New Currie Cup should be regional competition

The various provincial chiefs will be getting together with the board of SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd next week to thrash out the way the Currie Cup will work from next year.

It has already been decided that the premier domestic competition will return to a strength versus strength format in 2003. This was accepted by the board last month after they had been presented with the findings of consultancy company Accenture, who were tasked with conducting a thorough study of the game in this country.

But as Rian Oberholzer, the director of SA Rugby, said at the time, the nitty gritty still had to be worked out and this would be done in consultation with the affected parties.

Obviously there are a lot of parties who do stand to lose plenty by being demoted to a second string competition. So it would not be surprising if there were a few objections raised at next week's meeting.

Although in a previous column I endorsed the SA Rugby decision, I do understand the possible objections which will come from more than just the provinces that stand to lose.

For a start, is it really in the best interests of South African rugby to have the country unions completely lose their revenue earners.

By revenue earners I refer to the one or two big matches each of those unions hosted every year against top provinces like Natal or Western Province.

It will be recalled that even in the old days of strength versus strength, provinces like Border were able to use what were known as "cross section friendlies" against teams like Natal and WP to boost income.

Some of those unions, believing the 14 team Currie Cup system was entrenched, have spent considerable amounts of money on upgrading their stadiums and setting up suites etc. The SWD Eagles spring immediately to mind.

And while none of these unions were able to sustain their onfield progress to remain consistent challengers over a long period of time, it is also undeniable that several of them have also contributed to the country's rugby talent resource base.

For instance, would the new format mean that Wayne Julies has to move from Boland if he wants to play a level of rugby which will enable him to be noticed by the national selectors?

These are considerations which make next week's meeting far more complicated than just deciding which provinces play at the top level and which drop down.

However there is a solution for all these potential pitfalls just so long as the various provincial presidents and other officials can look beyond their own narrow needs and views.

Why not turn the Currie Cup proper into a regional tournament, with a provincial tournament much like the Vodacom Cup but of a stronger standard (for reasons I will outline later) running at the same time.

I would divide my teams in the Currie Cup thus: Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Central South Africa, Gauteng and North Gauteng (note that these are not the names I would give to the teams).

Western Cape would be made up of the three provinces currently making up the Stormers; the Eastern Cape team will be a marraige between Eastern Province and Border; Natal will remain just what it is at the moment; Central South Africa would draw together Free State and Griquas; Gauteng would incorporate the Lions and the Falcons; North Gauteng would be made up of the Bulls, North-West and Mpumalanga.

The benefits of such a tournament should be obvious. For a start, having an Eastern Cape team on its own in a top class competition should give rugby in that area a massive boost while accelerating the rate at which black players are produced in this important feeder region.

Players like Brent Russell, who is currently contracted to the Pumas, could carry on being contracted by those smaller unions but would be available for selection to the North Gauteng senior team.

This way every player who is good enough to play top class rugby will be able to play in the major competition and will not be hamstrung by the fact that he lives in a less fashionable rugby area.

This formulation would do more to spread the rugby word to all corners of South Africa than if we just return to a Currie Cup competed for by Test Union teams.

Yes, I hear the dissenters who will argue that such a competition will go against tradition. But isn't it time we realised that South African rugby made a new start in 1992. We have a new history and we should also perhaps have new identities.

And what is to stop the Western Cape team, for instance, still being called Western Province and wearing those colours? Boland and SWD can be affiliated to WP for the purposes of this competition and they will each get to host one WP game in the elite tournament.

Those Boland players not selected to the WP team will play in the provincial tournament, which for obvious reasons will not include a team from WP, Natal, the Lions or the Bulls (these unions will provide the bulk of the players to their respective regional teams).

What I am in effect proposing is a six team Currie Cup made up of WP (but including Boland and SWD), Lions (Lions and Falcons), Bulls (Bulls, Pumas and North-West), Natal, Eastern Cape and whatever the Free State/Griquas marriage would like to call itself.

The provincial tournament run concurrently with the regional competition will include just 10 teams. Provided enough fringe players currently in the big centres make themselves available for the smaller unions (eg Cape Town fringe players can move to Boland but still play for WP in Currie Cup), the standard of this competition should be quite high.

It's just a thought, but surely one worth considering.