Franchise bosses fret over player availability
Sharks, Lions majority shareholders lament the limited time their players have for local team duties
● They may have vastly different business models but the majority shareholders of the Sharks and the Lions agree they are unable to unlock the full potential of their playing squads.
Marco Masotti and Altmann Allers — with whom the buck stops at the Sharks and Lions, respectively — have lamented the limited time that their players are available for franchise duty amid greater demands for rest and recovery and national team deployment.
Both argue that if South African franchises are going to make an impact in Europe, player availability will need to be addressed.
The ambitious Masotti contends that increasing squad size will help address the problem. The question then is, how many players will be enough to meet the demands of three senior competitions, as well as a junior competition?
“Way more than 53,” said Masotti. “The real assets of South African rugby are the best players. That’s what I’m buying into. If I can contract 75 players to be part of the Sharks family, whether we’re playing Saracens or Narbonne away, I have an asset I can market.”
SA Rugby places limits on the number of players that can be contracted as part of a drive for the local rugby industry to spend within its means. They want to avoid the financial sinkhole that has afflicted clubs in the English Premiership.
The salary cap for this season was raised to R85m from R67.2m.
Allers is less worried about the size of his squad. He wants science to dictate how rest periods are determined and opposes a onesize-fits-all approach. “We have to use technology to help determine these things,” said the no-nonsense Allers.
“There is the debate about whether players should take eight weeks off in July/August... basically a forced break of eight weeks. I don’t understand why it should be like that because we have the technology to determine exactly how much time a player has spent on the playing field and in training.
“Over Christmas our players (at the Lions) had three weeks off. Now we are going to have three-week blocks in February and March. We can manage our squads more effectively.”
Player well-being
Well-defined rest periods have, however, now been woven into the cloak of player well-being. That has been agreed upon with player representative bodies.
To be fair, the Lions have juggled their limited resources well over the past year. Unlike the Sharks, who have gone on a recruitment spree over the last few seasons, the Lions now have a settled group and are benefiting from a squad of players that know each other.
They are playing with greater cohesion and have a tight group that has developed with head coach Ivan van Rooyen.
Not having high profile players has helped the Lions forge a squad less buffeted by gusts from the outside.
They have created depth by spreading game time across the United Rugby Championship, the Challenge Cup and the Currie Cup.
“We are still relatively inexperienced to other franchises in terms of age,” said Van Rooyen. “We have young players but they have caps in those competitions. The difference between our players one, two and three in a particular position is minute.”
While the Lions have had to exercise patience in building a squad, Masotti admits to being impatient to see results for his investment.
Stars need to align
The Sharks have underperformed, and the owner wants the stars to align with the galaxy that he has assembled. He wants to get his hands on the Champions Cup but he realises things outside his sphere of influence will impact their prospects. “That has to be your goal,” Masotti said about the Champions Cup. “It has to have the most exposure. South African teams are building to it. What the Bulls are doing is very thoughtful. They have a World Cup winning coach. “The Stormers have already won the URC. We have to win the Champions Cup and the only way to do that is with the best players in the world. Players and coaches need time together. You have to look where you are after three years.”
He warns failure to adequately address the matter “is going to bring disappointment season after season”.
Failure to adequately address the matter is going to bring disappointment season after season Marco Masotti
Sharks’ majority shareholder