It would appear that the honeymoon is already over for South African Rugby Union (Saru) president Oregan Hoskins. His first month in charge has been notable for its self-effacement. Unlike his predecessor, Brian van Rooyen, Hoskins has not been flying around the country (and, indeed, the world) making unilateral statements wherever he happens to be about the future of the game in this country.
Instead, Hoskins has kept his head down and spent his waking hours trying to sort out the mess left by Van Rooyen’s regime. Much of this mess is of a legal nature and it can therefore be deduced that Hoskins has applied his lawyer’s experience to dealing with it.
Unfortunately, he is living in a country where the law is frequently subjugated to political agendas. This week, Hoskins was made aware of that fact by Butana Khompela, the chairperson of the African National Congress study group on sports and recreation.
Reacting to a Saru decision to look again at the participation of the Southern Spears in next year’s Super 14, Khompela said: ”No political argument can be made as to why the south-east Cape should not be awarded an opportunity to participate in the Super 14 competition.” No political argument. So there we have it. As bold a statement of what sport is about in the new South Africa as you are ever likely to find.
Inevitably, most of Saru’s business is going to end up in court, for that is Van Rooyen’s legacy. He forced through the Spears deal at management committee level. When that decision and a few others were challenged, he agreed to an investigation into his corporate mismanagement on the understanding that Saru would pay his legal costs.
Another of Van Rooyen’s decisions was to have the Spears warm up for the Super 14 by playing in this year’s Currie Cup. But Griquas took exception to his tinkering and threatened Saru with a court case if they were not allowed to participate in the eight-team premier division.
Saru’s council meeting last week released a statement asking Griquas to back off, but agreeing to hold talks with the competition sponsor, Absa, about a new format for the Currie Cup. This is a little disingenuous, for when has a sports body ever consulted a sponsor about how a competition should be played?
”Show us the money and we’ll give you the product” is the rule, but now there are strong rumours that the only way out for Saru is to revert to a 14-team Currie Cup.
Except that it might not have 14 teams available, for the Spears were supposed to be an amalgam of South Western Districts, Eastern Province and Border.
Individually, each union has little say, but collectively they have the ability to mobilise political support, as events this week have proved.
But how can they ever stand together as one union when there is no flight between East London and George, and the journey by road takes seven hours?
Remember, the Cats never came to terms with being a combination of Lions and Cheetahs, and Bloemfontein is a mere three-and-a-half hours from Johannesburg.
Let’s assume that EP, Border and SWD do agree to play as one entity outside the Super 14. How about a 12-team Currie Cup with promotion and relegation between the top six and bottom six? Nice idea, but it doesn’t solve the problem for Griquas. And how dare they even consider the idea of using the Vodacom Cup as a guide to ascertain which unions should play in which division?
So we come back to the fact that Van Rooyen and his cohorts created a monster with the Spears. They assumed that the other franchises would buy into a concept of promotion and relegation from the Super 14. Did they think that a new franchise would magically materialise 30 quality players even though most critics think there is only enough talent in the country for three South African teams, never mind five?
On Wednesday, a Saru president’s council agreed to look more deeply into the matter, beginning with a delegation to visit the Spears on Friday, led by Hoskins. The delegation’s stated aim is to investigate the implications of including the Spears in next year’s Super 14.
Saru worries that the inclusion of the Spears will breach the clause in Sanzar’s agreement with Newscorp to field the strongest possible teams from each of the three countries involved. Consequently, it wants to look at the bid documents again to assess the financial impact on the team finishing last among the local franchises in this year’s Super 14, should the Spears replace that side next season.
It’s something of a no-brainer that the financial implications are huge, especially as the bottom team might easily be from either Johannesburg or Cape Town.
So fasten your seatbelts for a bumpy ride as we discover who runs rugby in this country: the provinces or the government.