Rugby has comeback plan
There’s no place like home as SA sides look set to do battle in a local Super Rugby event
SOUTH Africa could soon stage its own domestic Super Rugby competition similar to the one the five New Zealand teams will play in from this weekend.
Super Rugby Aotearoa – the
Maori name for New Zealand and literally meaning “land of the long white cloud” – kicks off this Saturday with the Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes set to play each other home and away over the next 10 weeks.
With the spread of the coronavirus pandemic bringing to an end all rugby across the globe, including Super Rugby, the PRO14 and Test rugby for the foreseeable future, national bodies have had to look internally to get the sport up and running again.
Australia, who are also part of the Sanzaar alliance, are expected to launch a domestic competition of their own soon as well.
South Africa’s rugby boss Jurie Roux stated yesterday that SA Rugby hoped to be back in action on the field by August, but maybe even sooner.
Roux said in a video conference with the country’s media that a
Super Rugby-style competition was on the cards, and that the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers would be joined by the two PRO14 teams, the Cheetahs and Kings.
“It will be a home-based version of Super Rugby and include those two PRO14 teams because they’re not likely to play in their competition any time soon,” said Roux.
“We’re hoping to get going by
August, but maybe even in July.
“We could either all go into a ‘bio-bubble’, probably in Johannesburg, and play up there, or we could travel on the day of games and be in and out without too many other engagements.
“Everything will depend on what restrictions regarding travel and hotel stays are in place at that stage,” he added.
Roux said contact training and playing matches were likely at level 2 of the national lockdown, but that SA Rugby would have to prove to the government that contact-action was viable and safe.
Any matches would probably still take place behind closed doors, without spectators.
The players were allowed back into non-contact training and testing last Monday when the country moved down from level 4 to 3 of the lockdown.
Following a Super Rugby-style competition, SA Rugby hoped to also stage a Currie Cup and Under-21 competition, and then also look for the World Cup winning Springboks to play Test matches later in the year.
“Everything will depend on border restrictions,” Roux explained.
“We’ve got a few models we’re discussing, like setting up a biobubble in one of the country’s (big cities) and where everyone stays and plays, or we could go north to play in Europe, or some teams could come down to us.
“It’s a fluid situation.”
Currently rugby bodies in the northern and southern hemisphere are working towards establishing a global calendar, an opportunity to finally get something in place because of the uncertainty across the globe of what a post-Covid world will look like, according to Roux.
This could mean the tour of the British & Irish Lions, scheduled for July next year, being postponed until September 2021.
“If we can get a global calendar in place, we’d like to do that, and wouldn’t want the Lions tour to prevent that from happening,” said Roux.
“But we desperately want it to happen. It’s second only to the
World Cup in terms of importance and with the shared revenue models we’ve put in place for the tour, the revenue that will come in post-Covid will be very handy.”
ZAAHIER ADAMS