Sharks and Saracens bosses question global club/country imbalance

When the Hollywoodbets Sharks host Saracens in what should be their Investec Champions Cup home game of the season in December they will more than likely have come off a one-sided defeat to Toulouse in France the week before.

That is not being negative about where the Sharks stand when it comes to their prospects of competing in the competition they would ultimately like to win one day, but just the reality.

The spacing between the two games, one in France and one in South Africa, is just six days.

And given the logistical challenges and vast distances that need to be covered, expecting the Sharks to go full muster in both games is simply unrealistic.

“The Champions Cup can be very challenging for South African teams and our game against them in December is a perfect example of that,” said Bryans.

“We play Toulouse away on the Sunday before we play Saracens in Durban the following Saturday. As it turns out, Saracens will actually be in Durban before we are.”

There was a move this year to improve the quality of the South African participation in the European competition by ensuring that the fixture list would allow the local sides to play their two home group games at home on consecutive weekends and the away games on consecutive weekends.

The benefits to the SA sides of being able to play both games as part of a mini-tour should be obvious. But it is understood that proposal was vetoed, perhaps by French clubs who felt that it would lead to an advantage for South African teams.

STRAIN PLACED ON CLUB GAME IS A GLOBAL PROBLEM

While it sometimes appears that SA clubs/franchises lead the way when it comes to complaining about the challenges faced by that level of the sport, and they do have legitimate grievances given the 12-month season this country is on currently, Beall reminded us in a supersport.com interview that the strain being placed on the club game by an imbalance with the demands of the international teams is a global problem.

There is a debate central to the rugby conversation that I believe needs to be made more of a focus,” said Beall.

“It is about the conflict between club and country. Mike Tindall (former England centre) has gone on record as saying that international rugby is propping up the game, that the cash cow is there, but my view is slightly different.

“There is also a credible counter-argument that says that the club game is supporting the international game by developing the players. By making them available to the international teams in windows that we would ordinarily like to have them. What there needs to be is some balance, and the question is over whether the compensation we (the clubs) get is fair and just,” he added.

His Sharks counterpart is in complete agreement with Beall. The Sharks, like the other SA franchises, pay a comfortable majority of the players' salaries, and yet there are long periods of the year where those players are unavailable because either they are playing international matches outside of the window or are being rested as per protocols that are entirely necessary given the year round demand.

“At the Sharks we have a lot of Boks, 15 of them in fact, and at management level we have stopped referring to them as Boks as they are all created differently,” said Bryans.

“By that I mean there is a world of difference between a Siya (Kolisi) or Eben (Etzebeth) and a breakthrough Bok like Aphelele Fassi or Ethan Hooker. Siya, whether he is wearing the Bok jersey or Sharks jersey, always gives 120 percent, and our data stats from last season showed he was our most valuable player. But at some point there needs to be better compensation around the balance of what is in the interests of the Springboks and what is good for the club game.

“Currently it is balanced a little too heavily towards the Boks and what they want. Regulation 9 doesn’t appear to come into it with us in SA, the Boks are playing 14 matches in a year.”

BECOMING VICTIMS OF THEIR OWN SUCCESS

The Sharks have started to shift their contracting model, with more emphasis being placed on developing young players and feeding the senior team from the bottom, but that doesn’t completely solve the problem.

At least not if the Sharks are successful in developing their young talent to the point they too get to graduate into the Springbok ranks.
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You can almost become a victim of your own success. Ethan Hooker (who is starting against New Zealand on Saturday) wouldn’t be a Bok now if we did not blood him young and develop him. We have a couple of big-name Boks, but we are now developing from within the ranks and if we are successful at that we get penalised (by losing the players to international duty).

GLOBAL SEASON OR REALIGNMENT WOULD BE SOLUTION

Of course, the primary problem is the scheduling calendar South African rugby is on.

The Sharks CEO agrees that being aligned to the southern season internationally and the northern season at club level is the big stumbling block.

“Clearly the best thing to happen to rugby in this country would be to align the Springbok schedule with the global calendar,” says Bryans.

“Moving the Bok schedule from now where it is as Rugby Championship into the Six Nations window would be the best thing. It would automatically resolve the level playing field issue in European competitions as for us we would have our internationals as available as theirs are. Until that happens things like the Investec Champions Cup are going to be very challenging for the SA teams.”

Beall though was careful to stress that he didn’t believe the clubs should rule, which to an extent is the case in France and in the round ball game in England.

“We just want the balance to be slightly fairer. In the English Premier League (soccer) it goes the other way and the clubs are too much in control. It's sometimes too much of a case of club over country there. I am a big fan of international rugby, but we need to have more acknowledgement of where the talent that lights up the international game comes from.”