Loose Pass: South Africa’s future in Europe, the England squad curveball and why ‘PREM Rugby has begun to resemble basketball’
Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Mark Alexander image
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with South Africa’s future in Europe, the England squad curveball and basketball…
South Africa exiting Europe?
As opposed to the participation in the URC, South Africa’s future in Europe was always likely to become a sore point – and that’s not just the painful parts on the bodies that are squeezing into airplane seats.
It’s rarely felt like a good fit, especially in the knockout rounds which, under the current format, are the only ones that really seem to be vaguely guaranteed to be meaningful. Yet the short-term nature of having two knockout rounds one after the other has meant horrible travel times at the business end of an already-long season for teams either side of the equator, and we’ve not yet approached the costs of that exercise.
The pool matches are, by and large, played in the South African summer which has meant leaving sub-zero temperatures the day after a hard match, 24 hours in a plane, a week of training in heat and at altitude and a full-throttle match on the end of it. Or vice versa for the South African teams coming to Europe. It’s a recipe for injury and illness; barely surprising that teams frequently opt to put less fatigued, rotated teams on the plane.
And we’ve not even looked at the carbon footprint of all that travelling – both in the URC and the Champions Cup. Nor have we gone near that awkward moniker of European Champions Cup, that European one featuring the South African teams. And as for the welfare of those players in the Springbok set-up…
That final part has apparently been the opening stake in the ongoing poker game between SARU and the clubs – or rather, the owners – regarding the future participation of South African teams, with Mark Alexander supposedly saying that teams would have to “… decide which competitions will be retained and which ones we can drop”.
One of the most crucial details of the riposte to Alexander’s apparent quote from Sharks owner Marco Masotti was glossed over a little, but it really speaks volumes about the state of the game at the moment: “Let me be clear — I will no longer fund the losses (and all of the owners will feel the same way) if we pull out of the Champions Cup,” he said.
The losses? Well yes, the losses. Obviously, rugby can’t run at a breakeven or a sustainable finance model. There has to be losses. How else do you get proper competition?
If South African teams really are losing that much money as a part of the EPCR participation deal, then it is difficult to see what the point is in the long term.
The players are being flogged – despite his back-track, Mr. Alexander did still insist: “We’ve only got so many weeks in a year. We play for 11 months in a year and nowhere else do they do that. We can continue going like this until we implode, or we can find another way of doing it.”
Too few games during the season have resonant meaning, too many which might have meaning are robbed of it by rotated squads. Too many games are short of the international players, the star turns that draw bums to seats. And the spectacle is never good without bums on seats, either on the spot or on the tube.
What other way would there be? On a day when both Sir John Kirwan and Victor Matfield extolled the virtues of tribalism and local fever within individual nations as the ideal basis for a domestic set-up over the international franchise competitions, and with the Prem and – especially – the Top 14 continuing to effervesce each weekend, there has to be a consideration to consider a proper revival of the Currie Cup. It’s also a hard sell, but in the absence of Super Rugby perhaps not as hard as it once was.
Perhaps this is the wrong way to look at it. Perhaps the losses being funded so South African teams can field a reserve side for an away quarter-final in Europe are worth it for the longer-term greater good of Springbok rugby. Speculate to accumulate and all that.
But it doesn’t feel that way. All these artificial tournament constructs and cobbled-together leagues and formats are not ticking enough of the right boxes. A return to some good old-fashioned local rivalry might just be a very good thing.
Care-worn
It was inevitable that the selection of Benhard Janse van Rensburg – not one of the Sussex Janse van Rensburgs, we hasten to add – would divide opinion.
It will always stir up debate. But this selection, of an unproven centre for a national team at the expense of two well-proven centres who are a powerful combination for club, and one of whom has often been touted as the long-term solution for country in the position, seems really odd.
Steve Borthwick is famously data-driven. Clearly something in the numbers suggests Janse van Rensburg will offer more than either Ollie Lawrence or Max Ojomoh. It could also be that the former simply needs a little more time to get back to speed following a year out with an achilles rupture.
But Danny Care’s words encapsulate all that is wrong with the residency qualification in countries with larger playing pools: “…they are two young lads who have dreamt of playing for England… I feel it would mean more to an Ojomoh or a Lawrence to wear that shirt and represent that country than it would for Janse van Rensburg to represent a country he’s only played in for a few years.”
Like the concept of a South African team becoming champions of Europe, it’s one that just feels a little too awkward.
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High scores = perfect entertainment?
If there is an elite sport Loose Pass will almost certainly try to turn off, it is basketball. It seems an odd sport; the rate of scoring is so fast that at times it seems to be more cause to celebrate or jump in surprise when a team doesn’t score. Plenty of skill and athleticism on show and all, but if the points are racking up all the time, when do you actually get excited?
The reason for this aside is that the past fortnight of Prem rugby has begun to resemble basketball at times, not least last Friday night at Franklin’s Gardens.
Loose Pass was excited by the first try. We marvelled at the second. At the third, the eyebrows shot up properly – what miracle is this, I asked myself?
But by the time Northampton had racked up 50 points late in the first half, I was leaning back in the armchair. It was nice of Bristol’s attack to pitch up for the second half, but both defences were conspicuous by their absence for the entire 80. It was entertaining in a binge-watching sort of way, but genuinely involving? Emotion-wringing stuff? Not really.
It’s been a bit of a theme in the Prem these past few weeks. 50 used to be a once or twice a season shellacking, nowadays someone is hitting 50 almost every week. And while it’s nice to see all these lovely tries and sublime running angles, some genuine jeopardy is sorely missing. Nobody is being relegated, so Newcastle games are becoming a bit of a joke. Similar applies to games involving Sale and Gloucester, while Bath’s fielding of a rotated side at Exeter removed almost all the tension from the outset a week ago.
We are being entertained. So thank you. It’s not anti-fun. But the value of a diamond is its rarity; at the moment, tries are showing all the value of costume jewellery.