Another fan of a global season
HABANA: NOT SOLD ON IDEA OF SA DITCHING SANZAAR
Springbok great Bryan Habana spent enough time playing in Europe to know exactly what it would entail for South African rugby to ditch Sanzaar and move into northern hemisphere competitions, and the 2007 World Cup winner is not totally sold on the idea, he said yesterday.
There has been global speculation that the world champions will leave Sanzaar after the 2023 World Cup to play in an expanded Six Nations tournament as well as their Super Rugby franchises joining European competitions like the Pro14 and Champions Cup. There has also been talk emanating from Australia of Sanzaar excluding teams from both South Africa and Argentina and focusing on just a trans-Tasman competition with Argentina.
Habana, who scored a South
African record 56 Super Rugby tries for the Bulls and Stormers, finished his career spending five years playing for Toulon so he has intimate knowledge of European competition.
“There’s been a lot of debate about South Africa joining the northern hemisphere but right now nobody even knows when rugby will be back in South Africa. Probably the one thing most needed by rugby is a global season. But I suppose the one question is whether Sanzaar need SA Rugby, they have been an important part of Sanzaar for the last 25 years.
“For those in the UK and Europe it’s much easier to watch games in South Africa than those in New Zealand or Australia. But it’s important to see where the Springboks and Super Rugby teams could fit in and they would have to fit in with the northern hemisphere schedule. I don’t see our guys enjoying playing in December/January and how are our rugby fans going to enjoy watching rugby over Christmas when they’re on holiday?” Habana said yesterday in a virtual press conference to announce the launch of MatchKit.co, a mobile tech platform intended to help athletes grow their commercial brands, set up by the Retroactive agency of which he is a partner.
There have also been suggestions South African teams could play in both Sanzaar and the northern hemisphere, expanding the current involvement of the Free Sate Cheetahs and the Southern Kings in the Pro14, but Habana said the workload on the players even if they were just involved in Europe would be immense.
“When Toulon won the double in 2014/15 they played more than 40 games and player welfare is important. If we’re going to add four more teams and include the Springboks in the Six Nations then that would mean even more matches,” said Habana.