Let's go clubbing

Cape Town University’s recent victory over arch-rivals Stellenbosch has served to draw attention to one of “the things that have gone wrong in South African rugby.”

There was a time, during the 70s, that an Ikey win over the Maties would have sparked massive celebrations and become the subject of rugby lore.

I well recall a great occasion at Newlands in 1976 when the Ikeys scored one of their rare victories over the maroon-shirted giants from Coetzenburg.

A crowd of more than 30,000 witnessed a stirring intervarsity, which also doubled as the WPRU’s Grand Challenge Final, in which an Ikey team that included the like of Nick Mallett, Butch Deuchar and Tim Brukman, inspired by incredible support from the jovial Cape Town students packed into the railway stand, pulled off an unlikely win.

The celebrations afterwards at the old Pig ‘n Whistle, “Forries” (the Forrester’s Arms) and at the UCT rugby clubhouse were long and unbridled; the great silver trophy being filled with an awful concoction and passed around for all to drink from.

In the spirit of true sportsmanship many of the Maties were present; good-naturedly putting up with the jibes of the Ikeys in the certain knowledge that soon order would be restored as Stellenbosch embarked on another run of successive victories.

Ikey wins were so few and far between that they were really worth celebrating and even Doc Craven was happy to grant the Cape Town students their merry-making – until the Monday night’s practice when he would exact great punishment on his routed Maties!

This latest Ikey victory was even more significant in that it happened on the hallowed field of the Danie Craven Stadium… and, time to confess, I did not hear of it until a few days later!

Caught up in the maelstrom of the Super 12, the naming of the newest Springbok side by its newest coach and the impending tours an event which was once an occasion to be savoured is now little more than an insignificant local event undeserved of national exposure.

That other great north vs south event, the Maties versus the Tukkies, has also come and gone without so much as a ripple in the worldwide web – providing more proof of the contention that SA Rugby is in dire straits because it has allowed club rugby to wither to the point of extinction.

Whereas an All Black like Andrew Mehrtens goes back to his club when he is in the midst of a bad patch, many Springbok rugby players don’t even belong to clubs.

Players either play at international level or in the Super 12 or they don’t play at all. There is no intermediary rugby and a vital developmental building block has been removed; resulting in flaws in the players who do make it to the top or the total disappearance of late developers.

The introduction of the regional Super 12 system to be quickly followed by the Vodacom Cup wreaked untold damage on the fabric of South African rugby and the recent concentration on Jake White and his Springbok team shows that South African rugby is still trying to fix its problems from the top down rather than building from the bottom.

This is no new theme of mine. I was against the regional Super 12 from the start and I have often pointed out how the Vodacom Cup serves no purpose other than to create a plethora of extra functionaries (who have to be paid) and gives provincial caps to players undeserved of the honour.

What is required is a determined drive to restore rugby at club level. Our schools are in good shape (although I would immediately ban schoolboys from playing for cups!), but the reality is that if a player is missed for provincial selection at under 21 level he almost always disappears off the radar because club rugby no longer bridges the gap between age-group and provincial rugby.

I have previously championed the introduction of a massive FA Cup-style knock-out club competition to take place while the Super 12 is on and I would certainly institute a televised intervarsity (including some of the technikons) challenge series to focus more attention in what would be a key breeding ground for future internationals.

A quota system could be put in place to ensure that clubs perform the required developmental role rather than, as has happened again now, a Springbok coach having to shoulder the responsibility of transformation when his job really should be to pick the best side possible to win test matches rather than having to consider implications no other international coach has to deal with.

The current structure has failed – dismally – and something different has to be done or I fear the Springboks will never again scale the heights of yesteryear. Rugby officials are fond of telling us how much talent there is in South African rugby but they have failed to provide the platform for this talent to shine.

There is a rung missing in the ladder to the Springboks and its called club rugby.