Obviously your confused and your not quite sure where you fit in. In your little created wet dream fantacy your probably a kiwi (fruit) but as everybody else suspects, your not and I reckon your some stupid lonesome idiot. Im a South African working in Africa but I still remain a South African and I will never shy away from being one either, just a pity you dont have the balls or the brains to do the same. Maybe they paid you to get the hell out of SA, who knows?

You one of those dumb ******** from Pretoria then mackie?

Can’t agree with your point on SA franchises coming back hungrier from a year in the wilderness. Players will move away overseas if they have to, supporters will do something else and it will take years to get the player / support base back to where it was. Have a look at earlier S12 games played at Loftus when the Bulls were struggling – half full. That is how fickle support
is there and surely what will happen even at Newlands if the Stormers lot in life is to play a few Currie Cup games there a year. Ditto the Sharks and Cats – the “Presidents Council” did not apply their minds and need to before they stuff up SA rugby more for political tokenism.

Having said all that, I personally think that the relegation system should be implemented as planned and that there should be no play-off between the team finishing last and the Spears. I do not believe the Spears would have a hope of beating a team that had come through a S14, even the bottom finishing side.

As a loyal and faithfull Sharks supporter I can think of nothing worse than my beloved Sharks being relegated out of the S14 and having no team to support in 2007. But will this be the end of the world? I think not. What I do think is that it is going to light a fire under the arses of every player and official involved in Sharks rugby and the days of simply turning up at the stadium and getting beaten will be a thing of the past. I am sure we will see a return of the spirit and determination that was so evident in the days of Mark Andrews, Teich and Lem. For too long now the big wigs at Kings Park have gone about business as usual, drawing their fat salaries irrespective of results. If relegation has the effect of changing this mind-set then I am all for it, painfull as it will inevitably be. And here I am not only talking from a Sharks perspective, I think this can be applied equally to our two other under-achieving franchises, the Cats and the Stormers.

I do believe however that some fairly clever and strict rules regarding poaching of players from the relegated team will have to be put into place, otherwise I fear the rule of unintended consequences will come into play, namely the players simply packing their bags and signing for the Spears and possibly the other franchises, which will be contrary to the intention of the whole plan, namely development of rugby outside of the big 5.

I also believe the whole relegation thing has added a lot of spark to the 2006 compo which I feel has been a bit lacking of late. So, if it is the Sharks that take the plunge I will not be a happy camper, but at the same time they just might emerge a hungrier and more focussed team than before.

Sorry for the verbal diarrhoea, but this is my first post of 2006 after battling to register – thanks for the help Ig.

Cheers

Prinsloo says that they have to accept the decision of the Presidents Council. I suspect he is wrong. If that decision is binding, then what are they asking the franchises to sign? And why is it a problem if they don’t?

They will never keep this out of court. Previously they only had the Presidents Council and the 5 franchises to appease. Now the Spears have been working for months on the basis of a promise. They have a huge interest in promotion/relegation.

In the meantime, the players and supporters suffer. As usual.

Your surname must be Fairweather. Left the ****** sheep weather to come and soak up our sunshine.

He is a Saffa ,like our Minister of Finance he also supported the Blacks until he saw the light. But Richie’s dad is still pissed so he is too.

What are you more pissed about. We seeing you for what you are so quickly???

Dream on, all you’re getting this year is another hiding courtesy of the New Zealand Super 14 sides. Hope you guys at least make runners up in the Vodacom Cup next year.