The scales are unfairly tipped against the smaller unions in South Africa to such an extent that the current status quo will never change.

I had a discussion recently with a person involved in rugby on the issues surrounding the smaller unions, Currie Cup rugby structures and the promotion / relegation structure currently employed in South African rugby.

In a recent column I addressed what was personal concerns to me for the way rugby is run in our country, and how we continue to undermine our strength in favour of satisfying the minority.

I am as much of a fan as the next rugby fan to see competitive rugby and rewarding unions for hard work put in at the unions which assured them their current statuses of strength they enjoy, but when you consider how lopsided the structures are in favouring the mighty ones we have to think that we can do better.

It is not a case so much of taking away from those who has a lot, but rather give those who have very little at least a shot in getting themselves up to a level where they can compete with the ‘big’ boys.

Recent rumours suggested that Jonathan Makuena, the inspirational leader of Griquas are in the sights of the Golden Lions rugby union.

Griquas have defied just about all odds for a small union this year where they are on the brink (they require 2 points from their last league game) of securing a semi final spot in the premier division of the Currie Cup.

Now Griquas’ success is largely due to some sterling work done at the union by its administrators which secured some good sponsorship (still nothing compared to the budgets and sponsors of bigger unions) and enabled a very talented coach to unearth, and bring through some very talented players in recent years.

I read an article by Dawie Theron the Griquas coach last night where he said that the 8-team format is the way to go, and SA Rugby will make a mistake if they reduce it to 6 only because how would people then ever discover the talents of someone like Riaan Viljoen, Bjorn Basson or Sarel Pretorius?

Where would the likes of Makuena have played if not being offered a contract by Griquas, or for that matter Naas Olivier?

This year Zane Kirchner got his first Bok cap, also a product from the Griquas stable and so we can name many players who have been identified and developed by these so-called ‘minnow’ unions.

Of course many would argue that it is great for SA Rugby that we have these ‘feeder’ unions and the cream will always rise to the top – but this is a limited and frankly stupid view from where I am sitting.

The Pumas are on the brink to qualify for the premier league next year through some great performances in the first division in the current season where they are set to end at the top of the log.  This after they could not buy a win a year or two ago.

Things like this don’t just happen.  I can guarantee you the administration and management team at the Pumas worked their arses off to get where they are now, and if they do manage to break into the premier league next year who knows what talents they would introduce us to?

But herein lies the problem.

It is rumoured that SA Rugby will look to reduce the Currie Cup to a top 6 (premier division) and bottom 8 (first division) competition format.  Also, only the bottom team in the premier division and top team in the first division will qualify for a promotion / relegation play-off to determine the pools for the following year.

Only the bottom 1?  Does this not smack of the ‘big 5’ trying to protect their vested interests exposing only the 6^th team ‘minnow’ to possibly face relegation at the end of the season?

Further to this, why do you even need to play a promotion / relegation match to determine who moves up or down?  I am almost positive this only happens in SA Rugby (protection of vested interests by the bigger more powerful unions) where the rest of the world employs an automatic promotion / relegation system where regardless of what you have done, if you are last or in the last two or three of the log, you get booted to the lower divisions.

Consider the practical side of this.

Boland has known since week 5 that they are out of the running for the semi’s and basically acknowledged that currently, their only focus is to prepare for the all important promotion / relegation battle against which will in all likelihood be against the Pumas.

This means Boland (and the Leopards) sit in a position now where they can experiment, rest and condition their players for a match that will take place in about 3 weeks from now, whereas the Pumas will come up against tough semi-final, and a likely final in the next two weeks before they will face a well rested, well conditioned Boland who will more than likely be overstocked with bigger union discards or ‘loan players’ as-well.

Although Dawie Theron and the Griquas have done a magnificent job in getting their team where it currently is, the realities of the structures in SA Rugby will guarantee that they will never be able to financially compete with the likes of even the lowly Lions who are struggling financially as-well!

Also, it is not only unrealistic but just plain damn unfair to expect the likes of the Leopards to build a successful brand in only 1 year in the top league – a minimum of 2 years automatic entrenchment is required to give them every chance to succeed.

And also, can we scrap the farcical promotion / relegation matches please?  If you are not good enough to make it in the big league (as Boland obviously is not having been there for a few now) then you deserved to get demoted – end of story, and give a possible more deserving, hard working union a shot at becoming successful.

For now however, Dawie Theron will continue to re-build his team year in and year out thanks to the farcical policies of SA Rugby and player transfers and we can look forward to seeing Boland get klapped by 50, 60 or 70 points again next year.  Hopefully Jimmy Stonehouse can convince some young Puma stars to stay in South Africa and just stick around for one more season where we will discover the next Naas Botha, or Danie Gerber from the minefields of “Minnow-ville”.