It might seem that the politicians are dominating the headlines, but it’s an illusion created by the fact that the rugby season is over and the Springboks don’t play Ireland for another fortnight. The regular battleground of the Eastern Cape is hogging the domestic limelight, but over in the Antipodes even more Machiavellian forces are at work.
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald last week suggested that the Super 14 has a sell-by date of 2010. At that point, the article suggested, Australia and New Zealand can dispense with the hairy-handed gents from South Africa and get on with intensifying their domestic squabbles.
In 2010 the current Sanzar (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia Rugby) contract comes to an end. Despite the fact that the five-year deal was made on far better terms than the participants dared hope at the time, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) can see the golden goose beginning to cough up blood. Remember too, that News Corporation, the sugar daddy behind the deal, is an Australian organisation.
Now take cognisance of the fact that next week the Japan Rugby Union celebrates its 80th birthday with a match between Japan and an Australian Prime Ministers XV in Tokyo. A bunch of ARU officials will be in attendance and part of their remit will be to apologise for failing to convince the International Rugby Board (IRB) to give the 2011 World Cup to Japan.
As a quid pro quo they will suggest that far closer ties need to be built between their two unions and how would they like to consider being part of a restructured Super 14 that didn’t include those large oiks from Africa? The fact that Japan’s time zone is far more conducive than South Africa’s to multimillion-dollar broadcasting deals will be the clincher.
That’s how the politicians will phrase the argument and now it is up to to the South African Rugby Union (Saru) to formulate a response. It would be easy for that response to be of the knee-jerk variety, but actually this is the big opportunity we’ve all been hoping for to completely restructure the game in this country.
The Super 14 is too long, too demanding and comes at the wrong stage of the season. It made, to quote former Sanzar CEO Dave Moffett, ”a truckload of money”, but all good things come to an end. The 2007 Super 14 is due to begin on February 2 and conclude in mid-May. Springboks involved in the end-of-season tour will have about two weeks off before preparations begin in earnest for the new season. This cannot continue.
Imagine a time, therefore, when the Currie Cup returns to its rightful place as the centrepiece of the domestic season. It’s played as strength against strength and begins in May and concludes in September. Enough time is available to have the odd weekend off in order to fit in an international fixture or three.
In September, October and November a Four Nations tournament involving Argentina dominates the calendar and, just to keep the broadcasters happy, a knock out competition involving all 14 South African provincial unions is played simultaneously.
Club rugby, which everyone agrees needs to be empowered, can be the focus for the first two months of the season. This carries the added benefit that unions keen to give their players some game time ahead of the Currie Cup will release them to their clubs in April, thereby lifting the standard of the competition and putting bums on seats.
What’s missing from this picture, and with good reason, is an international competition at the level below Test match. There is simply no need for South Africa to exchange the Super 14 for the Heineken Cup. It may be played in a much more forgiving time zone, but all the familiar travails associated with travel would soon assert themselves.
The argument that our rugby would suffer without international exposure holds no water any more. Since Jake White persuaded Saru to allow foreign-based players to play for the Springboks the trek north has been transformed from an elephant’s graveyard to a finishing school for internationals.
By 2010 foreign-based players might outnumber locals in the national side and the Springboks’ poor away record might be transformed by itinerant professionals who don’t need a constant supply of home cooking to perform.
Ultimately, of course, it will be about money and Saru will argue it cannot afford to secede from the Super 14 and still pay its players. But wouldn’t it be a clever Saru that considered how beneficial that might be? Instead of wasting millions of rand on five underperforming franchises, it could return to the amateur era of boot money for all but elite players and reduce the number of professionals from the current 600, to less than half of that. Makes you think, doesn’t it?