Lions set for Super Rugby blackout

As the Super Rugby season plods along, for the Lions, what lies at the end is ominous. With the Southern Kings guaranteed Super Rugby participation next year, and the competition not expanding (SARU are really crossing their fingers on that one), what will likely happen is the team finishing bottom of the South African conference will be replaced by the Kings. That team very much looks like the Lions.

Being a spectator at Ellis Park (aka the Coke Tin) when the Lions clashed with the Bulls wasn’t a pleasant experience. After a bright start, John Mitchell’s team faded away as the Bulls set the tempo and dictated terms. All the optimism generated by last year’s Currie Cup victory has evaporated as the Lions sit at the foot of the main table, let alone the conference.

A series of injuries to the starting XV has left the Johannesburg franchise shorn of experience and quality. Their depth was always going to be tested in a season this long. They’ve lost a couple of close ones, no one can deny that, but in the world of professional sport, winning is all that really matters. Just ask the Bulls. Say what you want about the former champions (and that terrible pink away kit which has epileptic seizure written all over it), they know how to win.

It will be a terrible thing when Super Rugby stops coming to the crucible that is Ellis Park, home of one of the greatest moments in sporting history. The 1995 World Cup final is etched in the memories of all who were there and all who witnessed it, so it will be with great sadness that one of South Africa’s anchor rugby unions, one of the originals, will cease to ply their trade in Super Rugby.

There will still be the Currie Cup of course. The Springboks will also still play the odd game on that fabled patch, as they are against England later this year, but the time of All Black Tests has perhaps passed. The FNB Stadium, with its iconic Calabash, will host its second Springboks-All Blacks Test and considering how spectacular an occasion it was the first time round (with the All Blacks winning to their immense credit), it’s the right decision.

The situation on Saturday was typified by Jaco Taute being booed at his own home ground by arguably numerically superior Bulls fans. It’s easy to support winners, but the fans that form the heart and soul of South Africa’s rugby kingdom are those fans who week in, week out, are willing to pay for a match ticket even though they know their team is not the favourite.

It is those fans who will miss out the most. Conversely, the Kings will fill the gap of lovable losers (at least in the beginning). South African rugby must harness the untapped pool of black rugby talent in the region for the sport to survive in this country. Change is non-negotiable and while administrators across the country are guilty of dithering on the issue, the Kings’ inclusion had to happen eventually. It’s just a pity that SARU realised there are only five spots for six teams way too late into the game.

Did we see it coming? Sure, but knowing what hard choices need to be made and actually making them are two very different things. As soon as Australia were granted the fifth franchise, a South African team’s days were numbered. Unfortunately, Russian roulette doesn’t smile kindly on the only person left alive.