All the talk of the referee blunders, the perception of unfairness, the targeting of the Springboks and the media circus with PDV has me thinking.
Not sure if you guys remember last year during the negotiations of the 15th super Franchise Regan Hoskins made a comment about SANZAR and where the real power lay. He eluded to the fact that SANZAR is controlled by NZRU and ARU. We have already had a number of altercations with the other two members of SANZAR. During the 2007 Tri Nations Jake White rested some of his players and John O’Neill blamed the depleted squad for the poor turnout at the Telstra Stadium.
We have also lost out on the television revenue during the last negotiations.
We have the current situation where SARU and PDV are continually in the news for discrediting rugby due to PDV’s outbursts and SARU for standing behind him.
It is clear to me that NZRU and ARU is controlling the SANZAR situation and SARU simply doesn’t have the capability to handle it.
With South Africa having the biggest television audience and also the biggest market for revenue on this medium and add to that their standing as a top three nation in the world rankings it stands to reason that the Super 14 competition soon to become a Super 15 competition gains more credibility world wide as a marketable product than without us.
I have read articles in the past where NZRU and ARU are already looking to how they can increase television revenue by looking towards a Japanese or America’s Franchise for further expansion. It seems to me that revenue is the main driving force behind rugby in the Antipodes regardless of whether this is actually beneficial to their rugby and players. There has already been an additional Bledisloe Cup match added in Japan over the past few years mainly in my opinion for revenue purposes.
Perhaps reconsidering the involvement in the Super 14 is worthwhile, we already have the short end of the stick having to travel further, more time zones and being away from home for longer periods than our opponents. We are gifting them revenue that are funding their coffers and making them more competitive.
So what if we decide to remove ourselves from the Super Franchise equation?
There are a few benefits I can think of immediately. Our administrators can no longer be strong armed into situations that benefit NZRU and ARU. We can return to the “mystery” of having these nations only play us in the test arena twice a year. Familiarity breeds contempt and having these overseas franchises playing against us so often allows more of their players get used to our game plan and how to adapt and counter it.
During the years prior to professionalism and Super competitions our rugby was formidable purely for the reason that they never had the opportunity to test themselves against us until it was time for a test. They didn’t know us and had to either adapt very quickly or the series would be lost.
The Southern Spears or Kings depending on what they will eventually be called has been begging for the opportunity to play Super Rugby. Adding them to the current 5 Super Franchises we have will give us the opportunity to create our own Super League with home and away matches and ultimately give opportunity to a province well documented for the history of “black” rugby to add to the much needed development of non-white players.
The Super League season will be slightly shorter as the round robin will only be ten games, but overall in a few short years could improve our rugby. Perhaps a rethink of distribution of revenue and salary caps will ensure that these Franchises will be able to compete on equal footing and teams such as the Cheetahs will be better able to retain players that seek greener pastures.
Perhaps returning to the old ways but under the mantle of professionalism will make our rugby stronger, allow us to regain the “mystique” of playing test rugby against the Springboks and not having SARU being manhandled at every opportunity by our Australian and New Zealand counterparts, ultimately allowing us to act in the best interest of South African rugby.
Everything will be judged on its financial viability. If this is financially viable, then do it.
Hmm, food for thought, but the reality is that it’ll never happen.
Any sport these days is revenue driven.
The Aussies in particular have such great competition in regards to television air time, players and spectators due to the fact that Rugby Union is only 3rd on the list of ball sports behind AFL and Rugby League.
Add to that the fact that the success of the Socceroos and the A-League are pushing yougsters to take up Association Football (soccer to the poorly educated!) and you can see why the ARU have to be hard nosed about both tv revenue and trying to fill stadia on test match day.
IMO the biggest culprit is the IRB. They seem to have no real world wide plan to grow the game above where it is now.
Of course SARU also have their problems that are not helped when people appointed during the recent elections in March fail to take up the posts. (Francois Davids – Boland)
Then you have people like Mark Alexander, who may well be a “very pleasant chap”, but who wouldn’t agree that it was a good morning without convening a committee & holding a round of meetings first, and as for Mr Hoskens esq’, well a lawyer will always remain a lawyer. (Sorry GBS)
I note also that SARU has now appointed Mr Jurie Roux, the Finance Director of Stelenboch University as CEO, so maybe they (SARU) will start getting hard with SANZAR regarding allocation of revenues, but I always get the feeling that the NZ’ers and the Aussies are always one step ahead of SARU when it gets down to the sharp end of the negotiations.
Amateurs in professional positions? Lets hope things change for the better.
SARU will never pull out of the 3N or Super Rugby. IMO they don’t nave the testes.
I’m not sure I got this right but it seems you’re suggesting we pull out of Super 14 and have a tournament just between SA teams, would that not just be another version of the Currie Cup just with the top players available? If so, would this have the same financial appeal as the Super 14 currently does, even if you think we are not getting our fair share of revenue?
