I think the Welsh through a massive hissy fit knowing that their position in the European cup is under threat.
COVID travel restrictions to boot. Probably better off striking a deal between the Irish clubs and play 4 games in Ireland against the likes of Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connacht. The first 3 are quality teams.
But Ja interesting to see that this might go up in smoke. The SA teams would probably be better off going to NZ for 7 weeks. Quarantine, and then play 5 games.
This would at least give us some super rugby action, but I don't think our super rugby teams are as good as they use to be.
We should never have given up on Super Rugby. Oz, NZ and SA should have gone back to the S12 format, boosted their local competitions and then the winner of the South should have played the winner of the North.
The teams were to be based in Bristol but the Govt has declined to grant visas for the SA teams because of Covid.
It looks like the Cup in its current form is cancelled.
"We should never have given up on Super Rugby. Oz, NZ and SA should have gone back to the S12 format, boosted their local competitions and then the winner of the South should have played the winner of the North.
We didn't, we were kicked out.
Yes, it was New Zealand who insisted that SA was expelled from SuperRugby.
New Zealand originally just wanted to play the best 2 Australian teams.
Australia objected, and to that end even supported SA's involvement. But in the end, New Zealand compromised to Australia- and SA and Argentina were thrown out.
A big part of the reason must have been Covid, and all the risky travelling that players would be subjected to.
SB
Just a bit of advice - the so-called SA variant was first found in two English patients without any link with SA. About a moth after that the variant was found in SA. However. the discovery of the variant caused a new panic and stricter isolation measures were implemented,
It seems as if the worse is over even before widespread vaccination started and at this state of new positive tested cases are down to about 1200 new cases per day, with about 60 deaths per day,
My 80 year-old sister-in-law tested positive in January. Her sister an brother-in-law from Somerset West visited them over the New Year weekend and after her brother-in-law showed signs that there may be a problem, he and his wide went for testing, and he was positive and his wife not so. My brother and sister-in law as a result went for tests and he was negative and she was positive, After about a fortnight they were retested and both were negative. My sister-in-law did not get sick at all, Bearing in mind the ages of the two positive cases it is amazing that they did not get sick.
Bearing in mind the t iming when they got infected they were likely infected by the SA variant so it might not be as dangerous as it is claimed to be by the media.
Hall Of Fame
42841 posts
Apr 13, 2021, 00:28Bearing in mind the riming when they got infected they were likely infected by the SA variant so it might not be as dangerous as it is claimed to be by the media.
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So the South African variant is now rimming people? What type of mutation is that?
The Rainbow cup should certainly be cancelled if this is true.
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A glimmer of hope for the Rainbow cup.
https://www.the42.ie/rainbow-cup-south-africa-5407204-Apr2021/?utm_source=shortlink
Draad you are right technically....we were excluded. But we were already in discussions up north. This thing was breaking up well before Covid.
Yes, I know, Covid was the excuse NZ used to kick us out sooner than when the contract expired. Things were getting sour or stale for whatever reasons...I think SA were already a bit ticked off when we were forced to kick 2 teams out of Super Rugby...what worth is a friendship if you are treated as a "lesser" friend? It seemed like South Africa always got the raw deal in the SANZAR arrangement...sotimes you need to put your foot down.
There's a history of Aus and NZ ganging up to get their way in SANZAR...have you forgotten the whole "let's get the Japies" scandal?
It's a pity the politics sucks, because the NZ players are great competitors and I know our players love playing them and playing them in NZ..it will be missed.
Back to the Rainbow Cup - Supersport is advertising the series on their service and if the series were really out - they would not do that.
Ja, well we all thought that having players based abroad would weaken the boks, but it has actually proven the opposite. With the right management and coaches, we can actually put a decent team out that actually won the world cup. Rassie has been doing the right stuff in terms of player and club management.
Gone are the belief that local will be better.
That said, NZ has always managed to get their way and have been very shifty. The managed to get 5 teams even though at one point only 2 or 3 teams were quality back when it was the super 14. The Stormes even managed to beat all five NZ teams back then which included a 5 week travel. The bulls started to win in NZ as well as the sharks. So NZ always look at shifting the goal past.
We also need to go back to the origins. It was meant to be the best provinces competing which actually saw EP qualify based on the fact that they finished above WP in the currie cup, but WP did poor in the currie cup because all of the boks were not playing or injured at the time.
Australia only had 2 provincial teams, Queensland and NSW. Hence Super 10.
SA still operated on the best provincial team model, but NZ pulled another fast one and decided to created franchises when it went to super 12. I still don't know how they managed to get 5 teams.
If anything, SA has greater player depth but we squander it.
Australia made the right step with 3 teams in the Brumbies as the proved to be the real surprise package as a make shift team, but with Eddie emerging and actually setting up an exciting brand of Rugby which the boks end up copying or should I say Jake White. Setting up phases, get the field narrow and using big forwards to break the line around the fringes.
Eventually greed got in the way under the guise of expanding the game.
Also note that the bargies (Argentina) did better when their players were based in Europe than in Super rugby.
I would almost say with COVID and all, they should go back to the Super 10. Host it in one country 2 pools and use the provincial teams rather than the franchise teams.
Invest in our local provinces and allow them the oppertunity, but we are so obsessed with Franchise rugby. It has become so boring.
I can't watch anymore of the same 4 or 5 teams play the whole year.
