline is May 30, 45 days after the president’s council of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) threw out all but one of the six carefully presented bids.
May 30 is the date by which the managements of the five new franchises have to inform Saru that they are prepared to accept the invitation to a shotgun wedding. But the most pertinent question asked at the press conference where the announcement was made last Friday concerned June 1, that being the day when, if no consensus can be reached, the whole circus begins again.
The response from Saru president Brian van Rooyen was gloomily unequivocal: ”The possibility does exist, yes,” he said.
Two seats to the left of Van Rooyen sat the glowering figure of Mike Stofile and the question that remained unasked was the most pertinent of all: What’s your brother going to make of all this? The huffing and puffing from Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile over the subject during the following days suggested that the answer was, not a lot.
And, actually, that seems likely to be the considered response of the provinces, too, for this is a decision taken in haste that will be regretted at leisure. Never mind the geographical gulf dividing Port Elizabeth from Pretoria, what about the forced coagulation of no fewer than four unions into the franchise currently known as the Cats?
The option of minor unions selling their home games to their major bedfellows has been proscribed by the new ruling, which means that in 2006 the Cats (if they stick with the name) will have to play home games in Witbank, Potchefstroom and Brakpan (or Springs). Try selling season tickets on the basis of that at Ellis Park.
Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about. The president’s council may dress it up in political clothes and sell it as transforming the game, but the other members of Sanzar will not be too impressed if the result is to make South African teams even less competitive than they are at the moment.
The Super 14 is supposed to be exactly that: Super. The competition in its various guises was never intended to give a leg up to deserving unions, as evinced by the fact that Samoa were dumped as soon as the commercial possibilities of the old Super 10 became apparent.
It is, by its very definition, an elitist competition and with that in mind the argument that South African teams need to be handled differently due to the developing political landscape of the country is a particularly specious one.
Saru made a rod for its own back when it decided to put the process out to tender in the first place. Quite apart from the large sums of money wasted in putting together six ultimately worthless presentations, it allowed a monochrome argument to become way too black and white.
Remember, too, that one of Van Rooyen’s first pronouncements upon being elected was that the Super 14 would become a provincial, not a regional, competition. If he had gone a step further and opted for the original system, whereby South African teams qualified on the basis of their position in the previous year’s Currie Cup, an awful lot of political baggage could have been left at the door.
If that system had been used for this year’s competition, the Sharks would not have qualified due to the fact that they did not make the Currie Cup semifinals in 2004. That could have saved a few people an awful lot of heartache.