Cutting the Kings

Sarah Boomgaard

Two South African Super Rugby teams will be cut from the competition in 2018. SANZAAR, the international board that oversees the Super Rugby tournament, announced that the tournament will be restructured going into 2018. The new structure would see that South Africa cuts two teams and Australia cut one from the competition.

The restructuring will reduce the tournament from the current eighteen team format, to a fifteen teams, comprised of three conferences. In 2018, Japan’s Sunwolves moves to the Australian conference, while Argentina’s Jaguares will make up the fifth team in the South African conference.

The Southern Kings are the South African team most likely to be cut from the competition. The Cheetahs will possibly have the option to merge with the Lions to reform the Cats. The Southern Kings have struggled with the intensity of the tournament since 2013 when they were first admitted and since their readmission last year. However, their struggle does not necessarily mean that they should be callously cut from the competition.

The Southern Kings present a unique opportunity for the transformation of SA Rugby. A number of exceptional players of colour have come out of the region. Townships in the Eastern Cape have developed a rugby culture, which is practically non-existent in other provinces who tend to favour soccer. A well-developed Southern Kings union would be immensely beneficial to the transformation of SA Rugby.

Politicians have bemoaned SARU about the slow pace of transformation in SA Rugby. SARU will then throw around platitudes containing the words “grass roots”, yet there has been little to no investment in rugby in the Eastern Cape. The best players get poached by the bigger unions consequently the union has only been able to act as a feeder to the wealthier unions as they try to pad their teams with players of colour.

When the Kings pushed for a spot in Super Rugby, they were given one year to prove themselves. They replaced the Lions and were told that at the end of the year, they would play the Lions once more. The winner would then go on to play Super Rugby the following year. The Kings were given five months to sign players, contact potential sponsors to properly organise themselves and get ready for the daunting task of facing the top best provincial Rugby Union teams in the world. After a magical start, they soon floundered and have struggled to keep up with the pace of Super Rugby ever since.

Finding a sponsor also began difficult for the Kings. When they struggled to obtain sponsorship, salaries could not paid and the union was eventually liquidated. The lack of a sponsor hurt the Kings significantly. The Kings have struggled to attract world class players and coaches.

Instead of investing in Eastern Cape rugby, it seems that not only has little attempt been made to protect them, but the Southern Kings were vilified when they replaced the Lions in 2013, thus making them the perfect scapegoats for being cut in the restructuring of the tournament. The Lions performed poorly from 2002 to 2014, were consistently in the bottom three of the log, and remain the only team to have gone the entire Super Rugby tournament without managing a single victory. Yet the Lions never faced the same level of uncertainty or disdain that the Kings have. Despite their poor performance, their spot in the competition was secure until 2013 and there were no consequences for their unmemorable performance. The Southern Kings struggling as they have in 2013 and 2016, have had no such luxury. Their place in the competition has been under continuous threat since their admission.

Although SANZAAR has given its own reason for the reduction of the competition, SARU should do better to ensure the future of the Kings so that should the opportunity arise when they could be readmitted, they are top competitors and not easy points for the other teams.

Engaging the community

Sarah Boomgaard

Sport is a universal language. It is not and has never been about the activity itself. Keeping your body healthy is important but the reason that the sports industry is as profitable as it is, is because people love watching it – perhaps even more than they enjoy playing it. The love of the game speaks to us on a psychological level, transcending boundaries in unprecedented manners. One need look no further than the ’95 Rugby World Cup. The iconic image of former President Nelson Mandela wearing his Springbok replica jersey handing the Webb Ellis trophy to Francois Pienaar is engrained in the minds of rugby fans around the world. Particularly as rugby had and still has close ties to the Afrikaaner identity, the image of South Africa’s first black president handing a trophy to a white Afrikaaner transformed the image to become a symbol for reconciliation and unity. However the use of sport as a tool of unification does not only take place at a national or international level, sport is able to bring together people within the same communities.

Sport transcends boundaries of race, class and religion. Everyone has to play by the same set of rules. However, this does not mean everyone walks onto the pitch on equal footing. The effects of Apartheid are still felt today with many communities left divided. The gap between impoverished and affluent areas are vast with infrastructure in the former practically non-existent. The lack of infrastructure is merely one of a multitude of reasons for the slow pace of transformation, particularly with regards to rugby as rugby posts are more expensive than soccer goal posts that can and have been substituted with beacons for formal goal posts in underprivileged communities. Nevertheless these hurdles do not negate the positive effects that sports can have on communities; both privileged and impoverished.

Rugby is an integral instrument of community development. Due to its team dynamic and its nature as a contact sport, rugby is able to bring people closer within, and across neighbourhoods. Unlike soccer and cricket, rugby calls for players to constantly invade each other’s personal space not only by way of tackling but through rucks, line outs, scrums, and mauls. By constantly invading one another’s personal space it makes it incredibly difficult for players to hold on to their biases and prejudices. Consequently, they are more likely to see their teammates as individuals thereby deconstructing their preconceived stereotypes. Tournaments provide teams with the opportunity to interact with people of different communities which leads to preconceived prejudices being further dismantled. This is particularly important as Apartheid created neighbourhoods that perpetuated stereotypes based on race as well as class. The continuous cross-community interactions facilitated through tournaments are an integral part of breaking down these social barriers.

Social barriers and prejudices can also be broken down through spectatorship, particularly with regards to rugby. Although rugby is intertwined with the Afrikaans culture, the increase in spectatorship amongst people of colour is undeniable. This presents an interesting opportunity to bring together spectators from all walks of life, allowing them to share in the joy or heartache of their favourite team’s success or failure unites people of vastly different backgrounds. Once again this helps to break down the notion of “us and them”. The proverbial “them” is the opposing team and their supporters, and then, there is just us – the thousands of people united by something as simple as a rugby match. The unity being described here can be seen on any given Saturday at Newlands Rugby Stadium. It is a common occurrence to see a group of men and women of a multitude of races debating the coach’s team selection before the game and celebrating (or drowning their sorrows) together after the final whistle.

I will not insinuate that a host of rugby tournaments will magically end racism and discrimination. Nothing is that easy. However sports and particularly rugby, have a lot of potential to bring people together – and when people are brought together, in the right environment, they have the opportunity to realise that perhaps we are not so different after all.