If Currie Cup is your thing, then I have some bad news for you. You are about to witness the long, and painful death of the world’s oldest and most fierce domestic rugby competition.
The new Super rugby draw recently released by SANZAR for 2011 basically kills off any possibility for South Africans to see their top players in the oldest domestic competition in the world, the Currie Cup.
In fact, if you love Currie Cup rugby, the new, revamped Super rugby competition is anything but ‘super’.
Firstly, I expect that the usual squad numbers for teams given the crazy demands of the new competition to increase from its traditional number of 30 members per squad. Even so, if we consider that a total of 150 players from South Africa will be involved in the Super rugby competition from middle of February, to possibly middle July (if they make the finals) and the international schedule to follow that, the Currie Cup will be nothing more than a glorified Vodacom Cup.
The finals or last match of the new Super rugby competition will conclude on the 9th July 2011, two weeks later, South Africa kicks off their Tri-Nations campaign in Sydney when they face the Wallabies. South Africa’s final match of the 2011 Tri-Nations will take place in Port Elizabeth on the 20th August 2011, three weeks before the Rugby World Cup kicks off in New Zealand where South Africa will play Wales on the 11th September.
In layman’s terms this means that our top 150 players (minimum) will be unavailable until the 9th July for domestic competitions of which 30 (minimum) will be unavailable until the end of the Rugby World Cup.
I however suspect that given injuries, conditioning programs and general player availability will see this number of 30 increase to a more realistic figure of between 45 and 50.
We have to remember that the format of this new Super rugby competition will also change in 2012 since next year is a Rugby World Cup year.
From 2012 and beyond there will be a blanket break of about 3 to 4 weeks for all teams in the Super rugby competition to make way for the traditional June incoming tours. In fact, in a non-World Cup year the new Super rugby competition’s tournament length will increase by 50% compared to the 31% increase next year…
Unfortunately, the Currie Cup fixtures for 2011 has not been released yet.
Regardless of this however, it becomes quite clear to see that we can basically forget about ever seeing our top rugby players, or Springboks, play Currie Cup ever again given that from 2012, the Tri-Nations will also undergo a complete change with the addition of Argentina to the competition which will increase its length in which its played.
I imagine New Zealand’s ITM Cup will suffer a similar fate as South Africa’s Currie Cup, while Australia is smiling from ear to ear having now established a brilliant domestic competition involving 5 teams who will play each other twice each year under the guise of a fully SANZAR sponsored new Super 15 competition – this after they failed miserably in trying to establish a domestic competition years ago on their own…
SA Rugby will have you know that they have increased their revenue by selling the rights to their domestic competition for the next 5 years and that they are the winners out of this new SANZAR brokered deal – not considering the long term damage this will have on the Currie Cup, while Australia’s John O’Neil is just happy to sit back and think; ‘As long as they keep on believing that, all is good…’
O neil was brought in to “fix” rugby union in Aussie and he had a track record of success in sports management.
Seems like the sharpest businessman at the table came away with the spoils!!
Morne,
Agree with you. We sold our souls really for what? Fools that are in saru have messed up big time.
CC is our rugby and we love it. Will never be the same again. Not the way we know it. I enjoy CC as much as I did the S14 and maybe even more so. The new format for the S15 looks a complete mess to me. Wont be the same as the old format. For that we gave our CC away just like that. Damn SHAME really. The oldest and greatest domestic tourney in the world, that all of South Africans are so proud of. Saru are the biggest fools. Sold us down the river.
@ Puma:
Money is the root of all evil Puma..
Gelukkig is die Vrystaat 5 jaar agter die res van die wereld…..so ons is nog OK 🙂
I agree with Morné’s summation that the Currie Cup is sold down the river….
How long do you think the Super 15 will carry on before O’Neill and his mate Rupert increase it to 18 and bring in some shitty teams just to gain more revenue
@ biltongbek:
As soon as they can breed more islanders and get them organized.
They are working on it.
PDV may be a future S18 coach for the pacific island 15!!!
@ tight head:
I hope to hell when they sign a contract with him, it is at least for the rest of my life!
If you take in consideration that 16 matches equates to 1280 minutes of rugby already, and the Boks will play 12-14 tests per year you may well need a squad of up to 60 players.
jip dis n bitter pil om te sluk veral as mens in die isolasie jare groot geword het,wat die bobojane in saru nie besef nie is dat die cb die hart en siel van sa rugby is sonder die currie beker gaan sa rugby stadig verlep en dood gaan,ons het nie die super kompetiesie nodig nie stel die currie beker eerste en hou bok rugby gesond,dis nou wat gebeur as n gatkruiper sa rugby beheer,ou dok draai seker nou in sy grraf om
Why not merge the CC into the S15 (or S18 when that comes along)?
