TALKING POINT: How break in the Rugby Championship could help SA

The news that the Castle Lager Rugby Championship will be suspended next year so that the “greatest rivalry series” between the Springboks and All Blacks can be played has not made everyone in all the Sanzaar nations happy but it could be what South African rugby needs.

In saying that the reference isn’t to the drawcard of an iconic series between the historical international powerhouse nations every six years, but to the benefits of phasing this country out of the four team southern hemisphere competition.

That isn’t the aim of the break in a competition which ironically this year has created unprecedented excitement. But with regular Sanzaar tours set to start in 2028, meaning in every alternate year Argentina and Australia tour each other or New Zealand in a similar format to next year’s eight match Kiwi tour of this country, the competition will henceforth be held less frequently.

I’m a subscriber to the less is more theory, and holding the Championship every alternate year may just increase its popularity. There would be less hype around golf’s Ryder Cup if it was held ever year.

But we are also entering an era where World Rugby appear to be pushing the global game towards having too many competitions, with the Nations Cup, pitting north against south, set to be introduced soon.

So those in Argentina and Australia who complain that South Africa and New Zealand would be selling them out if they abandoned the Championship will still have a competition to focus on.

And given that the broadcast money from what should be a lucrative series between SA and NZ is going to be split equally between the Sanzaar nations, they are not going to lose out financially.

SOLUTION IS TO FIND DIFFERENT WINDOW FOR THE COMPETITION

The Bledisloe Cup, which Australia and New Zealand remain as emotional about if not more so than the Championship, will still be played in October next year. And there’s nothing stopping Australia and Argentina from organising two matches between them - as is the case in the Championship.

But ultimately where the big benefit for South Africa could come is if the Championship is phased out, or alternatively if the growing threat to the continuation of the competition leads to all parties accepting a different window for it to be played in.

At the moment one of the big obstacles to the Bok quest for continued global supremacy is the unsustainable 12 month schedule that comes about because of the commitment to the southern hemisphere season at international level but the northern season at club level.

With the franchises still paying the major proportion of the (home based) Bok players’ salaries, there is an understandable need from their regular employers to see them deliver their best in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, which starts without them this week, and the Investec Champions Cup.

Sharks coach John Plumtree is concerned about player welfare issues and is aware of the need to protect his franchise’s assets, so he told the media this week that selecting his Boks involved in the final Championship game in London on 4 October for his team’s crucial game against Leinster in Dublin a week later will depend on individual workload and the players’ state of mind.

But he would be within his rights, given that the Boks will already have missed the first two rounds of the competition, to expect his players to play in all three rounds that separate the Championship from the start of the end-of-year Bok tour.

After the tour the Sharks are due in Connacht, the following week their Champions Cup campaign starts in Toulouse, and then because the Toulouse game is on a Sunday, there will just be a six-day gap for the Sharks to get back to Durban to face Saracens on the Saturday.

It would be ridiculous for Plumtree to expect his battle weary Boks to commit to all those games, and he won’t. But he will take a hit for that, because as sure as nuts there will be an outcry when he goes with his second string team against Toulouse and also an outcry if, as expected, that team gets thumped.

12 MONTH SEASON WILL EVENTUALLY CATCH UP WITH BOKS

There is an agreement in place that the franchises have to rest players for so many weeks of a season, but it is haphazard - meaning a player gets two weeks here, three weeks there. Which is not the same as having an off-season and also doesn’t offer players their much needed pre-season refresh and conditioning opportunity.

Plumtree believes it is because of the year round nature of SA rugby that all the local franchises have so many injury issues during the competitive season and if he reckons that will start being felt at Bok level, if it is not already, he would not be alone in thinking so.

The way forward for SA rugby is for a concerted effort to be made to get the other Sanzaar nations to commit to playing the Championship in the same window as the Six Nations (February/March). Which would mean that the South African international players can, like all the northern hemisphere international players they compete against at club level, take off after the conclusion of the July international window.

It is understood that there is reticence to do that, particularly from New Zealand, and that is understandable as it would mean realigning their season, but the alternative should be that this country goes all out in an attempt to align instead with the northern hemisphere international season, which would mean they join the Six Nations to make a Seven Nations, and they play away games against NZ or Australia in July and home games in November as if this was a northern hemisphere nation.

Of course SA isn’t a northern hemisphere nation, we know where the equator is and which side of it we are on, but our bread and butter franchise/club competition is aligned to the northern season so it makes no sense to continue on the southern timeframe. It just isn’t sustainable.