How do we ensure South African rugby can still put forward a quality domestic competition to guarantee the long term survival of the game in this country?

Well the good thing is we have time to do this as explained part 1 as I believe the long term effect of the new Super 15 competition will only really be felt in and around 2013.

I think for this to happen though some out of the box thinking is required which in a South African context in itself will be challenge given our administrators!

Firstly, I believe incorporating all 14 unions is crucial to the game’s long term survival in South Africa not so much for the competitive nature of the sport, but it’s crucial role as a feeder system.

It is also vitally important for me to have at least one high quality product where most of our top 150 rugby players are involved to keep viewer interest, and effectively sponsorship interests high.

The timing of all this of course, will be crucial.

Currently we have a Currie Cup premier and First Division domestic competition structure which does more or less the same thing and is the only reason our ‘minnow’ unions can survive.  I don’t think we need to stray too far from this concept or structure, but definite tweaking is required.

The idea is two still have a two-tier competition structure, one involving all 14 unions (the collective current Currie Cup product including all 14 unions) and one involving only the top players and unions.

For all intent and purposes I will refer to one (the lower tier competition) as our ‘League Competition’ and the other (premier) our ‘Cup’ competition.  Both will incorporate all 14 unions with the one (premier) just being more concentrated.

Currie Cup League Competition

The Currie Cup League competition will include all 14 unions in a league based competition as a single tier competition on a league based format (no finals).  Similar to soccer, league points are accrued throughout the season and quite simply, the union with the most league points at the end of the season is crowned Currie Cup League champions.

The format will be based on two rounds of games where each team will play the other on a home and away basis with a break in the tournament mid-way through the season.

The first round will follow the highly successful Varsity Cup which concludes in March and run for two months from April to May spilling over slightly into June.  During this time each team will play all the other teams once (13 games).

Round 1 then enters a break of 1 month before Round 2 kicks off in July and concludes in August possibly just spilling into September where the second round of 13 matches are played alternating which team travelled away in the first round.

The competition concludes once the final league matches are played (26 games in total for each team) with the table topping team crowned Currie Cup league champs.

Given the availability, or non-availability of top stadiums due to tests and Super 15 games which will run during the same time, these games are played similar to the Varsity Cup, at smaller outlying venues or at World Cup stadiums not in use – for example, WP Rugby can use Cape Town Stadium for this and the Sharks the Moses Madiba stadium.  The Eastern Cape has the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Pumas Nelspruit and so we can continue.

(I believe we can elaborate on the benefit and marketing potential of this in the comments section to keep the article short)

SA Rugby in this aspect can learn from the Varsity Cup and market this competition as a carnival type competition with minimal fees attached to ticket prices and also involve local clubs or schools to join in this competition to play in the build-up to the main game and make this a family rugby day out involving local communities, schools etc.

Currie Cup ‘Cup’ Competition

The importance of a premier competition cannot be stated enough.  There needs to be a level between semi-professional and fully professional (Super rugby) where talent is identified and brought through.

The answer for me in this regard has already been answered by the successful structure cricket has adopted in South Africa.

Create 6 Super franchises incorporating and covering all regions and including all unions and run it as a separate, fully professional franchise.

It is easier in rugby terms because we basically already have them.  The current 5 Super rugby franchises and the much discussed Southern Kings franchise which cannot wait to be recognised and incorporated into SA Rugby structures.

Each of the 14 unions is absorbed into one of the franchises as is currently the case, with the Kings absorbing SWD Eagles, Border and EP Rugby into its structures.

The only problem yet again is the timing in which you try and establish a competition involving these 6 franchises to get maximum exposure from a player availability perspective (top players) and a viewing audience perspective (not overlapping other competitions).

Given how congested the rugby calendar is, there will always be some overlapping of competitions but you can control some of this.

In a way, the Super 15 format actually helps this proposal… Let me explain.

