Cash comp gets the boot

Cash comp gets the boot

22 Jul 2010

Sanzar has done the right thing by rejecting a proposed 20/20 pre-season rugby competition, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.

Sanzar CEO Steve Tew on Thursday said the ARU, NZRU and Saru had discussed the concept with their Super Rugby teams and the feedback was overwhelmingly negative due to the potential impact on their preparations in 2012. Sanzar is also concerned about the impact on player welfare given the period identified for the competition is the main rest and conditioning period for the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies players.

In the latest issue of SA Rugby magazine, WP senior professional coach Rassie Erasmus and former Stormers commercial manager Frikkie Erasmus explain why the launch of a 20/20 rugby competition would be good for the game. (Interestingly, Rassie said that while they would like to have the backing of Saru and the IRB, they don’t need it.)

According to their proposal, which was leaked to the media in June, the eight-team, two-week tournament (three, if you include the week for preparations) would involve the world’s top 200 players, who’d earn more in that time than they do in a year for their provinces or clubs. The matches, played at Cape Town and Durban’s new World Cup stadiums, would be 20 minutes a half, with the rules tweaked to restrict the amount of kicking and encourage running rugby. The franchises would be privately owned, but most of the money would be generated from sponsorships and broadcast rights.

The Erasmuses claim that the tournament would help to keep South Africa’s top players in the country (and away from big-spending European clubs) as they could supplement their current income. They insist 20/20 rugby wouldn’t contribute to player burnout, as it would take place in January when our Super Rugby sides usually play warm-up matches, and that the game’s simpler rules would attract a new audience that currently finds rugby too difficult to understand.

What they haven’t admitted, though, is that this tournament would be nothing more than a crass money-making venture that makes a mockery of the sport. Apart from boosting the players’ and organisers’ bank balances, what would be the point of it?

In sevens, which will be part of the Olympic Games from 2016, rugby already has an abbreviated version of the game. It doesn’t need another. More importantly, there is already far too much rugby being played (just ask Prof Tim Noakes) so why would we want to increase our players’ workload?

A 20/20 tournament would also disrupt the preparations of our Super 15 franchises (who traditionally play warm-up matches in January to test new combinations and build some momentum), and in case the Erasmuses have forgotten, the regional tournament and Tri-Nations will earn Sanzar $437 million over the next five years.

How would the broadcasters react if players missed the Super 15 because they’d been injured while playing (meaningless) competitive rugby in January? And how could someone like Rassie Erasmus be fully committed to the Stormers if he had other rugby interests taking up his time? Surely his WP employers would consider his involvement in the 20/20 tournament to be a major conflict of interest?

The Erasmuses say this new competition would be rugby’s equivalent of cricket’s Indian Premier League, but IPL matches are often remembered more for the tacky off-field entertainment (cheerleaders, fireworks, loud music, beauty pageants, etc) than for the quality of the cricket. IPL cricketers also care far more about their pay cheques than they do about the franchise badge over their hearts. Is that what rugby wants?

While IPL franchise owners have pumped big money into their teams, would businessmen be willing to do the same for a 20/20 rugby tournament considering their sides would only be in the spotlight for two weeks a year? How long would it be before they demanded an extended tournament, to be played in December and January, that would give their ‘brands’ more exposure? That’s what has happened in the IPL, with next year’s tournament set to expand from eight to 10 teams, and from 60 to 94 matches.

No, rugby definitely does not need an IPL equivalent.

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24 Comments

  • 1.Transformation: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 08:59 am

    greedy erasmii dragons

  • 2.PissAnt: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:01 am

    Sanity prevails…

  • 3.Boks should grow moustaches for RWC: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:03 am

    Erasmii the plural of Erasmus? Hahahahahaha! good on ya Transie.

    The only good thing about this comp would be that we could then keep our best players in the country. The Frans Steyns of this world would get enough cassh in Jan to play in SA with a calm heart. He says he wants to experience a different culture etc etc but common now. It’s always about money.

    I’m probably 40% for the idea and 60% against… it has its merits.

  • 4.Ezee-23: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:03 am

    No no no no no no no!!!!!

    Simply put………..NO!!!!

  • 5.RugbyRulz: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:11 am

    It was doomed to failure from the get go. Players need the off season to recuperate and prep for the S15.

    Also if PlanetRugby is to be believed South Africa may have their Kings team in the Super comp in 2013. To accommodate another team it would entail South African teams commencing their conference a little earlier, so the 20/20 Erasmovision would possibly get in the way.

