Reducing number of unions will lift rugby

The absence of the South African teams from the Easter weekend round of the Super 12 did nothing to alleviate the depression which has descended on the local game.

Judging from the comments of those who watched the Sharks train on an ABSA Stadium outerfield early this week, the classic confrontation between the Crusaders and Brumbies last Sunday confirmed the widening chasm between South African and Australasian teams.

As someone pointed out, the Stormers, who have been by far the best local team so far of the 2002 season, lost comprehensively at home to the Brumbies just a week earlier.

So what is the root of the problem? Part of the answer was provided when I watched a recent Vodacom Cup match between Western Province and Griquas. The tackling and the general defensive organisation of both teams was so poor that it was possible for mediocre players to look brilliant as they piled on the points.

But there was little in the way of continuity from either side. Tries were scored off first phase and seldom did the players have to exhibit the patience that is required if you are going to break down a New Zealand or Australian defence.

Of course, it was all too familiar to those of us who had watched the Cats and the Bulls concede soft tries in their Super 12 matches. And it should not have been anything new to anyone who saw last season's Currie Cup.

Former Springbok coach Harry Viljoen was right when he said after the test against England last November that the Currie Cup was to blame for much of what was going wrong with South African rugby. According to him, players were just not accustomed to having to build up for a try with multiple phase play as they were not confronted with anything resembling a decent defence in their matches at home.

As they were allowed to get away with it in the Currie Cup, players were finding it hard to drop their bad habits when called up to international action.

Although lots of tries were scored, the fans were not fooled by the slop that they were dished up with in the last Currie Cup season.

There were too many mismatches and on those occasions that the smaller unions did perform against the big guns it was usually because they had forced their opponents to sink to their own level.

There was one notable exception. The Falcons win over the Natal Sharks in Durban last August was, according to those who went to ABSA Stadium that day, as much a triumph for the Falcons commitment as it was a failure for a Sharks team that lost focus and concentration in the face of their hard tackling opponents.

The Falcons, and to a lesser extent the Pumas, did produce much good rugby last year. The Falcons were only denied a place in the semi-finals in the last round of competition.

But one of the biggest problems faced by that union and others like them was drummed home when I watched the players arrive for a Natal Wildebeest session immediately after the Sharks had finished training on Tuesday afternoon.

Among the Stephen Brinks and other quality players who are contracted to Natal was one Nicky van der Walt. Yes, the same Nicky van der Walt who was one of the heroes of the Falcons effort the year before.

What is Van der Walt doing in Durban? It is a question that is being asked by quite a few of the people who support the Sharks. Given the loose-forward depth available in that region and to the Natal union, Van der Walt was always going to play two Super 12 games at most.

It is possible he will make the odd appearance in the Currie Cup, but only when the likes of Warren Britz, Charl van Rensburg or Brad McLeod-Henderson are injured. He will not play nearly as much top level rugby as he would have if he had remained contracted to the Falcons.

The reason I use Van der Walt as an example is because he is one of the few players from a smaller union who is good enough to remain a professional if the domestic competition is reduced to eight or 10 unions.

Yet in the current imbalanced 14 team competition he is unlikely to see much action as Natal just have too much money for the smaller unions to compete with the pay packets that are offered. As SA Rugby chief executive Rian Oberholzer put it last year, part of the problem is rooted in the imbalance in the financial clout wielded by the unions.

Pitting a province with a budget of R1-million against one with a budget of R23-million does not make for good competition and never will. It is for this reason that many players who would otherwise be competent Currie Cup players elsewhere are content to play for the reserve teams of Natal or WP.

It is also for this reason that a union like SWD Eagles, which was threatening to become the Bath of South African rugby just a few years ago, is now headed back down the path that they climbed so impressively in those first years after the advent of professionalism. In the end it all revolves around money - both the lack of it and the excess boasted by their competitors.

One solution to the current malaise must surely then be for SA Rugby to reduce the number of provinces, which would consolidate the finances of the smaller unions to the point where they can offer quality players competitive salaries.

Then we might see the overall quality of the domestic competition improve to the point where the national selectors can use the games as a realistic gauge of a players readiness for a higher level. At the moment they are forced to select new players on a wing and a prayer.