President of the Free State Cheetahs, Harold Verster, says it is unlikely that the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings will merge at the start of the 2013 Super Rugby season.
Sport24
Verster, also the CEO of the Cheetahs Company told the Volksblad newspaper they are confident that the central union will survive as an entity of its own in future.
This comes after apparent rumours that the Cheetahs and Kings could merge to form one Franchise in 2013. The South African Rugby Union (SARU) has to accommodate the Eastern Cape side in Super Rugby from 2013 onwards and the merging with the Cheetahs is apparently an option.
However, Verster believes the Cheetahs have a strong case to remain as a Franchise and has denied talks of an amalgamation with the Kings.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty regarding 2013. The chances that the Cheetahs will survive are better than what people think.
“There’s no mention that we and the Kings will merge,” said Verster.
Verster said the Cheetahs are the only truly South African regional team as they comprise of three unions: The Griffons, Free State and Griquas. The Cheetahs have used a fair amount of Griquas’ players in recent years, while the other unions mainly used players from one union (i.e. as they play in the Currie Cup).
Verster noted that there’s only one franchise which represents the central part of South Africa, also noting that the Bulls and the Lions are, for example, very close to each other.
He further warned that the Northern Cape and Free State governments are firmly behind the Cheetahs’ existence in Super Rugby.
Verster believes it is logistically impossible for the Cheetahs and Kings to merge. “There are few flights between Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth and you can’t drive 650km every time.
“We previously played with the Lions for the Cats, but it didn’t work due to logistical problems,” said Verster.
Who in their right minds would in any case want to merge with Cheeky & Son?
@ Tripples:I think the cheetahs would see it as an insult
Fluck that!
@ Loosehead:I thought it wouldn’t be long before you commented, I am just surprised that you had so much to say!!!
loosehead @ 3
i’m 100% with you there.
they should merge!
f*ck the excuses!!
#5
ok, on a more serious note. found this on news24.
……
SA’s sides must stay ‘solo’
Arranged marriages in South African rugby don’t work … there has to be a better way of fitting the Southern Kings into the Super Rugby puzzle than by merging them with the Cheetahs.
Artificial solutions, I think it is apt to say, all too often only lead to a plethora of new problems.
Finding the right way to satisfy the generally noble quest to put Eastern Cape rugby truly back on the map – by installing it into the southern hemisphere money-spinner, ideally planned from 2013 – remains a matter of great difficulty and complexity, with no easy answers right now.
That is especially since the Kings had rather a comeuppance, on their supposedly earnest road to broader recognition, during the last Currie Cup first division campaign when they were significantly eclipsed by the Boland Cavaliers who gave them respective nasty hidings (including in the final).
The Kings team also didn’t blaze any particularly glorious trail in terms of transformation, which is one of the key objectives from both the region’s rugby bosses and government – the latter, of course, never hovering very far from any debate on when and how to accommodate them at a higher level.
With solutions in short supply at present, speculation has drifted toward what is arguably a crudely manufactured alliance with the Cheetahs.
Protesting, the veteran Cheetahs boss Harold Verster has already stated the glaringly obvious, logistically, in making the hardly unreasonable point that “there are few flights between Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth and you can’t drive 650km every time”.
So the geographical synergy is awkward, to say the least, and trying to foster a meaningful cultural bond, if you like, between the two very different rugby regions just seems a goal fraught with fruitlessness.
There have been earlier lessons in the foolhardiness of this sort of thing: the combination of the Lions and Cheetahs as the “Golden Cats” at one stage in the old Super 12 was anything but a marriage made in heaven, and the Sharks’ former status as the “Coastal Sharks” – featuring official franchise ties with Border and EP – was also riddled with pitfalls.
I remember respected Sharks and Springbok captain Gary Teichmann, while not wishing to pooh-pooh the claims of rugby advancement in those “smaller partner” areas of the time, lamenting a 1999 Sharks fixture in East London, where his semi-finalists of the previous year were unexpectedly walloped 34-18 by a Hurricanes outfit who were then the weakest New Zealand team.
He said it never really felt a home match, with all the supposed benefits that status usually brings.
This season’s first Super Rugby season in its expanded format saw the Cheetahs, so often poor cousins in the past, find some good mojo at times – including much greater competitiveness abroad and a memorable home win over the Crusaders.
Fiddling with their momentum by lumping them with the Kings, and zigzagging between the Free State Stadium and Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium for “home” assignments, just doesn’t seem a beneficial move for either party, frankly.
