Super 15 Rugby: Nothing is what it seems

I don’t quite know how to put this but SA Rugby has just received a monster shove in the derriere by Australia with regards to the Super 15 plans announced on Tuesday. Of course this is the release trotted out by SA Rugby with the details of the Super 15 tournament starting in 2011 and there are a number of gaping holes in this structure, which leaves it entirely incomplete and incoherent. Most of all it shows scant regard for the Southern Kings’ future role over the next seven years and is conspicuous in its absence of drawing attention to the fine print.

Some of the questions that remain unanswered are:

1. Where is provision made for the sixth South African franchise, Southern Kings?
2. Where is the relegation and promotion structure to determine which five teams play on an annual basis?
3. Who would possibly bid for a fifth Australian-based franchise other than an Australian franchise?

Cut through the smoke-and-mirrors press release and focus on 14 words in this 350-word release which puts everything into sharp laser-beam focus: “A 15th team playing in the Australian conference will be added to Super Rugby.” Now you do not have to be a genius to recognise that this is not lost in translation or anything but absolutely and unequivocally signals that no South African team, least of all the Southern Kings, is going to base itself in the Australian Conference of five teams.

This quite simply effectively nukes any notion of a sixth South African franchise playing in the Super 15 — where is reference made to relegation & promotion? There is none. There is no door open, this is a flat-out checkmate to the Southern Kings and Super Rugby franchise aspirations the Eastern Cape had of ever playing in Super Rugby and effectively stops it in its tracks the moment the final whistle is blown on June 16.

Oregan Hoskins and Andy Marinos — the acting managing director of SA Rugby — were out-manoeuvred, out-gunned and told to Eff off in such a nice way by O’Neill that they are looking forward to the journey!

O’Neill gets what he wants and leaves SA Rugby in short pants before the assembly. If it was not so tragic and diabolical a surrender it would be hilariously funny.

However, SA Rugby, when the new Presidents Council meets post March 2010, could still address the situation and still determine in the franchise participation agreement, which all six South African franchises must be signatories to, that there be a relegation and promotion series to determine which five of the six South African franchises should play in 2011.

This was the case in June 2005 and applies in June 2009 and will apply till 2015.

The race for the 15th Super Rugby franchise is actually expected to be between Gold Coast, Melbourne and western Sydney, although SA Rugby says the Southern Kings, based in Eastern Cape province, will also make a bid. This is sheer lunacy, a waste of time and money, and makes a mockery of the bidding process.

If the new team is an Australian franchise — the fine print at the base of the Sanzar release — we know what this really means ie THE NEW TEAM WILL BE AN AUSTRALIAN FRANCHISE. It means another six years of rugby drought in the Eastern Cape. the prospect of a run-down multibillion-rand Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and lights flickering in the three Eastern Cape Rugby unions offices.

In short, this is absolutely shocking and appalling and reveals that SA Rugby’s representatives at Sanzar have been unable to articulate themselves and acquit themselves in crafting a Win-Win-Win Super Rugby solution for the three Sanzar partners and its respective regional rugby unions and will haunt them for the duration of this competition for the next seven years.

This is a dereliction of duty by SA Rugby Pty Ltd to the three Eastern Cape rugby unions and Southern Kings.