The South African Rugby Union (SARU) have announced that the General Council meeting that will decide how and when the Southern Kings will join Super Rugby has been rescheduled to 16 August in Cape Town.
rugbyweek
The General Council meeting was originally scheduled to take place on 13 July but was postponed.
The Council will discuss South Africa’s participants in the 2013 Super Rugby competition.
Each of the 14 provincial unions has two voting seats on the Council (one of whom must be the union president or his deputy).
The SARU president, Mr Oregan Hoskins, also has a vote, making 29 votes in all.
A report yesterday in Beeld said that the presidents will be given the following options to choose from:
– The Kings gain Super Rugby promotion at the expense of the Lions;
– The Kings gain promotion, work together with the Lions, with the Lions’ top players then playing their Super Rugby in Port Elizabeth in 2013;
– The Lions and Cheetahs merge to again become a franchise (they played together as the Cats from 1998-2005);
– Rugby bosses decide they’ve made a mistake and the Kings won’t be allowed to play Super Rugby next year.
However SARugby CEO Jurie Roux said that the Reports of proposed alternatives to be considered at the meeting were purely speculative and confirmed the Executive Council decision not to comment on any deliberations..
“This is clearly an important issue of wide interest,” he said.
“But the decision rests with the General Council and until they have made that decision it serves no purpose to become involved in speculation on any scenarios.”
You just gotta love point 4. “Yes, we made a mistake” Hahaha, and thus shifting the blame completely away from SARU. I’m telling you, there’s a Hollywood movie in there somewhere!
Just thought I’d give you the latest sportingbet.com odds on the Kings Super Rugby prospects:
EP Kings to play in Super Rugby 2013 – EVS
EP Kings not to play in Super Rugby until 2016 – 3/1
EP Kings to finish last in Super Rugby 2013 – 2/1
EP Kings to finish Top 6 in Super Rugby 2013 – 20/1
2 @ Just For Kicks:
Those betting odds are very conservative!
The Southern Kings WILL end last in Super Rugby, should they play in 2013… no if’s and but’s
Top 6.. hahahaha… hahaha… fark one could give odds of 200/1 and still be deemed to be hyper conservative…. hehehe
gbs @ 3
i’m having a bit a trouble with my maths here
lions 15th
kings 15th
for some or other reason i get the feeling that theres a general feeling that the kings’ 15th place in their FIRST season will be taken much worse that the lions’ 15th place in their umpteenth season!!! i cant quite figure out why?
4 @ ashley:
At least the Lions were in with a chance, in a lot of the games.
Let’s see if we say the same next year about the Southern Kings…. if they don’t get shafted by the SARU General Council.
I’d like to see some betting odds on the Southern Kings losing every Super Rugby game in 2013… and in the process conceding 4-try bonus points in ALL of them… only earning 8 Log Points (for the 2 x bye-weekends) in the whole season… even though a lot of sides would be fielding their dirt-trackers for those games.
Come on, it’s a farce…. a terrible bloody farce!
shouldve been .. ” …for some or other reason i get the feeling that theres a general CONSENSUS” …. sorry about all this feely feely stuff. must be all the time i spend on here with members of the PINK BRIGADE, lol
gbs @ 5
dont be such a pessimist … lets wait till we see how things unfold like:
1. will the play in the s15 next year
2. which kind of players will they be able to contract
..
as far as i know only about half of the guys playing for the ep kings are contracted at the momnt, so obviously they are looking to bring in guys from either other unions or from abroad!!
btw
one sure way to ensure the success of the kings would be for the bigger unions to loan the kings some of their surplus players (much like wp is doing to boland at the moment). everyone talks about developing the game in the eastern cape. well there i just gave you one simple way to do it!!
and there i just gave you another idea for an article. rather than focusing on the negatives like all the other websites are doing, why not go the other way and look at ways that will ensure the FUTURE success of the kings? (no-one can expect them to hit the ground running, but judging from comments both on here and other sites, it seems like nothing but them doing just that would actually be tolerated).
9 @ ashley:
Look, something like 42 current Super Rugby players in SA hail from the Southern Kings area…. but it would take them years to draw a MARKED PERCENTAGE of those players back (due to contractual obligations elsewhere and should they even WANT to go back).
Ideal situation would have been, years ago, to establish another Phase-in Tournament, like the one TonyM suggested, where the Southern Kings build up their squad to International standards. Here I’m referring to something like the Super 6 Tournament which was being organised – I would have gone for 2 Conference sides from the States PLUS possibly some Canadian and South Seas Island sides or a side from the Argentines.
I listened to Cheecky Watson yesterday on Ballz Online Radio (Darren Scott’s new thing), and he conceded that they are having problems luring quality players to form part of the Southern Kings.
One needs at least 3 years lead-in to build a competent squad in my mind, considering SA circumstances and the history of the whole saga at hand.
Does the Currie Cup count for nothing, if the Kings were a least playing CC, then we would be able to say yes you may have a go at Super Rugby, but now we have them jumping the whole cue( oh but this is RSA, so that is possible). The Lions might be last in SR but does that mean the Kings can skip CC and go straight to SR. If the test match in PE was anything to go by, the BOO boys will show there ugly face soon enough. I hope they offer the Lions the 40 Milllion to step back, then they will survive to give the Kings a good hiding.
gbs @ 10
i wholeheartedly agree with you
leather @ 11
yes, the kings shouldve been integrated into the cc first, jeez any which way one look at this, you cant help but to think that SARU made a huge f*ck-up.
they had the oppertunity to negotiate a place for the kings when the new conference system was discussed,
and
they had the time to bring the kings into the cc.
thing is, they’ve always waited until the last moment to sort out their mess, and then caused a bigger mess because of that. exactly the same way they’re handling this one!!!
