Premiership Rugby is investigating the possibility of introducing South African teams into the Anglo-Welsh Cup.
The competition currently features the 12 English Premiership clubs and the 4 Welsh regions.
But changes to rugby’s calendar post-2019 would offer English rugby bosses the chance to invite Currie Cup teams into the developmental tournament.
The prospective competition would run during the international windows in November and February / March.
The Currie Cup is the second tier of professional rugby in South Africa.
Currently, club tournaments are split into hemispheres but it is understood there is now a more open-minded approach to arranging them by time-zones.
The year-round South African Standard Time is two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and one hour ahead of British Summer Time.
In April, it was announced that two of South Africa’s six teams are to be cut from Super Rugby as the competition is streamlined from 18 teams to 15.
However, the head of Premiership Rugby says there is a lot of growth to come in the English club game.
“There are four big things for us: attendance growth, audience growth, the appeal of our brand, and then making sure we have it all financially sustainable,” chief executive Mark McCafferty said.
‘Different pre-seasons will be the answer’
Meanwhile, McCafferty insists player welfare is the league’s priority, despite the strong opposition from players to the proposed 10-month domestic season.
“The players were fully involved [in the discussions], there was engagement. The important thing now is we work through the detail,” McCafferty said.
“Players will have slightly different pre-seasons, that will be the answer.
“For the vast majority of players it will be very good, there will be the opportunity for mid-season breaks, which they have been calling for.”
Despite the unrest, McCafferty insists his organisation has led the way when it comes to player welfare.
“I don’t think there is a league in the world that has invested as much time or resource in player welfare as we have,” he added.
“Whether that is player development, or concussion, we have led the world.”
bbc
Interesting idea, the movement of South African teams into a competition in Europe is one that has been discussed by many fans on various platforms for quite a while. What are the thoughts on this specific one?
Seeing Currie Cup and developmental in the same sentence – times have changed! Where are the days when it was THE tournament in South Africa
The key here is the Anglo-Welsh Cup is currently a fairly low profile (in my mind) tournament that teams use to give game time to fringe and up and coming younger players, so wonder how much of a money spinner this proposed tournament would really be.
If you look at the time it would be run then it would mean most of the top players would be playing for their countries or the top competitions – PRO12, Aviva Premiership, Super Rugby, even Varsity Cup maybe, so one wonders what the standard of play will be, would it help develop players from SA or could this merely serve as a tester of bigger things to come.
Considering the exchange rates it could be a helpful revenue earner for struggling SA teams as long as the cost of taking part – Travel, accommodation etc. are not higher than the earnings.
No doubt though it would be a wonderful opportunity for up and coming South African players to experience travelling and playing in different environments more often and possibly help bridge the step up from junior rugby to Super and international rugby. Every year there are junior 6 Nations tournaments which mean youngsters up north get more time together with their teams ahead of Junior World Cups so SA could possibly enter a team made of U20 players if the organizers were happy with that and use the competition as a means of the group of players and coaches getting more time together in some sort of competitive environment, rather than the usual invitational friendly type games they tend to play in preparation in SA, which could make them better at the World Cups.
Have argued pro and con with myself for this, so not sure which part of the fence I sit on, maybe a little more to the side that is thinking well this may be an ok thing, let’s wait and see…
Leicester Tigers beat Exeter Chiefs in this year’s Anglo-Welsh Cup, here are the teams that played in the final:
Exeter: Turner; Jess, Bodilly, S Hill, Short; J Simmonds, Maunder; Low, Malton, Holmes, Atkins, Welch, Ewers, Salvi (capt), Simmonds.
Replacements: Taione, Keast, Owlett, Skinner, Johnson, Thomas, Hooley, Hendrickson.
Leicester: Worth; Betham, Tait (capt), Roberts, Brady; Burns, Kitto; Genge, McGuigan, Balmain, Wells, Kitchener, Williams, Thacker, McCaffrey.
Replacements: Youngs, Rizzo, Bateman, Barrow, Hamilton, White, Williams, Smith.
There are surprisingly more familiar names in the line ups than I thought there would have been, although maybe that was just in the knockout stages, wonder how many of the pool games the likes of Freddie Burns, Graham Kitchener, Mathew Tait, Damian Welch and Moray Low played.
I think it would be a brilliant idea.
@ Lion4ever:
Hi Lion4ever sounds very optimistic, think am not hundred percent sure but as I wrote earlier probably leaning towards thinking it could work ok
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