South Africa's Super 12 disadvantage is unacceptable

A friend phoned during the course of Frustrating Friday to say that he had finally had it - he was not going to watch any more of this year's Super 12.

It was not the first time he had called this season to vent his frustrations, but this time he was adamant that it was the final straw. The straw, in this case, was New Zealand referee Kelvin Deaker's decision to card Stormers centre Werner Greeff for an alleged high tackle on a Brumbies player in Canberra on Friday.

With even the Australian commentators agreeing that Deaker had got it wrong, I could understand my friend's point. What made his call particularly significant, however, was that he is not even an avid Stormers fan, and is in fact based in Sharks country.

How many other rugby fans around South Africa threw their hands up when Greeff went to the cooler, so precipitating a two try burst from the Brumbies, and cried "Enough is enough". I am willing to wager that my friend was far from the only one.

The frustration is easy to understand. Okay, so the Stormers, in their last two matches, have not been penalised out of the game like some South African teams have been in the past. But how is it that the South African sides always somehow get the wrong end of the rub of the green?

The Deaker decision to reduce the Stormers to 14 men was not the only odd one of the match. He said something during the game about the scrums being turned into a lottery if the front-rows did not follow his orders, and that is what happened. Why would Cobus Visagie, who was so obviously getting the better of his tussle with the Wallaby front-row, need to resort to illegal tactics?

And if Greeff's misdemeanour warranted a card, what about the callous professional foul committed by Pat Howard which may have robbed the Stormers of a second half try after they had built up impressively through several phases and were just metres from the Brumbies line?

Howard was penalised, but instead of a card he got a wry smile from Deaker, who proceeded to tell him that "it was very close". Am I alone in spotting a matiness with Antipodean players that the Australian and New Zealand referees do not have with South African players, perhaps because they speak a different language and are considered different?

The Stormers, of course, are not the only South African team to have suffered at the hands of the referees. Joost van der Westhuizen is lucky he still has a full mop of hair after his frustrating opening half against the Highlanders the other day. Neither is this bad luck, as we should call it, limited to the Super 12. Remember Dave McHugh, Stuart Dickinson from last year's Tri-Nations?

But for me, the bad rub South Africans appear to get at the hands of the refs was not the most frustrating aspect of this past weekend's Super 12 action. The most irksome thing was the way the two overseas games underlined and illustrated the contention of colleague Dan Retief that South African teams have the dice loaded against them in this competition.

It did not require you to actually watch the games in question to see vindication of the view that South Africans are put at a huge disadvantage by having to travel to Australia and New Zealand for four games instead of the mere two that the Antipodean teams play when they come to the South Africa.

The post-match television interviews in both games neatly encapsulated the entire argument. On Friday there was Georgie Gregan waxing on about how returning home to Canberra, to a familiar environment and a loyal, supportive crowd, had made all the difference to his team and helped fuel their resurgence against the Stormers.

Waratahs skipper Matt Burke was in a different situation in that at least his team had won on the road, but he too spoke about the joys of being back in Sydney and having a whole smattering of home games to look forward to.

If you think this is a whinge and the South African teams have nothing to complain about, just try to imagine where the Brumbies might be now if they faced a similar schedule to our teams. In other words, if they had played Friday's game not in Canberra, but in Cape Town.

My guess is that with all their injuries and other problems, the Brumbies would have lost their third match on the trot and would now be heading to Pretoria for their fourth tour match against the Bulls really up against it.

Instead, after just a fortnight away, they were able to return home to face a team which, as Corne Krige put it afterwards, was playing the match (the third on the road) which traditionally is the toughest of them all and in which fatigue is always a factor.

That home ground advantage is a huge factor is no longer a point of argument. The Highlanders, if they ever doubted it, might have learned this to their cost when they lost to the Cats at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, when they beat the Hurricanes in the opening match, the Bulls were well placed on the log. But this weekend they go into their fifth consecutive away match, something which simply has to count against them. Yes, they can come back by winning all their home ones, but they will be under pressure to win consecutive matches.

For the Stormers, their sojourn overseas has all but ended their challenge and they have only played one game. Part of it has been their own doing, part of it can be put down to the ridiculous disadvantage that South African teams are at when they go overseas.

Foreign teams do have a better success rate in South Africa, but then they only come here for two matches. Judging by the comments made by Australian captains when they return from the Republic, they may even consider that too many. Imagine if they had to stay away for a month.