Spears stay in Currie Cup
25 Apr 2006
Saru has again invited the Southern Spears to play in an eight-team Absa Currie Cup this year.
The SA Rugby board on Tuesday decided to keep the current Currie Cup format that sees the big five unions, the Spears and two qualifiers from the Vodacom Cup competing in the Premier Division.
On this basis, Griquas won’t play Currie Cup rugby this year. The Kimberley side was forced to release several key players to the Cheetahs for the Vodacom Super 14, and haven’t performed well in the Vodacom Cup as a result. Griquas are also without players who are currently overseas, but had planned to return for the Currie Cup. They now plan to take Saru to court.
However, the Spears have been given a golden opportunity to build themselves into a team worthy of Super 14 participation.
“As we retain the format, we expect the Southern Spears to participate so as to help their side prepare themselves for bigger leagues,” said SA Rugby board chairman Mpumelelo Tshume.
SWD, EP and Border will meet on Saturday to decide whether the Spears will accept the invitation to play in the Currie Cup, a decision that should be a formality considering the Eagles, Elephants and Bulldogs are rooted to the bottom of the Vodacom Cup log.
The board also confirmed that PE will stage their Springbok Test match against Scotland in June after fears that financial problems at the EPRFU would see it given to Bloemfontein. Rustenburg will also keep its Tri-Nations Test match against the All Blacks.
Finally, the board announced that it will take steps to rectify shortcomings in SA’s Super 14 sides, as results on the field were “far below expectation”.
“Clearly our sides have not reached the expected level of play in the Super series,” said Tshume. “The performance has generally been far below expectation. Something is wrong – and it is our duty as SA Rugby to take the necessary steps to make sure this does not happen again.”
Practical steps will be announced shortly, with a group of experts taking charge of a remedial programme.
By Simon Borchardt
81 Comments
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
26 Apr 2006, 08:53 am
Just a thought, to get some heated discussion going –
Why dont they just get rid of the Spears TOTALLY. No more headache. They never were, they never will be.
Pump tons of money and resources into the E-Cape region. Develop more black players with good CC experience. Have a decent rugby academy, or rugby based education facility, where youngsters with talent are identified and trained.
When the talent pool is experienced enough in CC rugby, acceptable and big enough, introduce bigger and stricter quotas in the current S14 teams. At the moment SA teams are not sticking to any sort of quota. For example, the Bulls have 2 black wings and Tim Dulane was only introduced after it was pointed out that the Bulls werent playing along with the agreement. He hasnt let anyone down and has more than held his own. There surely must be more Black players who could do well, given the opportunity, in SA than the current crop now?
JW and SA beat Aus with 7 very good black players on the field. I dont see why, with good developed players, the current SA S14 teams cant do the same.
26 Apr 2006, 08:53 am
david
sorry mate, but aus have exactly the same structure as sa. the reds and waratahs might have been the only provincial teams up until the brumbies but they have club teams, then provincial and then international. no difference.
the npc might be as competetive as the cc, but it is in fact clubs competing in it. therefore they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary by lumping some of the teams together.
our provincial teams should just step up. they are not playing semi-national teams.
26 Apr 2006, 08:57 am
the gimp’s out
won’t work; it’s too logical for saru and the government.
26 Apr 2006, 09:03 am
here is a question…
what happens to the other teams (that did not qualify excluding the teams that will make up the spears of course) for the duration of the CC?
is their season over now?
or will there be another competition?
26 Apr 2006, 09:06 am
Gimp
The problem is that there’s no shortage of top class players from the EC area, black and white, it’s just that they all play for other unions. The EC will never be able to retain players while the other unions with S14 franchises can offer more money and the chance to play at S14 level. Remember, that SARU compensates the unions for their players making up a franchise.
Effectively, SARU are encouraging the major unions to attract players by subsidising the salaries.
26 Apr 2006, 09:14 am
And so are the days of our lives.
Think it’s time for South Africa to find a sulution to all our rugby problems. Expand the CC to 10 teams and leave out the Vodacom cup.
Will that work ?
26 Apr 2006, 09:15 am
And so are the days of our lives.
Think it’s time for South Africa to find a sulution to all our rugby problems. Expand the CC to 10 teams and leave out the Vodacom cup.
Will that work ? The two teams that end last in the CC make way for another two teams the next year.