It is also not in the broad national interest to dilute the Cheetahs brand: the region remains a phenomenal treasure trove of talent, particularly because of that amazing nursery of Grey College, with flyhalf phenomenon Johan Goosen just one gem to burst to the domestic forefront last season.
The emergence and development of players like him must not be impaired by the creation of a distractive combination with a faraway other region.
A problem with the Kings possibly entering Super Rugby as a standalone entity in two years’ time is that their presence would only complicate an already ludicrously congested southern hemisphere season, when a British and Lions tour of Australia has to be squeezed in and bye weekends for the Aussie franchises, especially, are thus going to be extremely hard to factor in.
My own gut feel is that the Southern Kings issue will simply stay on a smouldering backburner for another few years, regardless of whatever Super Rugby 2013 “promises” or “assurances” may have already been made.
Meanwhile, other methods must be thrashed out to skin the cat they call the Southern Kings …
*Follow chief writer Rob Houwing on Twitter: @RobHouwing
Rob is Sport24’s chief writer
#6
sorry. its a bit long, but worth the read!
No merge is acceptable….
It’s a great pity this whole Eastern Cape debacle was handled so poorly by SARU to start with, years ago.
There’s been renewed promises now for Super Rugby 2013 participation by the Southern Kings (we’ve all known about it for a long while), yet nothing positive has been done by SARU.
In the meantime the Kings have desperately tried, within money constraints, to build and buy a side – to the detriment of transformation goals and the goals of the region, in my opinion.
The EP Kings are still easily beaten by the likes of Boland, who forms only a very junior partner in the Stormers alliance.
What other avenues are there but 2 basic options, ie:
1. Throw a massive heap of money at development of the Southern Kings (including ressurecting it’s 3 Feeder Unions to a state of healthy financial means).
or
2. Canning the whole idea of the Southern Kings in total.
Neither solutions are likely to happen.
SARU made promises… how are they going to make good on those promises?
Maybe the solution lies elsewhere….
What for instance about a Competition and participation by the Southern Kings as well as one or 2 combined sides from the remaining Currie Cup 1st Division Sides into a league with some Argentinian and possibly some Romanian, Georgian and Russian Franchises? Maybe add a Canadian & USA Franchise or 2…
Let that Competition establish itself well and only then introduce a Promotion / Relegation System up to or down from and to Super Rugby level.
Have a competition with maybe the following participants (names loosely suggested):
1. Southern Kings (EP Kings, Border, SWD)
2. Girrafes (Pumas, Valke, Leopards, Griffons)
3. Tribe (Kenyan Franchise)
4. Welwitschias (Namibia)
5. Fokoli Dollars (Zimbabwe)
6. Pampas (Argentinian Franchise)
7. Stars & Stripes (USA Franchise)
8. Ice Men (Canadian Franchise)
9. Gypsies (Romanian Franchise)
10. Bears (Russian Franchise)
11. Wild Boars (Georgian Franchise)
12. Ninjas (Japanese Franchise)
13. Bigfoot (Fiji Franchise)
14. Volcano’s (Samoan Franchise)
15. Ghosts (Tongan Franchise)
Play them along similar lines to the Super Rugby Competition…. in a parrallel time frame to Super Rugby.
Difficulty here is to break down the 3 Conferences.. not so much the African one (there are 5 from Africa), but to divide the rest into 2 distinct conferences which makes sense from a geographical perspective. I would have it divided into a Northern Hemisphere lot (USA, Canada, Georgia, Russia, Romania) in one Conference and the Islanders (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji & Japan) PLUS Pampas in the other Conference.
OR
Maybe configure them a bit differently so that you have 4 geographically based Global Conferences:
1. 5 Franchises from the Americas (North & South America) – 2 from South America & 3 From North America
2. 5 African Franchises – 2 from SA not included in Super Rugby PLUS 3 African Country Franchises like one each from Namibia, Kenya & Zimbabwe
3. 5 Island Franchises – Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Japan (2 of their financially powered teams)
4. 5 Euro / Asia Franchises – Russia, Romania, Georgia, China, Midlle-East with Dubai as their main seat
…. or something along similar lines…
That makes 20 sides to play in these 4 Conferences and the top 2 in each Conference advances to the Top 8 sides – contesting for the Crown.
