South Africa's Super Rugby departure will have impacts far and wide - but the biggest losers won't be known anytime soon
While it’s been a likely move ever since New Zealand Rugby effectively announced that they didn’t see South African involvement in Super Rugby as beneficial for the long-term future, the South African Rugby Union have now confirmed that a move to the Northern Hemisphere for club rugby is the preferred move forward.
“Our members are excited about the prospect of closer alignment with PRO Rugby Championship and seeking a northern hemisphere future, but we would not have been taking this decision but for actions elsewhere,” said SARU chairman Jurie Roux.
The Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions’ move to Europe will significantly alter the shape of international club rugby in the Southern Hemisphere and despite NZR’s desire for the change, there’s going to be some significant fallout due to the developments.
From a player’s point of view, the removal of South Africa from Super Rugby means no more two-week tours involving multiple long-haul flights.
That’s great for player welfare – and players’ families will no doubt be over the moon that they no longer have to say goodbye to their fathers, husbands and partners for three weeks a year.
On the flips side, various NZ stars, including the likes of Brad Weber and Bryn Hall, have spoken about how beneficial tours are for team bonding – often it’s the international travel that really helps new players get an understanding of their own team’s culture.
While SARU have highlighted the benefits of playing in Europe in a similar timezone to South Africa’s, long haul flights are still on the cards for the SA teams. The PRO14 sides have slowly become accustomed to playing in the republic but it’s a much tougher ask travelling from Ireland to South Africa, for example, than it is going from Ireland to Italy, and taking the South African representation up from two teams to four will force the PRO14 sides to spend an extra week miles away from home every year.
The top PRO14 sides have also sometimes settled on sending second-string sides to Africa, but that will be less feasible when a team is scheduled to play the Bulls in Pretoria and the Stormers in Cape Town, instead of playing a single match against the Kings.
In terms of the competition itself, what will the European sides gain from South Africa’s increased presence?
The PRO14, which started out as a competition involving just Scotland and Wales, has grown steadily since its inception in 1999. Just two years after the competition began, Ireland joined the charge – and Italy came on board 10 years later. Much like Super Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere, however, there are questions over whether the increase in size has actually increased the competition’s quality.
Ireland have dominated proceedings, with Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht securing almost two-thirds of the titles between them.
If South Africa’s teams of old were being added into the competition then they might be able to bring up the standard, but the weak rand has forced many South African players to relocate to England, France and Japan, which has naturally brought down the standard of the current Super Rugby sides.
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Perhaps there’ll be more money on offer by joining the PRO14, which could entice the middle and upper tier of South African players to return to play for their home provinces – but that might be wishful thinking.
NZ and Australia will of course lose any South African involvement in Super Rugby – which was on the cards anyway. All Blacks coaches of the past have regularly spoken of how playing South African teams throughout the season has strengthened the Kiwis come the international season. The likes of the Bulls and Stormers play a style of rugby much more similar to England than any teams in Australasia, and with those regular fixtures off the table, it will interesting to see how the All Blacks and Wallabies fair when they come up against the Northern superpowers during test season.
From a viewer’s perspective, however, New Zealand and Australian fans probably won’t be too fussed to see the back end of South Africa.
As Super Rugby Aotearoa confirmed, Kiwis love watching the New Zealand teams play one another. The viewership figures out of Australia weren’t so convincing, but a trans-Tasman competition will hopefully find a happy balance between high-intensity derbies and some much-needed diversity of matches.
Certainly, the South African teams added a different style of play to Super Rugby, but that was never enough to entice viewers outside of the republic to set up shop in the early hours of the morning to watch rugby.
Passionate fans in NZ and Australia might watch their own teams when they’re touring and a few rugby nuts would tune in to watch their local teams travel to South Africa, but how many New Zealanders and Australians got excited about two South African sides banging their heads together desperately early on a Saturday or Sunday morning?
With SA out of the competition, fans could conceivably stake out for every match of whatever competition that unfolds without firing a missile through their own sleep schedule.
That goes equally for South African fans, who will now be able to watch away games at the same time of day as home matches.
Unless, of course, they’re fans of the Cheetahs or Kings – who are again finding themselves on the outer.
Jake White's poised to bring his Bulls to Europe https://t.co/Vnr2uUliau
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 29, 2020
The Cheetahs, having played one season of Super 12 in 1997, joined the competition fulltime in 2006. 12 years later, they again found themselves without a berth in Super Rugby and were forced to relocate to the PRO12.
The Kings, meanwhile, have always courted controversy. Having joined Super Rugby in 2013 for a one-off campaign before becoming a permanent fixture in 2016, they were then booted from the competition just two years later.
While the Kings’ financials had effectively pulled the pin on the franchise for the foreseeable future anyway, the Cheetahs have been buckling down and preparing to re-join the PRO14 when the borders re-open. With the current four Super Rugby sides now heading north, the Cheetahs are again getting culled in favour of South Africa’s traditional teams – and there really leaves them with nowhere to go.
Supposedly the Cheetahs could join a small international competition involving sides from NZ, Australia, Argentina and Japan (which sounds awfully familiar), but that sounds like wishful thinking as opposed to anything tangible.
While the Jaguares aren’t a South African team, South Africa’s move to Europe for club rugby could also spell the end of the only Argentinian Super Rugby side, who will likely have no luck re-joining Australia and New Zealand for any meaningful week-in, week-out competition. More likely, the Super Liga Americana de Rugby will take on more prominence in South America – though it’s probably fair to assume that most of Argentina’s top players will return to Europe, where all the money is.
The impact of relocating the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions to the PRO14 will have an impact far extending outside of South Africa and Europe and only years down the line will we really be able to assess who’s gained the most – and who’s lost the most – from the re-shaping of global club rugby.
Comments on RugbyPass
Lots of discussion points, Ben, but two glaring follies IMO: 1. Blackadder at 6. Has done nothing so far this season to justify his selection. Did you see him going backwards in contact at the weekend? Simply has not got the physical presence at 6: we need a Scott Barrett or a Finau (or wildcard Ah Kuoi), beasts who are big enough to play lock, like Frizzell. If Barret played at 6, Paddy could be joined at lock by Vai’i or one of the young giants we need to promote, like Darry or Lord (if he ever gets on the field). Blackadder best left to join the queue for 7. 2. Not even a mention for Christie? Ratima gets caught at crucial times at the back of the ruck when he hesitates on the pass. The only way he starts would be if Christie and TJ are injured.
1 Go to commentsWhat a dagg in more ways than one
5 Go to commentsRegroup come back next year but sack some of the coaching team and don't be like the ABs last minute sacking. If Crusaders don't do well ABs don't do well.
5 Go to commentsProctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
5 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
5 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
4 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
38 Go to comments