I want to see a cup, player over 7 weeks
I want the super 12 back where you can watch a game and support any of our SA teams and start watching from Friday Morning until Saturday afternoon.
No dumb play-offs, 1 teams of each country conferences nonsense get through etc.
But ultimately, I want a fare playing field that means teams don't have travel for so long but equally.
I also think NZ has gotten really cocky with the sponsorship deals that they are getting.
Will just wait and see
Some good points King...partners should be equal for the partnership to last...and the travelling always put us at a disadvantage.
Ideally the competitors should be balanced in a way that the travel is closer to the same for all. NZ and Auz being so close to each other skewed things in the past...will be difficult to get around it though...
Super rugby is our only option. Because of geography we are isolated and ultimately negotiating from weakness whether we are looking at the NH or the SH. But we have a history in SH club rugby, that counts for something. And Super Rugby is much more compelling than watching Munster play phase rugby.
It's not our only option, but it is our best option...and NZ's too. Let's hope a (hopefully short) sabbatical makes all parties realize what we will be missing.
Three new rules changes being trailed during the Rainbow Cup.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2021/0415/1210082-rainbow-cup-confirms-20-minute-red-card-trial/
Ye right......
We will see what happens won't we.
NZ have made it very clear that they don't depend on South Africa.
South Africa is a large distance away from all the major rugby markets - North and South so we should wait and see what happens I think.
There seems to be some indications in the Northern hemisphere that the South Aficans are not wanted but lets wait and see how it actually plays out.
I suspect that Covid may be playing a part in that - However - South Africa is a country that the decision makers may look for any excuse - So it may bounce from health to other suspected problems as an excuse.
The South Africans have been talking about it for decade - So go for it boys................
Well, I think I would like to see the South Africa actually play in the Eurpean Cups.
We have enough provinces and SA can also play directly against the English teams too.
There use to be an Anglo Welsh Cup which pitted English teams against welsh teams. Apparently the teams got more money from this.
So for me it is more about restoring our local rugby to be sustainable and allow all of our provinces to be financially sound that can compete with one another but also get rewarded for building great squads. Especially from grass roots.
So I would like to see our top teams compete against Toulon, Saracens, Exceter etc and not just 3 or 4 Celtic teams and the rest just fodder for filling up the schedule for the sake of matches.
Some history to the cup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Welsh_Cup
So the Rainbow Cup starts this weekend...the first 3 rounds will be local derbies only...
There is potential for Europe to shut out South African teams.
It is interesting because the South African teams have stated for a decade that they wanted to shift to Europe and at the first actual hurdle - The UK have shut them out - Very, very interesting outcome.
Is Covid the reason or will the powers that be in Europe continue to find excuses to not include South African teams.
A comment made on here - So I would like to see our top teams compete against Toulon, Saracens, Exceter etc and not just 3 or 4 Celtic teams and the rest just fodder for filling up the schedule for the sake of matches.
Interesting Comment - LOL
"It is interesting because the South African teams have stated for a decade that they wanted to shift to Europe ..."
Where/when/who have "they" state this? Come now, please give us actual facts. We went to Europe when SANZAR kicked out two of our Super teams...and we went there again when NZ announced that that we've been booted from Super Rugby altogether.
Europe has been talked about for quite some time.
There were issues with travel and the fact that the South African teams were playing in a different time zone when travelling down under.
" South African teams have stated for a decade that they wanted to shift to Europe..."
"Europe has been talked about for quite some time."
Moving the goal posts now?
"Well, I think I would like to see the South Africa actually play in the Eurpean Cups.
We have enough provinces and SA can also play directly against the English teams too.
There use to be an Anglo Welsh Cup which pitted English teams against welsh teams. Apparently the teams got more money from this.
So for me it is more about restoring our local rugby to be sustainable and allow all of our provinces to be financially sound that can compete with one another but also get rewarded for building great squads. Especially from grass roots.
So I would like to see our top teams compete against Toulon, Saracens, Exceter etc and not just 3 or 4 Celtic teams and the rest just fodder for filling up the schedule for the sake of matches.!"So is it on or has it been cancelled?
Its not been cancelled but the SA teams will not be taking part.
Hopefully a regular Pro 16 season can start later in the year when Covid is more under control.
The rainbow cup and the new pro 14 are 2 different competitions. The cup was just there as a money spinner and to get our SA players and teams back up to speed with the game in preparation for the Lions series.
Although, I think SA Rugby will have to think outside of the box.
I saw a couple of suggestions of they could potential prepare the boks. One idea is to have the springboks play against all the Franchises to get them match ready.
Perhaps we can get our overseas boks to join the squad and maybe have a few games against a pacific team and the US along with playing warm up matches against local teams.
It won't really test us that match, but hopefully it will get us match ready
Yes, it was on the Radio that SA won't play international teams in the RC...there wil be a local derby series for time being...but, but, the vaccine they said......so, I suppose it's not as effective as they try to promote it?
As I said a few days ago, the UK Govt would not grant visas for the SA teams to visit; SA is still on our Red List.
It’s just going to be a split tournament instead, not ideal, but the best that can be done under the circumstances.
Vaccination is not a cure all, Draad. It just means you MIGHT not catch the virus or, if you do, you just won’t be so poorly. It isn’t the magic bullet some seem to think it is.
I know Becs, but rugby is played by fit young men...and there's things like quarantine...if this tanked, the Lions Tour will probably tank too.
The Lions Tour remains in place, there’s now just a row over player release for the training camp.......
