Wallabies and All Black stars want South Africa out of Super Rugby

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Is there any desire in SA to have the Currie cup as the ultimate competition without the franchises?

 

[TRF_heineken]

Is there any desire in SA to have the Currie cup as the ultimate competition without the franchises?

The Currie Cup has always been a tournament without the franchises, and just the unions. Can't see that change. The franchises are only applicable to Super Rugby, where the franchise cover a bigger area than it's mother union.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

I think the question was more just go back to the Currie Cup as the ultimate competition and scrap Super Rugby

 

[unrated]

The Currie Cup sharks union and the Super rugby Sharks franchise is the same thing. The area does not get bigger or smaller they represent Kwazulu Natal in both instances, the smaller clubs always remain a feeder to the Sharks as a provincial entity. It's unlike places such as the western cape where in the Currie Cup the Stormers has to compete against Boland etc, but in Super rugby they can have their picks.


The TV appetite can never just go back to the Currie Cup after we tasted the international competition that is Super rugby. Currie Cup is great but we want that and something else. Because when my team wins Currie Cup I'm like OK great we are good but how do we compare against the best teams in other parts of the world. We need that International competition. A return to just the Currie Cup will feel like that period of international isolation under Apartheid. No one wants it to regress back to such a landscape. Financially it's also not in the best interest.


It's not like they have intentionally weakened the Currie Cup in recent years. SARU has done everything in their power to keep Currie Cup great, because they want more money for the health of SA rugby and for that we need as much rugby as possible.

 

[TRF_heineken]

The Currie Cup sharks union and the Super rugby Sharks franchise is the same thing. The area does not get bigger or smaller they represent Kwazulu Natal in both instances, the smaller clubs always remain a feeder to the Sharks as a provincial entity. It's unlike places such as the western cape where in the Currie Cup the Stormers has to compete against Boland etc, but in Super rugby they can have their picks.


The TV appetite can never just go back to the Currie Cup after we tasted the international competition that is Super rugby. Currie Cup is great but we want that and something else. Because when my team wins Currie Cup I'm like OK great we are good but how do we compare against the best teams in other parts of the world. We need that International competition. A return to just the Currie Cup will feel like that period of international isolation under Apartheid. No one wants it to regress back to such a landscape. Financially it's also not in the best interest.


It's not like they have intentionally weakened the Currie Cup in recent years. SARU has done everything in their power to keep Currie Cup great, because they want more money for the health of SA rugby and for that we need as much rugby as possible.

That's just one end of the spectrum yes.

But to give our non-saffa friends the bigger picture is that there are only 4 Franchises, the Stormers, the Lions, the Bulls and the Sharks. There are 14 unions, which are divided in 2 seperate tournaments for the Currie Cup. The Premier Division consisting of 8/9 teams and the First Division, consisting of the rest as well the occassional teams from Argentina or Namibia.

The franchise teams are mostly representatives from their home base's union players, but you do get players from other unions occasionally making the squad. The Cheetahs for example when they were still a Super Rugby Franchise, was a combination of the Free State Cheetahs, as well as the Griquas. And at times the squad was nearly 50/50 between the 2 teams.

The other thing about the Currie Cup, is that it's round robin games were always played the same time as the Rugby Championship, meaning that the Springbok players wouldn't be involved in the Currie Cup, and might only feature one or two games if they didn't go on tour or something. The Currie Cup, has been the stepping stone for youth players to make a name for themselves and catch the eyes of the Super Rugby coaching teams, in a hope to be promoted to the SR squads the following year.

There has been a few up and down moments with the Currie Cup the past couple of years with SARU trying to keep the integrity of the competition in tact while also trying to aid the Kings in keeping them in the Premier division, even though there were better teams playing first division.

At the moment, Any tournament will work for the SA public. the negativity is becoming worse the longer these absurd lockdown regulations go on.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

That's just one end of the spectrum yes.

But to give our non-saffa friends the bigger picture is that there are only 4 Franchises, the Stormers, the Lions, the Bulls and the Sharks. There are 14 unions, which are divided in 2 seperate tournaments for the Currie Cup. The Premier Division consisting of 8/9 teams and the First Division, consisting of the rest as well the occassional teams from Argentina or Namibia.

The franchise teams are mostly representatives from their home base's union players, but you do get players from other unions occasionally making the squad. The Cheetahs for example when they were still a Super Rugby Franchise, was a combination of the Free State Cheetahs, as well as the Griquas. And at times the squad was nearly 50/50 between the 2 teams.

The other thing about the Currie Cup, is that it's round robin games were always played the same time as the Rugby Championship, meaning that the Springbok players wouldn't be involved in the Currie Cup, and might only feature one or two games if they didn't go on tour or something. The Currie Cup, has been the stepping stone for youth players to make a name for themselves and catch the eyes of the Super Rugby coaching teams, in a hope to be promoted to the SR squads the following year.

There has been a few up and down moments with the Currie Cup the past couple of years with SARU trying to keep the integrity of the competition in tact while also trying to aid the Kings in keeping them in the Premier division, even though there were better teams playing first division.

At the moment, Any tournament will work for the SA public. the negativity is becoming worse the longer these absurd lockdown regulations go on.

The setup over there is more similar to Nz than i thought. our Mitre 10 cup clashes with the buildup to the November tours etc

Do they still claim to represent regions? in NZ the five franchises lost the region prefix's a long time ago and we've famously seen unions like Taranaki leave the Hurricanes region to join the Chiefs

 

[TRF_heineken]

The setup over there is more similar to Nz than i thought. our Mitre 10 cup clashes with the buildup to the November tours etc

Do they still claim to represent regions? in NZ the five franchises lost the region prefix's a long time ago and we've famously seen unions like Taranaki leave the Hurricanes region to join the Chiefs

Yes. the unions represent their regions. And apart from the big 5, the players playing for their unions are from that region.

The unions however, don't have to make an agreement with the franchise who is covering their region. For example Boland, which is basically 20km away from Western Province due to the towns being so close to Cape Town, Boland currently have an agreement with the Bulls.