There may have been some excitement in the Free State about the possibility but United Rugby Championship boss Martin Anayi crushed the thought that there are plans for a Vodacom URC second division looming.
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Free State Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie made the comments, hinting that this could be the Cheetahs way back into the European competition, but it seems there are no plans at all to bring together another competition and any sort of promotion-relegation aspect to it all.
In fact, what is more likely to happen is an appetite for some sort of under-23 competition and a Women’s rugby version of URC, which has been discussed all around.
“It’s not on the cards. We have a real job on our hands to make the URC as good as it can possibly be and we are getting there, so I think not for the present,” said Anayi with reference to the Cheetahs hopes of finding a way back to URC.
“We do love the Cheetahs, by the way. They are a big part of our history, so if we can help them in any way to find a competition that does work for them, you can be rest assured that we would do that.
“But there are no plans for a URC 2 at the moment.”
With the goal being to strengthen a competition that has struggled because of travel restrictions and the Covid pandemic, there are also no thoughts on promotion-relegation matches at this stage.
“We’ve got contracts with each of our teams, so it’s a closed league practically,” Anayi added.
“It’s there to make sure that these teams can be sustainable and can invest in getting better without the fear of being relegated into an unknown competition.
“So it’s a little bit different to the Top 14 with the Pro D2 or the Premiership with the Championship. There isn’t an established division below us so there’s nowhere to go for those teams to be relegated.”
Anayi did say there had been discussions about a Women’s Rugby competition, especially after the explosion of the game in Europe.
“I was speaking about that to stakeholders yesterday. Over half of our employees are women and we asked them what they wanted and a competition for women was in the top three answers from everyone.
“It’s not the market, it just feels like we should have a women’s competition. We’re only a competition organiser so we asked the unions because they pay the players. And we have seen what they have done in England with the Premier 15s.
“And we’ve spoken to World Rugby because they have a competition coming on stream and Ben Morel in the Women’s Six Nations.
“And we feel the URC can play a part in the Women’s Six Nations getting stronger. We want to be a part of that. Is it 16 teams? Do we get it going sooner rather than later? Yes, we should.
“We do have women’s teams in Ireland but it’s hit and miss elsewhere. There is a will but the unions must be involved and we’re exploring how that comes about.”
With the change in format, it means there will not be off-weekends next year that clash with the Six Nations, where a number of younger stars have come through for the European teams.
“When we revised the format, it came out that it had been great that there were development pathway elements to the season, four to six games a season to bring players through,” he added.
“They could come through quickly if they were Jordan Larmour and so on. One of the things about not playing on international weekends is that we don’t have that pathway. We have been asked to look at an ‘A’ team league or a Next Generation competition that might fit that role. It might be four to six weekends a year potentially within those international windows, so we’re looking at that.
“A little like the women’s competition, there are different requirements in each territory. Part of the economics of our clubs is that they have reduced their squads because they don’t have to play on international weekends, so they’d have to hire back up again which would be counter-productive.
“So I think it would have to be a development U23 type of competition for it to really work. That’s something we’re looking at now.”
But with the South African franchises finding their feet quickly in the competition and an epic run in to the playoffs expected, you can bet the URC bosses are rather happy with the way the competition has turned out thus far.
And from now on only want to make it stronger.