Ever since NZ teams decided to combine their provincial teams to enable them to become more competitive in the super 15, the rest of the SANZAR teams have struggled to keep up. Only in the last 5 years have the SA teams managed to catch-up, but with the demand for more teams from the Australians and the weak negotiating skills by SARU have resulted in the local competition, the currie cup, becoming nothing more than a dead horse. To think that SARU would sacrifice the soul of SA rugby for a few dollars more, is unthinkable and the fact that the new agreement has had massive implications on the national team too.
The question is how do we bring back life and value to this ailing competition. It is simple, if SARU can convince their other unions to change the scheduled matches and be allowed for derby matches to be played at the beginning of the season rather than having them mix together would enable South Africa teams to start a few weeks earlier to include a sixth team that would play for the honors to qualify for the Super league stage.
The other question that comes from this is then when will the currie cup final take place. Again, quoting a famous springbok that once said that the currie cup is not won in in April. As we have right now, where we have had sub standard competition during the championship, and all of a sudden have a plethora of springboks returning to the competition for the final stages of the season. The currie will have its finals played 2 weeks after the championship finishes. Meaning that the top 4 teams will play in a semi and a final, teams finishing 3 and 4 would then play for the third place to get a valuable seeding point.
While the play-offs take place teams that finished 5 - 6 in derby matches at the beginning of the season can compete against other franchise / unions to have the honor of taking the 5 and 6 spot for the start of the next season.
It only leaves us with one problem and that is how do we deal with not having domestic rugby during the championship. Again the answer is simple, all 14 provinces can play in a round robin competition that last for 9 weeks where a limit of funds will be placed on each team in terms of how many players they contract and what the spend on their salaries. This means that this competition would become a feeder system that will enable players to play for super rugby contracts at the same time it will enable springboks on the fringes some valuable game time during the championship.
What this means is that based on the current situation, SA will be able to preserve the integrity of the currie cup. The spin of effect is that our top players won’t be over burden and the smaller unions will have the opportunity to form franchises and have an opportunity to gain entry into Super Rugby with out the unnecessary politicking that has plague South Africa for the last couple of decades. It would also mean that South African team will be there based on their rugby strengths and teams such as the kings will have a fair opportunity to compete. It would also enable teams like Griquas the opportunity to form a franchise at a later date. The reality is that we no longer have the opportunity to provide all of our unions a competition to run for the entire season. The feeder competition can still help smaller unions with the correct funding by SARU and give local communities the opportunity to support their local teams.
