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.