The whole Southern Kings and Super Rugby situation in South Africa has gotten me thinking and after discussing it with a avid rugby & Lions supporter in Francois Nell, the following transpired:
Why don’t we have teams playing in both Super Rugby, Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup? We have enough teams to do this and it should strengthen South African rugby. Here are a couple of options SARU might well want to consider in going forward in to the future.

Super Rugby and only Super Rugby

SARU continues as proposed on Friday, 11 May 2012. We keep 6 franchise teams in the Stormers, Lions, Bulls, Sharks, Cheetahs and Southern Kings. After 2014 there is a relegation/promotion game between the last place SA team and the team not playing in Super Rugby at that stage. This will see players moving between the two franchises or leaving to play their rugby elsewhere.

SA stands to lose young players to clubs in Europe and in the end our rugby base gets smaller. The 6 Franchises and SARU are the only ones really benefiting from it and 1 franchise loses players every other year.

Forget about Super Rugby and join Europe

SARU let their contract with SANZAR run its course and then opt out to join the ERC. The Currie Cup expands to include all 14 Unions in South Africa. As with the current Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge qualifying criteria the top teams go on into the seperate competitions. We have a minimum of 8 teams playing in international competition exposing more players.

More players and unions will benefit from this both in monetary terms and experience. Young talent have a better chance of being exposed to top flight rugby. The Springboks join the 6 Nations and we tour New Zealand and Australia like we do Europe now.

Play in both Super Rugby and Europe

With this options there is two ways to go about it:

Option 1:
Expand the Currie Cup to 14 teams with each team playing the other teams once. The top 5 teams go into Super Rugby and play there as it is now. The next best 3 teams go into Heineken Cup and compete in that structure. The 3 teams after that plays Amlin Challenge Cup. This gives exposure to 11 South African Unions in international competition.

Option 2:
The unions decide if they want to play Super Rugby or Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cup. If more than 5 unions opt for Super Rugby the 5 most successful tenders go on to play Super Rugby and the others goes into Europe. Now we will have a situation where 13 unions will benefit from international rugby. (5 – Super Rugby, 4 – Heineken Cup, 4 – Amlin Challenge).

Again all the unions play in a 14 team Currie Cup with each team playing against the others once. The 14 team can still play in Europe should a SA team win the Heineken Cup or Amlin Challenge under their current regulations.

With both these options SARU will have to get SANZAR to agree to shortened Super Rugby season. This also makes sense as the current 16 round robin games is actually killing rugby instead of building it. I would rather see a format of 15 teams with a team playing all the others once. This will create the time for an expanded Currie Cup. True it can only chance after 2015 but it will give time for all the structures to be put in place.

With these options it opens up the opportunity for the Springboks to play in both the 6 Nations and Rugby Championship should they wish to do so. If they opt for both it will however see less tours but still up to 12 test each year. It will however put the Springboks and SA rugby overall in the centre of world rugby. Players will have the option to play in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere and still be available for Bok selection.

My choice would be the last one I proposed here as it gives South African rugby the biggest exposure. In an era where money plays a big role in rugby and the decisions that are made, it also makes a lot of sense. Yes there is a lot of logistical issues to consider and work out. Yes it might not sit well with some of the other countries. Yes it will mean a lot more rugby, but a player will not play in all the competitions.

In the end we will never know if we don’t at least try it or discuss it. a favorite saying of mine is: “The safest place for a ship is in the harbor, but that is not what ships are made for.” Anon.

SARU is currently in the safe harbor of SANZAR and Super Rugby. True there are some storms hitting the ship right now, but it should survive. They do however have the chance to set sail for unchartered waters and the possibility to discover a new rugby world. Everybody is talking about making rugby a global sport, here is an opportunity for South Africa to be the first to attempt it.

The only question now is: “Do SARU have the guts to embark on a new journey?”