Boks in a fix

Fractious atmosphere: Huge damage for not only SA, but the Australasians as well

The Springboks’ withdrawal from the Rugby Championship (RC) may have left the Sanzaar alliance on even thinner ice but it is unlikely to be the catalyst for the partnership’s total collapse.

With Super Rugby already consigned to the scrap heap the only thing binding SA, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina is the RC but its future is now the topic of conjecture after the Springboks last week withdrew from this year’s instalment.

Some mending of fences will be required especially after Rob Clarke, Rugby Australia’s CEO, told reporters that the relationship between SA, New Zealand and Australia is strained.

The three founding Sanzaar members are likely to suffer significant financial losses as a result of the Springboks’ withdrawal from the four-nation tournament.

Sources told the SydneyMorning Herald SA Rugby stands to lose Aus$10m (R117m) in broadcast revenue as a result of their no-show Down Under where this year’s tournament is set to be staged. Those losses, however, still need to be brokered with the broadcaster.

Clarke said Rugby Australia has not ruled out the possibility of asking SA Rugby for compensation for revenue lost due to the Springboks’ withdrawal. That could trigger tit-for-tat boardroomcombat with SA Rugby likely to point to the contract that guarantees them three home RC games this year.

Despite the rancour the RC remains mutually beneficial and is likely to endure at least until the broadcast agreement expires in 2025.

The alliance, however, has indubitably taken a beating amid the complications brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier this year Australia and New Zealand were at odds when the former nabbed hosting rights for this year’s RC from under the Kiwis’ noses.

SA Rugby added to the fractious atmosphere on Friday by pulling the plug on their participation in this year’s tournament citing ongoing complications related to the Covid19 pandemic.

Red tape, or lack of clarity about whether the team can travel, helped suffocate the Boks’ prospects of going Down Under.

Even if they got a definitive green light, assembling the 40-odd member squad would have been a challenge given the different restrictions in place in the respective territories the overseas-based Springboks operate from.

This year will be the first since readmission in 1992 that the Boks don’t get to play a Test

No Tests this year

The Springboks withdrawal from the RC means this year will be the first since readmission in 1992 that they don’t get to play a Test.

Not playing this year will drastically alter director of rugby Rassie Erasmus’s preparations for next year’s much-anticipated tour of the British & Irish Lions. While it was his stated aim in the wake of the Boks’ triumph in the RWC to bring consistency to the team by winning the RC back-to-back, it is the Lions tour that is firmly in Erasmus’s crosshairs.

Several senior players have also indicated they are likely to call time on Test rugby after the Lions’ series.

While his RWC winning Boks will form the core of the side next year, it was Erasmus’s intention to blood young players during the course of 2020 in preparation for the Lions tour, as well as a longer-term view to the 2023 RWC in France.

As was the case in the lead up to the previous RWC, by a stroke of vicious irony, Erasmus and Co will again have under two years to prepare the side for the next global spectacle.

At least this time Erasmus will largely assemble a group of winners and will not have to sift through the ruins of a team in decline.