BJ Botha, Frans Steyn, Jean de Villiers, Butch James, Joe van Niekerk, Shaun Sowerby, Marius Joubert, Luke Watson, Daan Human, Faan Rautenbach, Brent Russel, Neil de Kock, Michael Claasens, CJ van der Linde, Robbie Diack, Ross Skeate, Gcobani Bobo, Schalk Brits, Ernst Joubert, Marco Wentzel, Jacques Cronje and countless other lesser known players.

Week in and week out we have to hear the constant muttering and moaning of SA Rugby fans, “Oh if only this and this player came back, oh what are we going to do now that this player is playing overseas? Why can’t Peter de Villiers just select the overseas guys? All our talent is playing overseas because of quotas. “
Bullshit…say I!!!

Around 352 professional rugby players ply their trade on a weekly basis Super 14 and Vodacom Cup action for South Africa, this excludes the various injured players watching from the sidelines, the players not in the match 22, the age-group players and even the Varsity Cup players.

Think about this, only considering players in the match 22’s, it is approximately (read well, APPROXIMATELY):

62 Props,
32 Hookers,
48 Locks,
56 Looseforwards,
24 Scrumhalves,
22 Flyhalves,
40 Centres
68 Outside Backs.

Are we seriously saying, that nowhere in the whole country, are we able to identify and develop a youngster, to grow into a position of influence on the field? Within an array of 62 front-rowers, we do not have the ability to develop even one into an international star? Are we actually trying? Or are we only trying to take the easy way out?

To even consider using overseas based players is an insult to every registered rugby player in South Africa, from school level up. There is absolutely no position in which we do not have a better local player than an overseas based one, (Inside Centre might be the exception, but not for long).

SARU needs to have a look at their structures, and whether they are doing enough to develop existing talent. The Scrum Factory is step in the right direction, but why not go even further?

Establish a National High Performance Rugby Academy. Invite at least 60 of the most promising talents from around SA to join the Academy under the tutorship of a number of professional coaches and conditioning experts appointed by SARU. Get them to hone raw talent into actual rugby players, get them into the mindset of the life of a professional rugby player.

Now, introduce a drafting system, whereby each franchise has the opportunity to approach these players and offer them junior contracts with the union. Obviously a transfer fee will be paid to the Academy, which will be one way of funding it. The junior contracts are to be equal in size, in other words, a financially powerful union, will pay the same as a smaller one, and each union can only approach a set number of players.

In this way you can ensure that talent is divided equally amongst the franchises, and that all franchises are benefitting and have an opportunity, to develop their sides. As this will be a South African initiative, a number of strong franchises is in the interest of SA Rugby as a whole.

Once a year, make available a transfer window, where unions get the opportunity to approach a number these junior players from each other’s unions, for senior contracts. However, here is the catch, a union cannot merely buy a player to get him off the market and add to its depth. A buy should coincide with actual game time in the senior set-up, as per contractual arrangement, and not just hanging around with the juniors waiting for injuries to make the step up.

It might be a pie in the sky dream, but I believe a move like this, will ensure that rugby in SA stays fresh, and that talent isn’t slipping through the cracks unnecessarily.

So by all means, a player can play where he wants, for whom he wants, for as long as he wants, because South Africa will be developing their replacements, and returning would not be as easy as once thought.