It’s time Kings pull themselves up by their bootstraps
DURBAN: The knee-jerk reaction to the imminent culling of the Kings from Super Rugby is to condemn Saru because of their long-running clamour to promote the game in a traditional rugby stronghold.
And there is the question of whether that goal been sacrificed on the altar of financial expediency?
It is more complicated than that and a deeper look into the game in the troubled Eastern Cape suggests that the time has come for Border and Eastern Province to start afresh and pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
The people of East London and Port Elizabeth want a team to be proud of and they are so “gatvol” with the financial shenanigans in their regions (EP Rugby liquidated twice in a decade) that they can’t be bothered to go to the magnificent Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium to watch the Kings.
Just 2 500 people turned up to watch the Kings host the Chiefs earlier this season. There were 4 500 people at the Lions game and the best turnout so far was when the Stormers visited (10 000).
So you get where Saru are coming from when they say the Kings are not economically viable. Talking of the much maligned governing body, they are in fact paying the Kings players. They are all on shortterm contracts for the duration of Super Rugby, and then are free agents. EP Rugby could not pay the players. They are bankrupt.
The funny thing is that the Kings have actually been playing some good rugby, especially considering they entered Super Rugby with no momentum or consistency in their squad. They are using mostly local players and some of them have caught the attention of the Super Rugby community.
But how did it go so wrong for the Kings after that promising season in 2013 when they had Alan Solomons as Director of Rugby, New Zealander Matt Sexton as head coach and Omar Mouneimne as defence coach.
They had 45 000 at one of their games as the patient folk of Port Elizabeth switched on to Super Rugby. The Kings were highly competitive from a standing start, but still finished last and had to play a promotion-relegation match against the Lions on a home-and-away basis. The Lions won in PE and the Kings won at Ellis Park, but the Lions squeaked through on aggregate.
Look where the Lions are now and, dear oh dear, look what has happened to EP Rugby.
One of the major issues was that The Kings’ administration overspent on players and coaching staff in that 2013 season and got into huge debt. All the while Cheeky Watson was saying that a major sponsor was imminent ...
To cut a sad story short, EP Rugby went into administration. The good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel and EP Rugby could be solvent before long. Mayor Athol Trollip is negotiating a deal where the Nelson Mandela Bay Council bails the rugby union out to the tune of R15 million over three years and Saru will play its part by giving PE three Test matches over three years (this year the Boks play Argentina in PE).
Meanwhile, the EP rugby team has been relegated from the Currie Cup Premier Division to the First Division. It does not get much lower than that.
Surely the time has now come for rugby in this important region to draw a line in the sand, start from scratch with a brand new administration and build itself up through the ranks. Rugby in the Border and Eastern Cape cannot forever rely on Saru to parachute in supplies for the beleaguered troops.
If rugby in the area gets itself on track from grass-roots level and is properly administered, the fans will slowly return. They want to own their team again and be proud of EP rugby.
It can be done. The Lions were nowhere in 2013 and are now tipped to win Super Rugby. The rugby folk of EP must be prepared to do the hard yards and not look for short cuts or bail-outs.