The Super 15 will have a 1 month or 4 week break in the middle of the competition to allow for incoming tours to the SANZAR countries from Europe.  This will happen in June (more or less) each year.

During this period between 25 and 30 players involved in Super rugby will be called up for national duty.  In South African terms this means 120 top professional players becomes available for selection for other competitions.

Realistically, franchises will also use this time to re-assess where they are, afford rest and reconditioning periods to a number of players but also have a surplus of players that will be in need of game time from their originally announced squads for the Super 15.

If we stick to the figure of 120 (150 total players less possible Bok call-ups for incoming tours) it means that franchises will on average sit with 24 players with very little to do for a month.

Of course squad systems and rotation within each team will change from team to team, but if we can realistically say 50% of these players will be in need of game time somewhere in this month with the other 50% not playing at all for a month (which is highly unlikely) each squad will have 12 players, or top contracted professionals available, but for the sake of this argument let’s inflate that to 15, or a full run-on team.

Now this is where this proposed competition gets tricky but let me try and explain as best I can.

This break period in the Super 15 also coincides with the break (see above) in the league competition after Round 1.  Franchises in effect already absorb all 14 unions into their structures and will now be able to not only make use of top Super 15 players on a month break, but also take the top performing players of the League competition during its break to supplement their squads for what will effectively become their Currie Cup Premier, or Cup squads.

I think it becomes obvious then that I propose the Currie Cup Premier, or Cup competition launches during this period where Round 1 is completed during the Super 15 and League competition break period.  There will be some overlapping of competitions but this as mentioned, is inevitable.  The most important part if for the largest period during Round 1 of the Cup competition the majority of top rugby players, excluding Springboks of course, which will entail one round of games being played by all 6 Franchises (5 games).

A cleverly managed squad system can not only ensure much needed game time for fringe Super rugby players but also vitally, built depth to franchise squads which will be crucial during the very long Super 15 competition.

(Again I think benefits, risks and concerns can be discussed in the comments)

The Cup competition will then also resume with the second round continuing or starting once the Super 15 competition, and domestic League competition concludes in August (even affording players a two week break) which in effect will also see the Cup competition decided on a basis of each franchise playing two rounds of games on a home and away basis totalling 10 games in a season.

The finals, as is the case currently can conclude on the back of the Tri-Nations or once that has concluded where depending on player availability (injuries, conditioning and rest required) might well include a splatter of Springboks in the final rounds or finals.

It may well also double up as the deciding factor as to which franchises qualifies for the following year’s Super 15 where one SA Franchise, or the one ending at the bottom of the table following the round robin stages of this competition sits out or is ‘relegated’ from Super 15 participation the following year.

In conclusion, this is a very simplistic explanation or structure which only covers the very basics of a possible solution.

The biggest threat to all of this will be the amount of rugby players will be exposed to.  It will be impossible for our top 150, or in the case of 6 Franchises, 180 players to play all the games even if we exclude test rugby.  Just looking at Super 15 rugby (total of 16 games) and the proposed Premier Cup competition as a local competition it will amount to 26 games excluding finals, that is 0ver 2000 minutes of rugby.

But every problem also provides an opportunity, and the opportunity here might just be to expose more of our players to top class rugby and top class structures as professionals which will give us incredible depth as a rugby playing nation.  Incorporate an American Football draft system in this somewhere to aid redistribution of talent and we might just uncover something great here.

What is vital for me in all this however, is that franchises will have to be operated completely separate from union structures or levels for this to show any possibility of success.  Of course given our natural strength and resources in South African there can be no doubt which unions will assume control or host or be the base for franchises but crucially, the competitions have to be handled, operated and managed separately possibly, or preferably, even at national level or within SA Rugby.

I am still off the believe that franchises need to assume control of their regions taking that responsibility away from SA Rugby as a controlling or governing body at all levels.  Needless to say they are still governed by the constitutions within SA Rugby as the controlling body who to my mind, should only assume direct interest in National teams at all levels.

There you have it, enjoy taking this apart!