SA’s Currie Cup teams may be invited to play in an expanded and revised version of (England) Premiership Rugby’s knockout competition, the Anglo-Welsh Cup,from 2020.
In 2020, the new global season will be put into effect by World Rugby, meaning that the domestic season could last as long as ten months.
An eight-team northern hemisphere versus southern hemisphere event is also being mooted. It would happen on a single weekend and could involve, for example, the European club champions against the Super Rugby champions.
The supposed aim of Premiership Rugby’s authorities is to fill any vacant weekends, after the restructuring of the global season.
Under the new structure, club rugby will be played until the end of June (summer in the northern hemisphere), with July being earmarked for international tours.
Premiership Rugby did not want any overlap between the autumn internationals in November or the Six Nations in February and March and the club rugby season.
English clubs have grown increasingly restless over the last decade by Test players being withdrawn from their squads at critical points in the season.
Where SA’s Currie Cup teams come in would be in expanded version the Anglo-welsh cup, which would include the players from each country who have not been selected for the autumn Tests.
Players, unsurprisingly, have reacted strongly to the club season being extended from May until the end of June, having started in the previous year’s September.
Northampton lock and a prominent member of the Rugby Player’s Association, Christian Day, has warned of strike action should the money-men insist on an unreasonably long season. Player welfare is clearly a concern.
It is also arguable whether or not British (or indeed South African) fans will have an appetite for such a competition, especially with the plethora of provincial/franchise and international rugby already on offer.
Premier Rugby chief executive, Mark McCafferty, inevitably as one of the promoters of the initiative, had a contrary view.
He said: “You can’t have a one-size-fits-all arrangement as the majority of our players in the Premiership only operate within the club structure which has a different workload to the Test arena.”
“By having more clarity and with far fewer overlaps with the international game, we can work out playing programmes to suit everyone.
“For a Test player, the demands are very different to a club player. We recognise that. The clubs don’t want to put their prime assets at risk. Why would they?
“There is a lot of detail to go into these projects yet. There will be mid-season breaks perhaps. We really do believe that there is an appetite for the September-June calendar. We are convinced that there will be a good outcome for everyone.”
Another factor which logically will impact on the popularity of extending the club rugby season in the northern hemisphre until June, is that it will have to compete with traditional summer sports like cricket and tennis for audiences.
It is stretching the imagination to suggest that attendances and viewer figures would be sufficient for yet more club rugby, when multi-sport fans have a choice of high-profile matches at Wimbledon or a Lord’s Ashes test, for example, to entice them.
Yet McCafferty saw fit to defend the proposal further: “We are already up against Premier League football and having the final stages of our competition in June will mean that we are not competing against domestic football.”
McCafferty rejected the idea that the four-team playoff for the Premiership could be abandoned, in favour of rewarding the top-placed team on the league table with the title, after the full two rounds of home-and-away fixtures.
This would make sense, much like it does in league football – rewarding the most consistent team throughout the season and also considering that clubs would have their Test players available under the restructured season.
In the current structure, the top four play off in semifinals and a final, adding two more matches to an already congested and punishing season.
McCafferty was having none of it: “We still feel that the competition needs its big day in the Twickenham sun so that won’t be changing. It works very well for us.”
By “us”, it means the profit-makers – the sponsors and the shareholders in professional unions, which are increasingly becoming more corporate in their approach.
Many fans – and indeed playing professionals in the UK, feel that they are last to be considered with exorbitant prices for match tickets – and player welfare concerns – being cited respectively by the two groups.
McCaffrety and his partners need look no further than the manner in which SANZAAR (SA, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby) has been embarrassed recently by having their corporate greed exposed by fans and pundits, who have reacted negatively to the expansion of Super Rugby.
This led to the southern hemisphere body reducing the confusing and unwieldy tournament to 15 teams for 2018, down from the current 18. – African News Agency (ANA)
