The Greatest Rivalry Tour can’t come soon enough for many of us, but before the All Blacks arrive in South Africa for their eight-game safari, the coaches and management of the four franchise teams the Kiwis will play are facing a catch-22 situation.
The return to the traditional tour is one of the big selling points for the Greatest Rivalry event, and you’d imagine that local franchise players who do not play much or any international rugby would love to play in a game that will enable them later in life to tell their grandchildren they played the All Blacks and faced down the Haka.
Some of the provincial games of the past against New Zealand and the British & Irish Lions became a part of South African folklore. Ask old timers in the Cape about their most memorable rugby moments as supporters, and those who were there will give you a blow-by-blow account of Western Province’s thrilling victory over Andy Leslie’s All Blacks in 1976. That was the day Robbie Blair kicked a conversion from the touchline to clinch it 12-11.
But the rugby landscape has changed in the professional era, and apart from a thumping win by the Bulls over the Lions at Loftus in 1997, it is hard to recall a standout provincial game against a touring team, with such games before the Rivalry concept limited to Lions tours.
There is a good reason for that, with the old approach of letting tour games perform the role of extra Bok trial games for provincial players having disappeared in the professional era, where national squads come together for training camps several weeks before a big series.
Presumably Bok coach Rassie Erasmus will attempt to release some of his players to play in the franchise games, but even if he does, the modern South African rugby landscape, with the national team playing to the southern international calendar and the club teams to the northern calendar, throws a huge curveball into even the best-laid plans.
t presents itself as a catch-22 because while a good performance against the All Blacks in a high-profile game might just re-engage fans that have drifted away from franchise/club rugby, a competitive performance that doesn’t deliver a historic win will quickly be forgotten, and it will have come at a cost.
This is because the franchise games will be played in what, for the rank and file players at that level, is the middle of the off-season. In fact, the Stormers game against the All Blacks that starts the tour apparently coincides with what would be the start of pre-season training for John Dobson’s squad.
I asked Sharks CEO Shaun Bryans how his team intends to deal with the challenging situation. He didn’t have an answer but said the players would be eager to have the experience of playing against the All Blacks.
There’s no denying that, but on a practical level, how will that work when the last game the URC teams would have played would have been two months ago for those who miss out on the knockouts or go out early, and a month ago for any team that reaches the final?
Playing the URC players in the Currie Cup wouldn’t work, as it has generally been agreed by the franchise coaches that playing URC players in the domestic competition while they should be resting compromises their URC campaign.
It presents itself as a catch-22 because while a good performance against the All Blacks in a high-profile game might just re-engage fans that have drifted away from franchise/club rugby, a competitive performance that doesn’t deliver a historic win will quickly be forgotten, and it will have come at a cost.
If in December a team that lost 33-23 to the All Blacks because they selected a URC-strength team for the game is paying for it by having a fatigued squad failing in the URC, will there be sympathy for the coaches?
When the Boks go to New Zealand four years hence, there won’t be the same hurdle to overcome because August is the height of the season for the Kiwi provincial teams, and hopefully beyond that we will finally have a global season. But for this first tour sacrifices will have to be made somewhere if the games outside of the Tests are going to be competitive.
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