Rugby challenge coming to PE

RUGBY festivals at five venues across the width and depth of South Africa, with provincial and club teams in action, will be a key feature of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, a competition launched by SA Rugby and SuperSport in Johannesburg yesterday.

The Bill Jardine Stadium in Randburg, where the SuperSport Rugby Challenge was launched, is one of the five venues that will host the festival.

The competition will see four provincial teams and two local club sides compete for glory in three consecutive, televised matches from the same ground.

Other venues to host rugby festival days – all of them on Sundays – are the Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth, Impala Rugby Club in Rustenburg, the venue of last year’s club rugby Gold Cup Final, East London (venue to be confirmed) and Bridgton Sports Grounds in Oudtshoorn, with a minimum of four hours of rugby action offered to spectators.

SuperSport confirmed that all live matches would be broadcast on SuperSport Select (channel 210), which is available to subscribers of all of the broadcaster’s packages.

Where scheduling allows, the matches will also be available on SuperSport One, to cater for high definition viewing.

The competition, which will also include Namibia’s Welwitschias, kicks off on April 21 and will be divided into three regions – north, south and central – with local bragging rights up for grabs.

The first festival will take place at the Wolfson Stadium on Sunday April 23 and will see African Bombers and PE Harlequins face off in an appetising start to the day, followed by clashes between Border and Boland, with the final match between EP Kings and Western Province. “The SuperSport Rugby Challenge will take professional rugby to places it has never been before,” SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux said.

“A new playing day, new venues and new match schedules will set the SuperSport Rugby Challenge apart.

“We’re very excited to see the response to moving some matches away from the professional venues,” he said.

“When you take rugby back to its roots, club rugby is a vital part of the mix.

“There is a historic link between club and provincial rugby that has largely been lost in the professional era.

“The rugby challenge will hopefully change that by also showcasing some of South Africa’s biggest provincial club derbies.”