‘ Europe move a good one’

NOW that South African rugby’s future has been confirmed in what will become a PRO16 next year, Rassie Erasmus has highlighted the benefits of the Sharks, Stormers, Lions and Bulls playing in Europe.

South Africa’s exit from Super Rugby in exchange for joining the best of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy was confirmed at an SA Rugby meeting on Tuesday that also revealed that the Cheetahs will drop out of the PRO14 and are likely to be accommodated in a Super 8 competition featuring New Zealand and Australian teams.

In terms of pure geographics, the PRO16 would mean no more time- consuming treks to Australasia and no traversing of multiple time zones, eliminating jet lag. SA Rugby Director of Rugby Erasmus says there is more to it than more convenient travel for the players.

“Just looking at it from the point of view of supporters … The first benefit is that you’ll be watching the game in the same time zone. You’ll watch it in the afternoon, have a braai and a few beers with mates. It makes a difference.

“For us as coaches and players, you can get on a plane, sleep on the overnight flight and actually play the next day, and have no jet lag because there is only a one- hour time difference,” Erasmus said.

“That’s nice for the broadcasters and also for your own planning. Also, there are regular flights that you can get ( to London) from most big cities in South Africa.”

There are direct flights to the UK now from Durban as well as from Cape Town and Johannesburg, and there are a lot more of them than the standard Johannesburg- toSydney flight that the Super Rugby teams frequented.

There has been an argument that the PRO14 is a weaker competition than Super Rugby and that joining it will be to the detriment of the standard of South African rugby, but Erasmus doesn’t necessarily agree.

“You will play against countries’ best players ( in the PRO16) who are normally ranked high on the world rankings,” he said. “Because when you think where Argentina and Australia are currently ranked, they’re 10th and seventh, respectively. Ireland is invariably in the top four in the world. Wales is always in the top five. Even Scotland remains very competitive.

“Those are the benefits. To be fair, I can tell you there are a lot of problems, too, but in my opinion, the moment people start knowing the players who play there, they’ll discover there are a lot of South Africans in those leagues.

“They’ll see those players are very good and play at a level close to Test match rugby.”

Erasmus has a good point. The PRO14 teams are loaded with former SA players and for that reason there is already an SA following of PRO14 and English Premiership games.