Scrumdown, I wouldn’t want us to withdraw from the Four Nations. We need that tournament and revenues. I think ultimately it will be to everyones benefit to have 4 nations, ARU and NZRU will then have a bigger challenge on their hands.
Bullscot, yes. But it won’t be exactly like the Currie Cup if it is done on a basis where (and this was GBS’ idea) there is a draft system.
Look at the situation we have currently, the Bulls will sit with an embareesment of riches in a certain position and the next best guy doesn’t get enough game time.
If there is a draft system, the Bulls coach may only select his best player per position, all the other guys go into a draft.
Each Franchise gets one draftee per round and can then have the benefit of filling his squad of thirty with better players from other provinces. This will ensure that the six Franchises will be able to spread the talent more equally and there for create a more competitive tournament.
Our best players will play high quality pressure rugby.
My concern is if ARU and NZRU continue to look at expansion for Super 15, it will weaken the competition and ultimately just become another tournament driven by greed for money only.
Biltongbek
Surely the format of the S15 is already flawed, with so many “internal games” between a given country’s respective franchises.
I think it’ll just be more of the same with dwindling spectator numbers.
Do we really want to see the Bulls/Blue Bulls playing the rest of the SA teams / franchises 4 times in 1 year between the S15 and the CC?
Or have I read the competition format wrong?
Personally, I don’t think that SA Rugby’s stakeholders are mature enough to go down the Draft route.
When I look at the number of development players coming through at provinces like the Bulls, and then I look at the development problems at provinces like the Lions, I can understand that the BBRU wouldn’t want to invest time, money and energy developing players, only to lose their services in a Draft.
In short, they would have a lot to lose, and not much to gain, and would IMO fail to see the positives for the overall development of the game.
@ biltongbek:
Ok that sounds a bit different but am not sure I would agree going from what is an international (albeit at club level) to an internal one would be as good. The Super 14, flaws and all, is probably seen as the flagship club tournament and I don’t think what you are suggesting would have the same appeal to an international audience. Just going on what I see around here, maybe its the same south of the border, there are folk with Super 14 tops on but not Currie Cup tops, and most of them are NZ or Aus ones so the internationl TV revenue we get from the Super 14 may be far more than we would get from an internal one, although admittedly I don’t know what financial numbers are involved so this is just speculation.
The draft system is not one I am keen on : you chose your best player in a position and send the others to whoever needs is a nice theory on a national interest level, but what happens at your provincial team if your best player gets injured, can you get the next best (2nd or 3rd or 4th best depending on how many you have given away) back or do you have to take whoever is available in your franchise, possible the 5th best, and lose games because of it. Remember at franchise level it is still a business. This year we ‘lent’ Steenkamp to the Sharks, it worked ok because we have so much lock depth, but did it do him or the Bulls much good, how much game time did he get at the Sharks, seems to me he was just an insurance policy for them.
Gentlemen lets get this straight…professionalism is here and here to stay.
SARU has been threatening to leave ever since it joined SANZAR….if they were serious about their marketing value and strength they would have been snapped up or would moved out of SANZR a long time ago.
Why does SARU keep coming back?
It a pointless vicious circle…ARU threatened SARU to walk away if it continued to try and bully their way through…guess who cowtowed!!! If SARU was that powerful why did they not take the opportrunity to walk at that time.
I think SARU needs to drop their threats or just walk away!!
Van Rooyen tried to start a competition between RSA club sides and NH sides…if it were so lucrative why has nothing come of this? Surely this was the door SARU had always been seeking to get out on!
Me thinks SARU needs ARU and NZ more than it thinks.
@ Wallabie.:
Wallabie
I think they all need one another. Without the 3N / 4N and Super Rugby the tv revenue income to ALL 3 SANZAR countries would be significantly smaller.
What does need to happen is that the management of the games biggest assets, the players needs to be looked at in terms of the number of games played per year.
More is not always better.
One only has to look at the NFL which fills big stadia week in week out for the duration of their season, but who only play a very limited number of games per year.
During the “off season” my guess is that the supporters are tearing their hair out worse than the Bulls supporters in mid January waiting for some action!
I for one don’t want to see a S20 comprising of 4 teams that can win the competition, and the rest making up the numbers.
In fact, as a die hard Lions supporter, I don’t think they deserve to be in the competition next year based on performances over the last 5 years.
Automatic “relegation” would make unions like the Lions sit up and do some real soul searching IMO.
Scrumdown, I absolutely agree the Sup Franchise competition should not become bigger.
In fact if it is to remain, I would prefer Super 12, only four teams from each country.
scrumdown
some good thoughts.
I would like a relegation and promotion S15 where local sides can have 7 teams who play to qualify for the following years S15.
Whilst the top 5 sides battle the Super tournament they play the other 2 local sides (6 and 7) whilst the S15 tourney is local.
This will keep teams placed 6 and 7 opptimistic whilst the top 5 in S15 need to keep competitive when they play 6 and 7.
This will improve local rugby and bring about depth.
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