It was somewhere around 9pm on Sunday night, in the fresh Joburg air at FNB Stadium that the American punk rock band Green Day burst onto stage, singing one of their newest hits - “The American dream is killing me.”
And strangely enough, around the same time, a reality hit home hard. The same kid who used to ‘bounce’ to Green Day back in the 2000s was bouncing around 20 metres from the stage at a concert he had waited decades for.
It wasn’t the same kid anymore. Not for the first time I realised I’m not in my 20s anymore, and the bouncing had some heavy consequences the day after as after the eight hours of punk rock music, the next day made me walk as if I had ran a Comrades marathon the day before.
Strangely enough, bouncing around in your 50s doesn’t quite work the same way it did in your 20s.
But it also brought home a few other truths. In conversations with friends who attended the concert, and who all willingly participated in a late-night 3km jog to find an uber (just kidding it wasn’t willing), it came home again.
The South African season is killing me.
Not me directly, but you just have to take one look at the injury lists and results of the past few months and it is abundantly clear. A 12-month season can be the death of SA Rugby.
It isn’t sustainable. That much is apparent. But is anyone listening?
It is hard not to feel for coaches in the Champions Cup when they have injury lists as long as their arms, playing against uber-rich French clubs who can fly in replacements from anywhere in the world.
The French clubs stand out of course, because of their incredible depth, but Irish superhouse Leinster is the same. Needing a boost they signed Jordie Barrett and RG Snyman to bolster their depth, for instance.
South African teams don’t have that luxury, and have to navigate the same playing fields under tough travel conditions, minute budgets (when compared to Euros) and several other factors.
But it isn’t that.
It’s the European dream that is killing us.
As Green Day points out in their ditty:
Send out an S.O.S
It's getting serious
Bulldoze your family home
Now it's a condo
SA Rugby doesn’t need to send out an SOS just yet, but the coaches have. Dealing with a complex agreement system to try and give players a proper rest during the season is tough. The demands of the two massive competitions do clash, and with Springbok players it is worse, as they also have to navigate a Rugby Championship at the same time.
WARNING SIGNS
The warning signs are flashing. And it is clear that World Rugby aren’t going to solve their global season problem anytime soon. After all, it is just South Africa that has the problem of a 12 month season, and why would they help the World Champions maximise their potential?
But there is another problem, and one that is often not recognised.
Local coaches are desperately trying to increase depth, but the reality has been that the difference between their first choice and second choice sides is quite stark. All three sides that took part in away Champions’ Cup clashes this year experienced it - injuries and selections saw their teams remain competitive for a while, only to fall away badly in the second half.
Bulls captain at Castres, Nizaam Carr put it plainly when I asked him about the difficulties. Players are struggling to cope with the demands. It isn’t that those players don’t have the desire to play well, but the way the season currently works these same second-string players (and I hope they don’t take offence by me calling them that) often don’t play for months.
In Carr’s case he hadn’t played since the Currie Cup, but three months later was expected to lead a team in hostile conditions in an important Champions’ Cup clash.
WITH EXPERIENCE COMES DEPTH
Those players will get better, and with more experience comes more depth, but even if you have the most experienced squad in the competition, any rugby player knows there is a big difference between training fit and being match fit.
The demands of the competitions mean teams need bigger squads, but for large swathes of the season those second string players are holding tackling bags and not playing. In Super Rugby, SA sides had the luxury of a Vodacom Cup/SuperSport Challenge to keep players match fit. That isn’t an option anymore.
So it becomes a vicious circle, where the top players don’t get a sufficient 8 week consecutive break like the rest of the world in an off-season, the back-up players sit on the sidelines for months and then are under pressure when they are called upon to perform,
And the performances have to be better.
In the end, Springbok rugby always needs to come first, and rightly so. But somehow we need to relook at local structures to make sure our top teams can compete on the same playing field as the rest.
A global season would go a long way to helping, but that isn’t likely to come anytime soon.
Instead local administrators are going to have to find a way to use their limited resources better, and to keep players match fit.
Or we may go into another European season with a lot of our players crocked - and looking like I did after a night of bouncing at a concert.
And from experience, that isn’t what anyone wants to see.