#12
in short i think this whole kings saga shouldnt be about the kings and/or whether they should in fact be included in the s15
but
it should rather focus on:
1. the massive f*ck-up that SARU have made (again)
2. the oppertunities missed to bring the kings into the s15 seamlessly
3. the timeframe SARU had to ensure that there werent any hick-ups by 2013
..
or is it just a case of them, believing all the doomsayers who preached the end of the world by 2012, thought that they have pulled a fast one on the anc government?
fuckin idiots, i can actually see them sitting there giggling everytime someone mentioned 2013, cause in their infinite wisdom, they knew that the world would end 2012!!
11 @ leather:
Hello “Velle”,
Oh, did I mention I have nicknames for everybody here… hahaha
Saw you registering earlier and wondered when you would grace us with your first comment.
Welcome on Rugby-Talk, welcome to this rugby family!
I suspect you are a Lions man, saw you were blogging somewhere from a location in the Johannesburg area… and from the gist of your first comment it would strenghten the notion.
See, the EP Kings is a Union, so too the Border Bulldogs and the SWD Eagles…. they are RUGBY UNIONS in SA.
The Southern Kings however is not a Rugby Union and could not take part in the Currie Cup, they are not a Rugby Union at all… they are a fledgling Super Rugby Franchise (maybe soon to be anyway). They are a Franchise combination of the Eagles, Bulldogs & EP Kings.
Same as the MTN Lions (The Super Rugby Franchise) – consisting of the Golden Lions, Pumas, Valk.. ect, whereas the MTN Golden Lions is the Currie Cup Union, also known as the GLRU.
That was the first mistake you made….
Second common mistake is that the Southern Kings argue that nobody can and should judge them and their MEMBER UNIONS on current form, because only once it is established that they are indeed a Super Rugby Franchise, will they be able to lure and contract the players suitable to perform on a higher level. Bit of a catch 22 situation… we want to shoot them down and say their performance does not warrant Super Rugby inclusion, whereas their contention is – Give us a spot so we can get the players to prove you wrong.
Their further contention is that any Promotion / Relegation games can only happen AFTER they have already lured and contracted players as a participating Super Rugby Franchise, and NOT BEFORE or NOT WITHOUT the players to justify it. Their argument is solid on that one!
That however is not my bone of contention or the viewpoint I reason from, like Asbak I lay the blame in front of SARU’s door and say that SARU is continuing, as they have done in the past, by not providing the stable platform for the Southern Kings (previously The Spears) to launch from. They (SARU) have not put a Feeder-Tournament into place to give the Southern Kings time to build and attract a decent Super Rugby squad, nor have they empowered the Southern Kings to prepare correctly for eventual Super Rugby participation.
In addition, SARU has not acted in South Africa’s best interests when they negotiated the current Super Rugby deal with SANZAR partners… in fact they (Andy Marinos) sold South Africa down the river from a FINANCIAL, BROADCASTING and PARTICIPATION perspective.
At this stage I think it is ludicrous to even contemplate relegation of the MTN Lions as a Super Rugby Franchise, because the only logical conclusion which could result from it all is the demise of one of it’s member Unions, the GLRU – Who will face almost certain Financial destruction and Liquidation. The Lions is well over 100 years old, and to eventally see them close doors will be a crying shame!
The GLRU have not postponed their AGM until after the “postponed” SARU meeting as they previously did.
This tells me that they already know what the outcome of that meeting will be, and that it may well be common knowledge in JHB Rugby circles prior to the SARU meeting rubber stamping any decision.
My thoughts on SARU have been well documented on this forum in the past, and I don’t feel the need to once again state my contept for an organisation that is supposedly the custodians of Rugby Union in SA. Same old, same old. INEPT, INCOMPETENT, AND DOWNRIGHT SLY.
As SA Rugby fans, what we should really be asking is “Does SA have the quality and depth of players to have a 4th and 5th franchise competing in Super Rugby?”.
My feeling, and indeed the historical evidence suggests not.
To the Cheetahs and Lions fans out there, put your provincialism away and have an honest look at the results in the cold light of day.
It doesn’t make pretty reading does it?
The franchise system has died a few seasons back, the Sharks , Bulls and Stormers do not have any players from other unions.
SARU is still a shareholder in Border and EP rugby, which subsequently gives them a vested interest in the Kings. The Lions only allies will be other unions who feel that they are hard done by in this move.
The real problem for the Lions is how do you take your employer to court and then carry on working for them. The Lions will lose all test matches and any beneficial money spinning games if they go the legal route.
The Lions do not benefit from the Test matches played at FNB as they are run by SARU, yet SARU expect the same people from the Lions area to purchase these tickets. “Have their cake and eat it”.
SARU think that they are untouchable – a little bird reminds of SA cricket who also thought they were untouchable when they ostracised Gauteng cricket over the IPL debacle– we all know now the repercussions from their high and mighty stance.
There will still be many a tears over a complete political decision.
SARU stand up and make the decision and take the consequences spineless cowards.
@ grootblousmile:
@ leather:
The Lions are (almost) as much to blame for this fiasco as SARU IMO.
They knew this was coming but just buried their heads in the sand and hoped it would go away.
Truth is that the EXCO of the GLRU that was voted in amongst such fanfare in July 2009 just haven’t performed.
The “old boys club” remains, and so does the poor management and complete lack of professionalism.
Sometimes I think it would wake them up a bit to be deprived of top class Rugby for a season or two, but ultimately it would be their total demise.
Their management and organisational abilities are (IMO) not strong enough to let them survive.
What are the people in PE smoking for trying to compare the Lions with the Kings. Although the Currie Cup champs ended in last spot I can give you 88 reasons to your none why Kings don’t belong in SR.
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