Kickoff ahead, but who knows when?
● SA’s domestic rugby competition may kick off earlier than recommended.
Though full-contact training will resume tomorrow, the Sunday Times has been told that the domestic competition will kick off on September 18, a week earlier than the medical advice at an “info session” on Friday.
“The chief medical officers are of the opinion you need four weeks of contact training before you are tournament ready,” a provincial boss said.
He said though everyone in the game is desperate to get going as soon as possible, the competition organisers will have to heed medical advice. “Player welfare is paramount. That is, we still don’t have a firm date for the start of the tournament.”
Opinion is divided on the amount of full contact training required before going into competition. Stormers coach John Dobson told this paper recently that based on information from European clubs only three weeks of full contact training were required before going into competition.
SA Rugby announced on Friday that it got the go-ahead from the government to begin full-contact training early this week.
“We have been cleared to start contact training on Monday,” said a provincial chief. “Everybody will be tested and that will be our starting point,” he said before stressing a kickoff date has to be confirmed.
“We are waiting for that guideline. We will also have to go with the guideline of the chief medical officers. They are the professionals. We all want to start as soon as possible but at the end of the day they have to look at player welfare.
“It doesn’t help anyone if we start the competition and there are 10 injuries in the first game,” he said in reference to the unusually high number of injuries suffered in the first two weeks of New Zealand’s Super Rugby Aotearoa earlier this year.
One can assume SA’s players, who have had to wait longer than their Australasian counterparts to get back onto the field, are ready to resume combat.
They will be let loose in a competition that will feature seven teams after the Southern Kings suspended their playing operations for the remainder of the year due to financial constraints.
They will play a double round and will have a bye now that the Kings are no longer part of the playing roster.
With the country having dropped down to level 2, the tournament will no longer have to be contested in a bio-bubble. It will be played on a home-and-away basis with strict safety protocols in place.
“We can play until whenever,” said the provincial boss when asked if there would be an end-of-season deadline. “The important thing is to get onto the field and give value to our sponsors and the broadcasters. If we have to play until December or January or whenever, we will do that.”
He said the delay undermined the Springboks’ prospects of defending their Rugby Championship crown. The Springboks will have two or three weeks as preparation in the domestic competition PR if they get to play in the championship.
With SA’s Super Rugby teams set to take part, it isn’t clear if the competition will be contested as the Currie Cup. The competition is set to kick off with a theme similar to Super Hero Sunday in January.