Mark Alexander, president of SA Rugby, has quashed the swirling rumors that South African clubs might back out of the prestigious Investec Champions Cup. In a candid chat following SA Rugby's yearly summit in Cape Town, Alexander addressed the speculative buzz head-on, though without dropping specific names like Champions Cup or Challenge Cup. Despite whispers of internal discussions about pulling out from EPCR competitions, he maintains that these talks are merely speculative.
During an enlightening conversation with News24, Alexander emphasized, "We've only got so many weeks in a year. We play for 11 months, and that's more than any other team globally. We can either keep pushing until we break, or we can try to recalibrate." This July, SA Rugby plans to review their hectic schedule to strike a "negotiated balance" in their competition commitments, aiming to alleviate the crushing pressure on player availability and overall team performance.
"We have our international calendar and our URC and EPCR calendar. It creates a bottleneck for our player downtime, and that means our players are not available for either the franchises or South Africa at some point in time."
On another front, Alexander reiterated South Africa's allegiance to the Rugby Championship but proposed a synchronizing of the tournament with the Six Nations in February and March. "If we played the Rugby Championship at the same time as the Six Nations, that frees up a lot of space on the calendar," he commented. This alignment could potentially resolve the scheduling conundrum that uniquely affects South Africa, given their cross-hemisphere competitions. Alexander added, "World Rugby has been talking about a global calendar for the last 14 years now. A global calendar would help us."
The ongoing debate about the global rugby calendar continues to be a hot topic, with the Sharks owner even threatening to cut funding amidst these tensions. Clearly, the stakes are high as South African rugby seeks to balance international prestige with practical player management.
Teams mentioned in this context include the Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Springboks, and Stormers, all of whom could be impacted by any shifts in competition commitments and calendar arrangements.
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Mark Alexander, president of SA Rugby, has quashed the swirling rumors that South African clubs might back out of the prestigious Investec Champions Cup. In a candid chat following SA Rugby's yearly summit in Cape Town, Alexander addressed the speculative buzz head-on, though without dropping specific names like Champions Cup or Challenge Cup. Despite whispers of internal discussions about pulling out from EPCR competitions, he maintains that these talks are merely speculative.
During an enlightening conversation with News24, Alexander emphasized, "We've only got so many weeks in a year. We play for 11 months, and that's more than any other team globally. We can either keep pushing until we break, or we can try to recalibrate." This July, SA Rugby plans to review their hectic schedule to strike a "negotiated balance" in their competition commitments, aiming to alleviate the crushing pressure on player availability and overall team performance.
"We have our international calendar and our URC and EPCR calendar. It creates a bottleneck for our player downtime, and that means our players are not available for either the franchises or South Africa at some point in time."
On another front, Alexander reiterated South Africa's allegiance to the Rugby Championship but proposed a synchronizing of the tournament with the Six Nations in February and March. "If we played the Rugby Championship at the same time as the Six Nations, that frees up a lot of space on the calendar," he commented. This alignment could potentially resolve the scheduling conundrum that uniquely affects South Africa, given their cross-hemisphere competitions. Alexander added, "World Rugby has been talking about a global calendar for the last 14 years now. A global calendar would help us."
The ongoing debate about the global rugby calendar continues to be a hot topic, with the Sharks owner even threatening to cut funding amidst these tensions. Clearly, the stakes are high as South African rugby seeks to balance international prestige with practical player management.
Teams mentioned in this context include the Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Springboks, and Stormers, all of whom could be impacted by any shifts in competition commitments and calendar arrangements.