@ grootblousmile:Your ideas would certainly increase the value form a spectator point of view, and thus the popularity of the game, especially in the smaller rugby playing nations.
Both suggestions in # 9 above would mean South Africa is then broken up into 7 stronger Franchises, consisting of all 14 Unions – 5 participating in Super Rugby and 2 in the New Competition. Boland and Griquas will remain in the Stormers and Cheetahs Franchises respectively…. and all 14 National Unions participate in an International Franchise Competition of some sort.
The Top SA Franchise in the Africa Conference of the New Competition will advance to Super Rugby for the next year, whereas the worst SA Super Rugby Franchise would move down to the Africa Conference in the New Competition and thus be relegated.
Therefor should the Southern Kings for instance top the Girraffes in the New Competition Africa Conference, they will advance to Super Rugby as promised (promotion is in their own hands) and the SA Super Rugby Franchises will play for their lives to remain in Super Rugby and not end last in the SA Super Rugby Conference. That alone will make the SA Rivalry and derbies that much more fierce… and dare I say South African results in Super Rugby better!
wat my absuluut die bliksem in maak is die feit dat die fokkers deel van die sharks was,hulle was fuctap genoeg om hulle te laat uitkoop en nou wil hulle opdruk vir n plek,hulle kan maar gaan kak vir my part
@ smallies72:
Hahaha, jy moet Djou bure love, kyk hoe het ek die Leeus ge seport in die FINAAL.
12 @ smallies72:
Dit help nie om bloot de bliksem in te wees nie.
Hoe maak ons SA Rugby sterker en miskien daarmee ook wêreldrugby?
Ek glo in oplossings eerder as om gelate die lot van ons “Kleiner spanne” te aanvaar.
Internasionale mededinging in een of ander vorm, skep addisionele inkomstegeleenthede vir die kleiner Unies, wat ernstig finansieel swaarkry.
13 @ superBul:
Jy het hulle so erg support dat ek jou amper SuperLeeu begin noem het…. hehehe
@ grootblousmile:
jy gaan nie rugby sterk maak deur jou kop 30 duim in cheeky se rektum op te druk nie,sarfu snuif duifpoef waarom het al die groot stede behalwe bloem toetse gekry die lions het twee gekry maar bloem niks waarom kan die kings nie saam smelt met die bulls nie?
@ grootblousmile:
nee swaar hulle try n plek steel wat die cheetahas met bitterlik baie sweet verdien het die ape kon nie eers laas jaar die pumas uit die cb haal nie maar hulle wil super rugby speel.
16 @ smallies72:
ENIGE samesmelting is loutere kak… of dit nou met die Cheetahs of die Bulls of wie ook al is…
Of dit nou die Leeus & Bulle is wat moet saamsmelt, of die Kings en Stormers… saakie maakie!
Jy lees nie mooi nie, ek het dit al gesê!
Ek sê eenvoudig dat mens die probleem moet oplos en mynsinsiens is die oplossing geleë daarin om 2 SA Franchises (Kings en ‘n Noordelike Franchise) te laat deelneem in ‘n Internasionale kompetisie wat geskep moet word, welke kompetisie dan ook die ander Rugby Nasies sal help.
@ grootblousmile: oplossing jaag vir oregon weg kry johan rupert of christo wiese om sa rugby te bestuur,raak toetaal ontslae van amateur bestuurders en laat besigheid rugby bestuur solank mamparras soos cheeky en hoskins sake bestuur sal dit n flokop wees want daai twee dans n poletieke dans wat rugby in sa gaan vermoor
@ grootblousmile:
die bliksem in raak is al wat ek kan doen,ek het tog geen insae in enige besluit wat geneem word nie ten spyte van die feit dat ek meer as R6000 per jaar betaal om die games te kyk
19 @ smallies72:
Ek stem saam dat Hoskins en sy sirkus moet waai… maar DAN moet die BESIGHEIDSOUENS steeds iets in plek stel wat gaan werk… so wat is DAAI oplossing?
Dalk as ons iets positiefs voorstel, lees iemand iewers dit raak, kom dalk aan bewind in SA Rugby… en gebruik hierdie onderliggende saad wat geplant is.
To what do the Kings attribute their arrogance that they think that they deserve a S15 spot? They can’t even beat BOOOOOOOLAND.
Why don’t they first win the CC 2nd division, then establish themselves in the 1st division, then make the semi’s on a regular basis then ask for a S15 spot?
Fluck them!
They should sign Hougaard.
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