Now let’s be the Super 14

Given the rock, represented by the Super 12, and the hard place, depicted by the Super 14, SA Rugby has not had much room to manoeuvre in the last few weeks.

The controlling body made a sincere effort to find a way out of the six-into-five-doesn’t-go impasse and, following the announcement of how it intends to approach competing in the Super 14, some of the tortured responses have not only been predictable but devoid of any understanding of the difficult situation in which SA Rugby finds itself.

On the one hand SA Rugby, as every weekend of the Super 12 continues to demonstrate, has to find a way to improve the standard of local rugby while also satisfying the strident demands to make the game more representative – i.e. to make it blacker.

Playing to an acceptable standard is obviously non-negotiable (and in South Africa that means being at the top of the ladder) but it must also be patently clear to all who have an interest in rugby that unless the transformation requirement is appeased South African rugby and those who are involved in it will never emerge from the morass of political interference.

It may be wrong and it may have nothing to do with excelling at professional sport, it may even be racist, but no amount of arguing will alter the South African reality that unless the demand for transformation is satisfied rugby will continue to be a target for prying politicians.

What was interesting in the debate over the awarding of Super 14 franchises was that while those with vested interests as well as members of the Press were critical none put forward a workable solution.

The Central Region proposed an argument based on proven rugby values in, particularly, Bloemfontein but glossed over how poor, with their help, the performance of the Cats has been in the Super 12 plus the absence of a viable black component.

The Southern and Eastern Cape (Eastern Province, Border and South Western Districts) made much play of a (completely untested) statistic that 43% of all registered players reside in their region but failed to see the implication that if this were the case it did not say much for the standard of their administration.

SA Rugby had to wrestle not only with the dilemma that it would be taking the Super 14 to provinces with a poor playing record (in the lower section of the Currie Cup) while it was (conveniently) forgotten that the mother body is not only aware of the parlous financial state of at least two of the partners but that not too long ago it had to mount a rescue operation in Eastern Province to save the union from collapse.

What Eastern Province and Border did, and does, have is the country’s strongest concentration of black players as well as an overt, and perhaps inexcusable, endorsement from the minister of sport.

SA Rugby was thus in a pincer. Apart from having to live up to its contractual obligations to its partners, New Zealand and Australia, and broadcast rights holders in terms of the strength of its teams in Sanzar competitions it was faced with having to make a decision that was guaranteed to make someone unhappy and with the distinct potential of being harmful in the future.

Go for transformation, and risk a potential on-field disaster, or go for proven rugby acumen and risk a socio-political backlash.

Thus it was decided to return to a regional system that many have pointed was tried before and failed.

But the fact is that SA Rugby had no choice but to try to involve all 14 of its provinces and rugby administrators could argue that they have taken back control of the inter-continental tournament, rather than leaving it in the hands of a few rich provinces who ran the Super 12 (badly) for their own benefit and to the exclusion of the minnows, and what we now have is a “community-based” system.

Thus the strong must take care of the weak and the key will be for the big city unions with their impressive resources to look after and nurture their “step children” and ensure that players of colour who reside in the backwoods are identified, developed and given a route to a higher level of competition.

Much of the unconstructive comment about SA Rugby’s plans for the Super 14 has surrounded the decision to twin the Blue Bulls and Eastern Province but is it really so unwise? On the one hand you have a union with arguably the best facilities in the land with access to a world-renowned high performance centre and proven excellence in terms of all it s teams, but no reservoir of black players, and on the other you have a struggling union with none of the afore-mentioned things but plenty of black players.

So the message to the Blue Bulls has been – use your resources to uplift Eastern Province. Send in your coaches, provide your administration, and, most of all, help to develop the many black players in a province you now have a responsibility for.

Equally this will be the role for Western Province, Natal, the Lions and the Cheetahs to become actively involved in the well-being of their satellites.

In the past it did not work because of an element of selfishness on the part of the big unions and an insistence of the smaller partners to tend to be obstructive and the onus is going to be on SA Rugby to not only make sure that everyone knows who owns the Super 14 and what the objectives are but to make sure that those who have the franchises deliver.

It’s time for South Africa’s provinces, in the interests of South Africa’s rugby to be the Super 14.