  • 6.Boks should grow moustaches for RWC: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:13 am

    Ja, bad idea but let’s give the Rassies their due for putting their ***** on a bl0ck. IMO this idea is 5-10 years ahead of its time..kinda like Harry Viljoen was at the Boks.

  • 7.Ezee-23: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:14 am

    “but IPL matches are often remembered more for the tacky off-field entertainment (cheerleaders, fireworks, loud music, beauty pageants, etc) than for the quality of the cricket. IPL cricketers” – SIMON BORCHARDT.

    Okay this is the dumbest statement on this website.

  • 8.RugbyRulz: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:19 am

    @Boks should grow moustaches for RWC(Kid_Senekal)-6: I may be mistaken but hasnt this been done before, as a 10 man rugger game?

  • 9.Ezee-23: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:20 am

    Again………

    When Brandon McCullum hit 150 for the Kolkata Knight Riders can you tell me what the cheerleaders were wearing, what music was playing and who won the beauty pageant? I can’t, all I remember is that on that day it rained sixex……..

    Still a dumb idea to try to bring this to rugby.

  • 10.RugbyRulz: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:21 am

    @Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-7: Yes, most do miss the turbo-tub on the sideline. :)

  • 11.UKBokSupporter: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:21 am

    Good, didn’t see it working anyway. And blessing in disguise. Erasmus could have lost a lot more if it was approved and turned out to be a flop anyway.

  • 12.Transformation: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:24 am

    @Boks should grow moustaches for RWC(Kid_Senekal)-3: hahaha dude i picked up that word here on the blog, around the time when frikkie was trying crack mossie’s contract :D

  • 13.Ezee-23: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:35 am

    @RugbyRulz(RugbyRulz)-10: The what?? In india???

  • 14.Ezee-23: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:50 am

    I love lamp!!!!!

  • 15.David: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:54 am

    Considering that Rassie was promoting this as being for the WORLDS best 200 players and positioning it in the middle of the 6 Nations, it’s not surprising this fraud was turned down. It looks as if the idea was never presented formally to the IRB first.

  • 16.sparticus: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 09:56 am

    Good !!! May it never resurface as well !

  • 17.WOLFMAN21: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 10:26 am

    This does not mean it is over – it all now depends on if Rassie wants to make a proper power play for the league to become a rebel league and see if he can entice players away from their national or franchise contracts.

    Rassie does not need the consent of the IRB, SARU or SANZAR for the tournament to run.

    This could become messy – we saw it with world series cricket, Packer tried world rugby corporation in 1995 and there have been similar splits in league in Australia.

    It all now depends on what rassie decides to do.

  • 18.wade: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 11:20 am

    Erasmus(both)=underhand,greedy,sleaze.Would never spend a cent on anything they have their grubby paws on.If they were cats they would lick themselves to death.Dumb idea to.

  • 19.Lang Giel: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 11:43 am

    Good piece of journalism! Well motivated.

  • 20.willievz: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 12:45 pm

    @David(David)-15: Good point, haven’t thought about that! :)

  • 21.boerinbeton: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 14:57 pm

    Great News.

    Does anyone have details about the suggested rules/format of this comp?

    Sure it was a farce

  • 22.GoTheBulls: Reply to this comment
    22 Jul 2010, 18:47 pm

    This is great news, just another one of old disco lights Erasmus’s bright ideas gone sour

  • 23.stephen: Reply to this comment
    23 Jul 2010, 10:34 am

    200 of the worlds best players???

    lets see now.. if you take 40 from SA, Aus and NZ each, thats 120 players… where are the other 80 players supposed to be coming from??

    surely not from Europe, as that would make a mockery of the “200 of the best players in the world” statement…

  • 24.BlueBlood: Reply to this comment
    23 Jul 2010, 13:10 pm

    Bunch of rubbish.

    Typical Rassie move. Only cares about money, like when he turned his back on the Bokke before the RWC 2007 to go to the Stormers.

    He is a garbage human that must eff off and join his rubbish buddy Puke Twatson overseas.

    All these trash people must stay overseas and die there.

    We don’t need their kind. Let them rot in the island of mud, then dump their corpses in the Thames.

Keo.co.za has always promoted uncensored views, but has never tolerated racist or crass outbursts. Come on guys and girls. If you can't moderate yourselves or each other then I am going to be forced to regulate the posts and enforce a registration process for comments. The choice is yours.

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