Hmmm…in about 3 years our Currie Cup teams will probably start beating the S 15 teams…I see only good coming out of this. When the S15 players are Zat they can go to Europe…and our depth will get better.
@ Pam Anderson:
I also suggested this last year.
We must let the S15 games we played against each other count for the CC. Let the rest play in a local Currie cup conference.
Lets bring in the CC first Div. teams to join the 3 Premier division CC teams, Griquas, Leopards and the Pumas. That will make it 10 Teams playing for the CC while the S15 is busy.
At the end of the Super 15 and CC programs we can then play a 6 team finals playoff for the Cup or a 8 team playoff with a quarter/semi and a final.
Let the top 4 in each competition play 1/4 , 1/2 and a final.
or
let th top 2 in the CC and teams placed 3rd and 4th in the Super 15 South African conference play the 2 top CC teams and the winners play teams 1 and 2 in a semi final.
I think merging is the only way to go considering the number of games that will be played once the 4N starts.
However I think it will ultimately be the death of the smaller unions as they will end playing a glorified VC.
13@ superBul:
That can work, but then SARU must ensure that the local teams who play in the second pool get money, if there is enough money in this pool it can actually have a positive effect on rugby in SA.
But if they don’t have money and struggle to be competitive in the quarter finals, semi finals and final, it can become a glorified trophy.
@ superBul:
@ Pam Anderson:
@ biltongbek:
Looking at the rugby calender (when these competition will start and end) and given in 2012 it will be a 4 Nations (including Argentina) and the Super 15 will only end in August, how in the hell can we fit that in.
I have read about merges and even tried to come up with one myself, it is just impossible given the time.
Fact remains, no Springbok will ever play Currie Cup again, and truth be told, the CC only carried any merit once those boys came back to their unions to play.
Also let’s not forget, if a player plays all Super 15 games (16) excluding the finals, and all 4N games (6) that already pushes their playing minutes to 1760 minutes.
This excludes any incoming tours, EOYT and of course, CC…
@ Morné:
Morne you are absolutely correct about the Boks, but there will also not be any calender time for the rest of the Super Franchise squads to still play a full currie cup.
At least this way the other teams have something to play for. and it will only be an extra three weeks for the Super 15 players excluding the Boks.
If I understand correctly in non world cup years the Super 15 will now be 24 weeks.
the other 9 provinces plus the Kings makes 10 teams playing home and away fixtures totalling 18 matches each.
This can be played during the same time as the Super 15, and if financed well and marketed correctly will not lose favour with the rugby public, then they just need to add the finals somewhere.
#16
Agreed, its not that simple, if for no other reason, more than 50% of the Griquas team is involved with the Cheetahs, and the best players from the smaller unions are also drafted, now you want the strengthened Super 15 sides to compete against the minnows, who are understrength?
Geez, I can’t even begin to imagine the ramifications.
@biltongbek & Superbul
Let’s be serious, just skip the sugested S15 vs CC play-offs, we all know the alleged CC teams don’t even have a 10% chance against a S15 side. (Reasons stated above)
I am completely against the new S15, a return to S10 rugby would restore a strength vs strength competition, the buck has got to stop somewhere.
@ The Saint:
Saint, right now they don’t. But once the Cheetahs for example have drafted players and their squad is now settled, it leaves the Griquas to build a squad. In a few years the “minnows” will be stronger and SA rugby too for that matter.
Think about the money that is involved in super 15 and then Currie Cup. all the currie cup money can now go to the minnows, that means less players leave for overseas, more opportunity for young players in SA, and more sustainability ofr the minnows.
Ultimately a much bigger base of professional players.
@ biltongbek:
Look there are options and if you want to I can write a follow up but the fact of the matter is, the CC as we know it is gone.
@ biltongbek:
Unfortunately reality bites.
The Griquas cannot even afford plane tickets to get to matches and does most of their travelling by bus.
Not just that, they can only contract a small core of players next year and the rest will be paid on a match appearance package deal…
This from a union that have THE most successful of all minnow unions…
@ Morné:
Yes, the Currie cup is gone as we know it, would you mind doing some research and find a solution. I beleive if we look at the moeny involved through sponsors, tv rights gate money etc. can be used to restructure SA rugby and make it work in a more sustainable manner for the minnows.
@ biltongbek:
Will try and get something up for consumption by you all a bit later.
@ Morné:
Thanks meneer.
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