26 Apr 2006, 09:20 am
There’ an echo in my cage…
26 Apr 2006, 09:35 am
This should be good news for the WP and the Lions.
Saves them from bottom of the log in the CC.
26 Apr 2006, 09:38 am
It comes down to development…If SA has been developing players from around 95, then it has been a failure. Where are those players now? If they were in the current SA S14 teams there wouldnt have been a cry for the Spears team. The spears has always been all about a representative team. Development needs to be looked at again.
I heard a stat once when EP were playing the Sharks – that one Sharks player salary was the same as the entire EP player budget.
That needs to be looked at.
They need to put more money into the E-Cape region so that they can give players extended contracts to keep them there. Decent training, facilities, even bring in some experienced players from other regions to play with and help develop talent and pass their knowledge on. Good players near the end of their careers, like Os, Percy, Breyton, etc. Stop the exodus and develop decent teams from that region. Make it a professional business, with proper marketing to bring in the crowds and get rid of the corrupt lot running the show in the EC now. Its a long term thing. The Force are a good example. They are the best supported Aus team. The marketing they have done, the bringing in of corporate sponsors, luring of top players like Gittau, Henjack, Cannon, etc to the region. Just making a team from scrap and expecting them to deliver immediatly will never work.
26 Apr 2006, 09:44 am
While we are dissolving useless teams, why dont we get rid of the Cats too?
Also keep in mind that a lot of the **** SA Rugby is in, is because of the Kamikaze job Van Rooyen did while in Office. Now the smaller unions are in serious trouble, and whingeing their asses off. Yet they were the unions that kept our BvR in office and gave him the authority to cause all this chaos. The writing was on the wall a long time ago. I’m just amazed that people are seriously surprised that we are in such a sad state now.
26 Apr 2006, 09:48 am
Gimp
That’s what the Force have done. The point I’m making is that the region needs an S14 Franchise to provide an anchor. Giteau would never have moved to Perth in order to play club rugby. I agree that the Spears should attract a core of experienced players, but why limit them to ones at the end of their career.
I agree with you about developing the region, but they still need a franchise to attract and retain players.
26 Apr 2006, 09:50 am
here is an idea;
drop the VC, it is useless and serves no purpose, viewer ratings are low because very simply, the standard of rugby is ****.
there are 5 franchises that compete in the S14 – keep it that way.
during the S14, let the smaller unions form franchises too.
pumas, leopards, BB (VC side)
lions (VC side), falcons
griquas, cheetahs (VC side), griffons
boland, WP (VC side)
natal (VC), SWD, EP, border
play a pan-african comp, or even better, an international comp against argie’s and maybe the pacific islands.
possibilities can also be entertained whether NZ or OZ has lower level teams (under the S14) which can take part in a competition that will run concurrently with the S14.
these games can be scheduled as warm-up games or run as a competition on its own.
the home venues for each franchise will not be one of the big 5 stadiums, but one of the smaller unions.
we have 6 franchises or regions in SA, we all know the spears story.
in a year or two’s time, saru employs an automatic promotion relegation system. not this play-off 3 match scenario – if you are not good enough, you lose your spot for the next S14. this franchise will then compete in the same competition as the re-vamped VC as explained above.
so for arguments sake, next year the spears will compete in the competition that will run concurrently with the S14. if the cats gets relegated next year, they will play as the cats in 2009, etc etc.
saru can implement strict quotas here, not in the S14. not only will players be developed and play against international teams, but our PDI’s gets exposure where they need it most – competitive rugby.
this pool will support the S14 franchises participating (by widening and strengthning the depth of our rugby talent playing in an international comp), but support the smaller financially through international broadcast deals and sponsors, etc.
players get developed and saru force minmum quotas at this level and not S14 – the cream will rise no matter what colour. and the S14 teams’ coaches can pick the cream of the crop.
after the super 14 and this other international comp we can either have a 14 team CC system, or a CC ‘a’ and ‘b’ division with a 8/6 split.
the competitions for each division also runs concurrently with a 2 team promotion/relegation system put in place, no play off matches, automatic promotion and relegation where the top 2 ‘b’ division teams are promoted to the ‘a’ division with the latter bottom 2 teams dropping out to the ‘b’ division.
very simple system, which administratively is not as clear cut as i wrote it here of course, but a framework where rugby is #1 truly developed and #2, the smaller unions have a fighting chance in survival.
for instance, saru needs to take ownership of the S14 and they, with the national coach need to pick the 5 franchises coaches, and also control the draft system which is a mess.
but just an idea.
