Change is in the air all around as both the EPCR and World Rugby look to shake things up with hopes that a potential global season could finally be closer to reality.
Talk that the EPCR want to alter the Investec Champions’ Cup pool rounds to start in October may be welcomed up north, but if it goes ahead it will create a massive problem for South African franchises in the competition.
The EPCR Chairman Jacques Raynaud conceded that the organisers were looking towards an earlier start, as it was requested by many clubs. But that alone would not work for SA Franchises and underlines the need for a global season to take place sooner rather than later.
South African and Argentinean players have been playing year round since the end of Covid, with no off season between their commitments to the Rugby Championship and the players commitments to playing in European based competitions.
It may sound like wishful thinking because rugby has consistently done everything except commit to a global season, but according to a report in Midi Olympique, the French newspaper, high-level meetings will take place next month in Europe to see if there is any way of overcoming the impasse between the two hemispheres on when the competitions could start.
IMPASSE ON PLAYING DATES
Currently we sit with a situation that the Six Nations has refused to budge on their dates for the season and New Zealand won’t budge on moving Super Rugby or the Rugby Championship.
That is what prompted Bok coach Rassie Erasmus recently to call for the alignment of seasons across the board. Springbok players currently are on Rugby Championship duty from August to November, and then have to find time during the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season to have their eight weeks off, as is specified by their contracts.
Northern hemisphere teams manage this at the end of their seasons, while New Zealand and Australian players do the same. It is just South Africa, and Argentina - whose players are mostly based in Europe - that struggle to adapt.
Erasmus said last year it was a no brainer for the seasons to align, something that everyone except the All Blacks seem to agree with.
“It’s just my opinion, but I think it would be fantastic if we can all play the Rugby Championship when the Six Nations is on,” he said during the press conference after the announcement of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour.
“It would be so much easier to know other teams, to be all aligned. Not having some countries flat in June and others peaking in November, and then we are flat in November.
“Law changes or variations would then be so much easier to implement right across the board, because all competitions start at the same time. There might be a big thing I’m missing, but I can’t see any reason why we, New Zealand, Argentina and Australia don’t play that competition at the same time as the Six Nations.”
PICHOT TO LEAD NEGOTIATIONS
The report in Midi Olympique points to former World Rugby vice-chairman Agustin Pichot who will lead the negotiations, and try to overcome the impasse so that the Rugby Championship could potentially take place at the same time as the Six Nations, which would be a massive bonus for player welfare.
The big question then is where to put the Super Rugby competition as the Kiwis have balked at moving it to a northern hemisphere timeline and playing summer rugby.
Midi Olympique called the move the first ‘credible attempt in a long time to bridge two worlds’ and a lot is riding on the outcome, especially from a South African point of view.
Which brings us back to the EPCR and their desire to start the Champions’ Cup and Challenge Cup in October. Currently it would exclude any Springbok players as they would be on Rugby Championship duty.
While URC franchises have to make do without their Boks during that period in any case, many of them would likely balk at the prospect of facing Europe’s best without their Boks. It would put the SA teams at an even bigger disadvantage in a competition where they have already been accused of not taking it seriously.
EPCR CHANGE WON’T SUIT SA
While the EPCR believe the current format is working, there are plenty of examples of why it isn’t, and their October move feels more like a band aid than a real fix to the issues that plague the competition.
“It is likely we will go back to an October start,” Raynaud said. “That’s not confirmed, but it’s a desire. A lot of people liked it because it corresponded more to the narrative around the start of the club rugby season. Coaches like it because it builds into the test matches.
“The question is do we do blocks of two weekends or one, one and two. The other thing is that we don’t want to confuse people by starting in October one year and not another because of the World Cup. We’re just fine-tuning that, but it is a request from the leagues and from many clubs.”
But it could work if the calendar could be altered, and the whole rugby landscape goes to a global season. The big trick would be to get New Zealand on board but the big difference this time around is that two of the four SANZAAR partners - Argentina and South Africa - are advocating for this.
WALLABIES SEEM HAPPY TO CHANGE
Australia haven’t shown too much opposition, and have mooted changes in the past, especially as the Rugby Championship is being shelved this year in favour of the Greatest Rivalry tour.
Either way the next few months could be telling and decisions taken at these meetings could either solve the problem or keep the impasse that has not helped SA teams in their competitions.
The perfect scenario would be a move to February and March for the Rugby Championship, an earlier start to the Champions Cup and SA players getting a proper off-season as they should after the completion of the URC. International players would be phased in as is the norm in the Northern Hemisphere.
At this stage, there is no possibility of that, but something has shifted and if there is a breakthrough it could change the face of rugby completely for the better.