Does South Africa have the playing resources to sustain another franchise in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship? It’s a question that many will feel they know the answer to after watching the Toyota Cheetahs play a rare home game in Bloemfontein this past weekend.
Indeed, the man of the match in the Cheetahs’ ambush of the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the Investec Challenge Cup, Friedle Olivier, was pretty adamant about it post-match - “This proved we should be playing in the URC”.
It was the Cheetahs’ biggest game of this part of the year. They’d already beaten the Zebre, a much improved outfit in the URC in the 2023/24 season, in Parma in their opening game in the secondary European competition the previous week. But Sunday’s game was the biggest because it will be the only home game the Cheetahs will play.
Last season they were based in Parma. This season they are based in another European city - Amsterdam. So Sunday’s game was pretty much their big opportunity to make their point, with the Sharks being one of South Africa’s big moneyed franchises. And boy did they make a good fist of it, particularly in the first half, when they should have put the Springbok laden Sharks, who went to Bloem with nine capped international players, away.
SHOWCASED TALENT
It was a game that showcased the talent that the central union region still has available to it. The Cheetahs dominated possession and territory in the first half, they had pace to burn on the wings even though they were up against two good ones in Werner Kok and Makazole Mapimpi, and fullback Tapiwa Mafura looks a mighty fine player too.
Watching the game it felt like flanker Olivier touched the ball more in the first half than scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar did, and he was as effective on defence. There were other players who stood out in a game that was played at a high pace and was hugely exciting and entertaining despite it being played in mid-afternoon on a hot December day on the highveld.
Whether when the Cheetahs, last year’s Carling Currie Cup winners, say they should be in the URC they are suggesting it should be at the expense of another of the four local franchises already playing in the competition is not clear. That would be difficult to justify even though they did beat the Sharks.
Let’s not forget that unlike the other two South African teams playing in the Challenge Cup, they don’t have to balance out their games in that competition with 18 league fixtures in the URC. For them it’s a case of two weeks now, another two games in January, and then into the round of 16 (they’ve already done enough to be assured of an advance to that stage). If they went on to play the final, they’d be playing a maximum of eight games. That’s not comparable the minimum of 24 faced in a season by the current local URC franchises.
So if they were in the URC, it is reasonable to assume they might have their depth more tested because of the attrition rate that would be the inevitable consequence of a busier schedule.
SOUTH AFRICA SHOULD WANT THE CHEETAHS INVOLVED
However, that the Cheetahs could add to the South African participation in the URC and hold their own at least as well as the Welsh teams and Zebre do is beyond debate. And should a gap open up because a Welsh team falls out because of the financial challenges faced by that nation, South African rugby should want the Cheetahs to be involved.
There was an argument during the Super Rugby era that having too many teams diluted the South African challenge but I am not sure it holds now that this country is aligned with the northern hemisphere. That the Cheetahs can handle themselves against many of the top teams in the URC, particularly at their home base of Toyota Stadium, was already demonstrated when they participated in the competition, along with the Southern Kings, when it was the PRO14.
Talking of the Kings, let’s also remind ourselves that there were once six local teams in Super Rugby, and the Kings, representing the so-called heartland of black rugby, the Eastern Cape, were competitive and played some entertaining rugby in their last year in the competition (2017). I was at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium the day they beat the Sharks in front of a huge crowd, and also well remember their win over the Bulls at Loftus. They finished 11th overall but could easily have been much higher as games they lost were close. It was that era of Kings that gave South African rugby Makazole Mapimpi and Lukhanyo Am, and a later Kings team, playing in the PRO14, gave us Elrigh Louw.
FERTILE PRODUCER OF SA TALENT
The Kings debate of course is a whole separate issue and probably a subject for a different column, but the point is that the more teams playing at higher level the more exposure there is for the vast reservoir of rugby talent in this country. And it goes without saying that the Cheetahs represent a region that has been one of the most fertile producers of rugby talent in South Africa.
Apart from the players schooled in Bloemfontein (and Welkom, Kroonstad etc), many of whom ended up playing for the Sharks, the Free State union has been a conduit for other players from outside the big city centres who became Bok greats. Think Duane Vermeulen, who used the Cheetahs as his launchpad after starting in Nelspruit and then later proceeding to the Stormers.
Lood de Jager, schooled in the South Western Districts, also used the Cheetahs as his launch pad into big rugby, and there are countless others.
There are eight English premiership teams playing in the Champions Cup and you will find it hard to convince me that England has more talent than South Africa has. On the evidence of some of the performances turned in by Welsh and English teams in both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, you could probably argue the case for the inclusion of the Pumas too, but then we would be testing the boundary line of when it starts to dilute the South African challenge. There are several Pumas players (and Griquas players) playing for other local teams already.
There are of course many obstacles, money being one. How many franchises can this country afford in international competitions for it to be financially sustainable? I would say definitely five, at minimum, and Bloemfontein is a great city to base a franchise for several reasons too, but regardless of that, strictly from the viewpoint of the conveyor belt of talent coming through and players available, there is no debate - the Cheetahs do have a point.