Rushing the Boks into a competition doesn’t appeal

South African professional rugby franchises return to training on June 15 at the start of what hopefully will be the build-up to a provincial competition beginning in August, but any hopes that means we might still see the Rugby Championship played in 2020 should be tempered by a dose of reality.

The story that has been doing the rounds received airplay again this week, with Perth mooted as the venue for a tournament that will be played in one centre over six weeks, with all players going into two weeks of quarantine on arrival and the games played in a sanitised environment.

With the Australian government instituting more relaxed pandemic measures than New Zealand has, and with Australia, like New Zealand, having slow rates of Covid-19 infection compared to SA, it would make sense for such a tournament to be played in Perth. It is also of course the geographical midpoint between New Zealand and South Africa.

But while the prospect of the southern hemisphere international competition being played in September sounds appealing from the viewpoint of cash-strapped national rugby unions, for whom international rugby, rather than provincial or regional rugby, is the big moneymaker, that would be way too early for the tournament to be played on the necessary level playing field.

The Springboks being rushed into an international tournament this soon certainly should not appeal to national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, who has worked so hard and so successfully at getting the Boks back to the top of the world rugby pile. Erasmus will not need it pointed out that his team could be at a huge disadvantage if such a tournament is played.

For while South African players are getting ready to return to work next week, their compatriots in New Zealand are preparing for something entirely different. The big talking point in that country is that former world player of the year and All Black World Cup winner Dan Carter is returning to the sport by playing for the Blues in the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition that kicks off at the weekend.

New Zealand, who, let’s face it, don’t need a further leg-up, will have a head-start on the other nations. Playing a Rugby Championship early in 2021, when the playing field might be level, or even in November 2020 perhaps makes sense. But September just seems too soon from a South African viewpoint.

While the return to work is a big step forward, it does not mean a return to play is imminent. A full preseason, requiring the preparation for rugby to be slotted into separate blocks encompassing conditioning and then getting ready for contact, will be required. And that will take a minimum of six weeks.

That means the beginning of August is the earliest time professional rugby can return in this country, and even then that might be optimistic. If professional rugby does restart here in August, by then the Kiwis would have been playing for seven weeks.

From a financial viewpoint the policy expressed back in April, that getting international rugby back should be prioritised over regional or provincial, made sense. That is where the bulk of the broadcast money comes from. Not having international rugby in 2020 would mean that a substantial proportion of the pay cuts that were agreed to by the players in the collective bargaining process will become reality.

But perceptions are changing as reality keeps changing during the times of coronavirus, and in April there were still hopes that regional/provincial rugby would get back on track a lot earlier than it is. At that point, playing the Rugby Championship in September seemed possible because rugby could have been back in all competing countries by June, but that is not happening.

Before agreeing to stage the Rugby Championship as early as September — and at the moment it needs to be noted that it is possible we are just seeing an old story being regurgitated in the media — the unions would have to weigh up conflicting and competing interests.

On one side is the financial consideration, which leans heavily towards the tournament being played if at all possible, but on the other side we have the potential damage that could be sustained by national brand and the competition brand if the tournament is not played on a level playing field.

The Boks are reigning world champions and have done well to rise so quickly to the No 1 ranking after languishing among the also-rans 18 months ago.

Considerable harm can be done to their standing if they play in a truncated championship and find themselves dropping to No 3 or 4 in the world because, through no fault of their own, they went in considerably less prepared than their Antipodean opponents.

Some might say that at times like this that should not matter, but it will matter to those involved and those who would be directly affected.