Dan Biggar: Where Sharks owner ‘loses the argument’ amid ‘half-pregnant’ Champions Cup commitment
Wales great Dan Biggar and SA Rugby president Mark Alexander.
Dan Biggar believes that South Africa are in a strong position when it comes to their Investec Champions Cup future, thanks to the power they currently wield having overtaken the All Blacks as the sport’s leading brand.
It has been widely reported that SA Rugby are considering exiting the Champions Cup, with president Mark Alexander stating that they “will have to decide which competitions will be retained and which ones we can drop” due to the heavy workload on the players.
Alexander later backtracked on those comments, stating that it was just “speculation” and the July meeting was more about finding a “negotiated balance” between competition commitments.
They ultimately have a number of things to weigh up, including the financial hit they may take by exiting the tournament.
That is something Sharks owner Marco Masotti spoke about, insisting that he would pull funding should SA Rugby make that call.
EPCR will also no doubt have a say, but Biggar believes that South Africa hold all the aces when it comes to negotiations.
Springboks have ‘replaced the All Blacks’
“They just hold so much power in the game at the minute. The Springboks are the big brand at the minute in world rugby, they’ve replaced the All Blacks as ‘that’ brand,” he said on The Rugby Pod.
“They’re in such a strong position to effectively call the shots on what they want to do because everything is working for them, the money is flowing in, they’ve got all the power, they’ve got the sponsors.
“The TV deal is up in a year’s time for the Champions Cup, so who knows what’s going to happen there. Premier [Sport] may go back in again, or another company may come in and then it’s negotiations again.”
Despite seeing them in a strong position when it comes to negotiations, Biggar has questioned their commitment to the competition.
South African franchises have found it difficult to balance the United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup, and have often fielded weakened teams in the latter.
Biggar therefore criticised Masotti’s stance and insisted that the Sharks’ approach to the Champions Cup did not back up the owner’s comments.
“The Champions Cup is a strange one because for the Sharks owner to come out and say that, and then not pick their best team to go and play abroad, that’s when you lose your argument in that sense,” he said.
“If you’re in it, you’re in it, so you can’t be half-pregnant on this, can you? You’ve got to be, ‘right, we’re fully in on this and we’re going to get it’.
“It’s all well and good saying that but you’ve got to be in it as well. I know you could say the Sharks won the Challenge Cup and that’s probably as good as it got for South Africans in Europe over the last couple of years.
“It does make it difficult, the travel, playing in freezing cold one week and then you’ve got to go to 35 degrees in Cape Town the following week.”
View of former Scotland and England internationals
Joining Wales great Biggar on the show was former Scotland international Jim Hamilton, who believes that the Springboks stars are not as committed when featuring for their franchises.
“The players that are playing in the URC or if you’ve got Handre Pollard at Leicester, you tell me, and this is with all due respect, are you getting the Eben Etzebeth that’s playing against the All Blacks playing for the Sharks? You’re not,” Hamilton said.
“Marco, who I’m a big fan of and I really like Marco as a bloke, you can understand from his perspective that he wants to get the snorkels out and be part of the celebrations for the Challenge Cup, but it’s just not working.”
The third member on the panel was ex-England fly-half Andy Goode, and he somewhat disagreed with Biggar’s view that they can dictate negotiations.
Goode feels that they do not have too many standout options available to them.
“The Saffas have three or four choices. One is leave as is, you play in the Champions Cup and URC,” he said.
“Then [number two is] you can either pull out of the URC or the Champions Cup.
“If you’re pulling out of the Champions Cup, does it make a material difference? Not really because there are only four group games and then the knockouts, which they’re not in that much anyway. Do you therefore pull out of the URC?
“The other option is to have your own league, which is the Currie Cup anyway, and how much money is in South Africa?
“Commercially, they have to be in other competitions to make money or you go back to Super Rugby. There’s no quick and easy fix for them here.
“The other thing is that their national team mirrors the southern hemisphere, but their club teams mirror the northern hemisphere, so they’ve got themselves in this pickle.”