26 Apr 2006, 10:01 am
PA
The VC is going to be scrapped pretty soon in favour of a national club competition based on semi-pro teams.
This is all part of the acenture high performance report. The first part of the report was to implement a S8 currie cup. The key to the report was that it was in fact possible to rejuvinate rugby from the top down in this manner.
Another key aspect of the report was to re-implement Varsity rugby. WHich SARU are doing with FNB, this year their will be a Varsity Bowl.
The next key step in the process is Clubs and the money previously spent on the VC will be spent on Clubs instead
26 Apr 2006, 10:02 am
Well, that was what the report said. We shall see how far they go to implement its recomendations.
26 Apr 2006, 10:05 am
pissant
I like your ideas. I’ve been thinking along similar lines.
One small point of criticism. If the 2nd tier franchises play the warm up matches, when do they get to play at home?
26 Apr 2006, 10:11 am
tigershark,
i also saw that, and its a great idea, but lets see first.
david,
lets assume then it is a completely different competition to the S14.
we can even have argi’s based in SA, and PI’s based in NZ or OZ to make travelling easier.
26 Apr 2006, 10:28 am
Nice idea pa. I also like the idea of a pan african tournament. I seem to remember SARU mentioning this as a possibility.
26 Apr 2006, 10:38 am
I know they can’t enter but, I’d still love to see how well the Wildebeest would go in the Currie Cup. Maybe base their games in the Natal country, like Pietermaritzburg or one of the large towns to the North.
26 Apr 2006, 10:49 am
I vote fuckemall, let the spears play against high school teams till they can play the game like men.
26 Apr 2006, 10:50 am
oh you mean the men currently playing S14?
26 Apr 2006, 11:02 am
they want to improve our S14 results, the answer is simple, three steps:
1. reduce from 5 to 3 SA teams in the competition.
2. allow the 3 coaches to pick from a pool system of talent.
3. renegotiate number of home matches.
26 Apr 2006, 11:05 am
Finally sanity prevails in the Spears saga, from day one the plan should of been to put them in the CC and then gauge their progress and possible Super Rugby inclusion 2-3 years down the track.
26 Apr 2006, 11:07 am
Spears are poor but so are the Cats, they don’t warrant any further S14 revenue until performances improve.
Spears would at least get decent crowd attendence figures.
26 Apr 2006, 11:07 am
No real men like the natal wildebeeste or sharks side, or even the cheetahs.Instead of starting a fight everytime they play rather play the game and try to get some points on the board
26 Apr 2006, 12:13 pm
PA
Still on that theory of yours?
Wonder if the small unions at SWD, EP and Border will let their players get released for the Spears in CC?
26 Apr 2006, 12:28 pm
Brother with a piss
I agree with your ideas to a certain extent.
I just think that, for the second tier (for lack of a better description) tournament it may be best to keep the games to the same timelines.
So, the proposed SA franchises can make up teams ina tournament that can include Africa and Europe, maybe contributing to development in Africa, but also tapping into the media strength and money from Europe.
Big Wig media companies in Europe may make vast contributions to such a tournament, but only if European teams are also playing. Don’t know though whether it will be feasible in Europe with the Heineken cup being played.
If there are enough second tier teams in UK, France and the rest of Europe it may work out well.
26 Apr 2006, 12:30 pm
Davidsp
They will probably have to.
The 3 smaller unions are not performing well enough to make the CC 8 team tournament. So they either have to keep their players and NOT play CC at all or allow their players to play for the Spears and get CC exposure.
I would think that the smaller unions would probably get some financial incentive for participating in the CC.
26 Apr 2006, 12:45 pm
Piss, how long before rugby has become so professional that there are pro clubs, i.e. several of them in one city ala soccer. London has how many soccer clubs?
So the wildebeest and sharks could play in the same tournament.
How long piss ?
26 Apr 2006, 13:25 pm
BlueBlood
London has a population of almost 9 million.
Premier Clubs.
Arsenal, WestHam, Charlton, Chelsea, Spurs.
27 Apr 2006, 14:06 pm
The ——-> will kick arse!!!
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.